"On 30th October 1945 the Provisional Government signed a treaty and alliance with the Viet Minh, but in January 1946 a force of 600 French paratroops with over 4,000 local partisans began campaigning against the Lao Issara, with the airfield at Paksane as their main supply base. Despite appeals by the LI government, the Chinese stood back and watched the struggle for control of Laos. Two of the most active partisan groups were the Hmong of Touby Li Foung, and the Lao under his old classmate Tiao Saykham (a member of the Xieng Khouang royal family). These two groups, with limited French support, besieged the city of Xieng Khouang (in the Plain of Jars) for two weeks before it fell on the morning of 27th January. "
http://members.tripod.co.uk/Indochine/hist/laos.html
1959-1962 Laotian Civil War--Royal Lao government vs. pathet Lao and NVA
Links:
http://www.odci.gov/csi/studies/winter99-00/art7.html
http://www.house.gov/lantos/caucus/index/archive/briefings/laos10-12-99.htm