This historical tie didn’t stop Nakhon Phanom from hosting Ho Chi Minh’s enemies during the American War. From an air base to the west of town, the US launched countless bombing raids over the Ho Chi Minh trail supply line and elsewhere in southern Laos during the 1960s and ‘70s, and unexploded ordnances continue to plague the Lao people today. At the same time, a Thai communist insurgency that was allied to “Uncle Ho” maintained a substantial presence in the area into the 1980s.