Victory Day
August 1, Thursday
The Agreement radically changed the geography of Indochina, resulting in independence for Laos. On 1 August 1954 the French army withdrew from Laos declaring independence for the nation alongside North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Cambodia which ended the First Indochina War but the Laotian Civil War was still ongoing. The northern half of Vietnam became independent of the French imperialist enterprise and was ruled by an independent Vietnamese Communist government. Lao French Union troops joined the military of independent Laos, however France kept two military bases in Laos and maintained its "military advisors" in the new Lao military. The Royal Lao government military also received its first aircraft from the French in 1954; nine Morane-Saulnier MS-500 Criquets were supplied for support and medevac.