The flag is the symbol of Laos, the old kingdom, before the Communist takeover in 1975. Lowell City Councilors recently accepted the Laos freedom flag as […] Skip to content ...

The Communist government of this hapless, landlocked country set a lofty goal for the start of the new millennium: to attract a million visitors with its "Visit Laos Year" promotion.

For nearly a year a lackadaisical honor guard of green-clad Communist sentries lounged around a moldering villa on the banks of the Mekong River in the lotusland Laotian capital of Vientiane.