History Laos U S Agency For International Development
The very first decade of communist rule did create some advances in health, education and social improvement, particularly for the ethnic minority peoples, who were the main beneficiaries of the restoration of peace and the reunification of the country. But in these fields the government was hampered by an acute shortage of educated personnel, resulting from the massive exodus of the educated classes between 1975 and 1978, and also from the loss of American assistance. Reduce off from educational possibilities in the west, several young Lao had been dispatched for greater education in Vietnam, the Soviet Union or eastern Europe,...