Fidel Castro Has Been Here - How About You?

The Annamite mountain range runs for hundreds of miles, dividing Laos from Vietnam. During the Vietnam/Indochina War the limestone karsts, inaccessible ridges and valleys provided cover for a network of paths and tracks known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Viengxay's Scenic Landscapes

Less well-known, nestled in this mountain range about 300 km southwest of Hanoi is the remote and picturesque small town of Viengxay. Many of its multi-ethnic people continue to eke out their living as their families have done for generations, building simple wooden homes, hunting with crossbows, weaving intricate textiles on elaborate looms and growing rice on steep hillsides and in lush green paddies. Their basic existence in this stunning and fertile setting becomes even more fascinating when the region's untold history is discovered.

One of the Many Local Caves

For more than nine years in the 1960s and 70s the area's quiet tranquillity was totally and brutally interrupted on a devastating scale. As the United States of America tried to halt the spread of communism across Indochina, Laos became caught up in a secret war that remains largely ignored in world history. In 1962 the Lao Communist party, the Pathet Lao, fled from Vientiane across the Plain of Jars. In 1964 the movement, with their families and refugees from other war torn areas, sought shelter in the inaccessibility of Viengxay.

The US Secretary of Defense reportedly said America would bomb the strongholds of the Laotian and Vietnamese communists “back to the stone age”. Undeclared and out of the sight of a world focused on Vietnam, Viengxay was a key US Airforce target. In a phenomenal and sustained bombardment, over two million tonnes of ordinance were dropped on Laos over the next nine years - more bombs than were dropped on Europe during the Second World War, an amount equal to ten tonnes per kilometre or one plane load of bombs every eight minutes, 24 hours every day for nine years.

Houapanh Province and Viengxay are Renowned for Their Local Crafts

To escape from this onslaught, around 23,000 people took to Viengxay's 200 caves. During nine years of living hell, unable to function normally under constant bombardment, families and communities had to live and farm by night. Monks set up temples in caves. Caves were set up as markets for trading foodstuffs, for tailors to produce clothes, for education and for making farming tools.  

The Pathet Lao government in exile directed the resistance struggle from the “Hidden City”. Five caves were selected as the family homes and offices of the key leaders. Natural caves were enlarged, tunnels developed and artificial roofs built to keep out water. Airtight evacuation chambers with manual filter mechanisms to guard against gas attacks were constructed, along with five-feet thick blast walls to cover cave entrances and prevent rockets and guided missiles from entering. Government ministries were set up in caves in far flung locations. Printing presses, a fuel depot and light industry caves were established to support the war effort. A cave hospital complex was built to take care of the injured and dying, and an underground theatre constructed to entertain the population, with visiting theatre troupes from Vietnam. Fidel Castro visited the caves to lend his country's support.

Former President Kaysone Phomvihane's Cave

In 1973, when the Paris peace accords were finally signed, the leaders emerged from their hideouts to build houses in the fresh air beside their caves – close enough to retreat underground should the peace talks stall.

The full extent of this clandestine existence and the extraordinary stories of the ordinary yet heroic people locked in a struggle for survival have yet to be pieced together.

After the Pathet Lao victory and the creation of the Lao PDR at the end of 1975 the government was re-established in Vientiane and the caves at Viengxay were 'abandoned'.

On the Left, Just Outside His Cave, Sits the House of Prince Souphannouvong

The Pathet Lao leaders who used to live in the caves, including Kaysone Phomvihane, Khamtay Siphandone, Nouhak Phoumsavan and the 'Red Prince' Souphannouvong, became the presidents and prime ministers of the Lao PDR.

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