The Polish just hate the Russians and know who has the more $ they can grift.

I can respect their hustle, and they are in the EU, so meh as well.

Btw, a bit about the ridicalousness of the Laotian civil war:

Taken as a whole, the RLA was sub-standard, yet some units showed a degree of capability. For example, certain irregular sections of the army, used to hard jungle living and backed up by American advisors, were of a different calibre. Cross commented that, “instead of the sad, hapless, lacklustre creatures of the conventional army, here were soldiers who had a purposeful robustness and who emanated a dedication of a high standard.” As if to further illustrate the point, he was presented with a blood-stained Pathet Lao flag which he had no cause to believe was anything other than genuine.[xxx] This illustrated what might have been, had the main body of RLA forces followed such a model.

The true inadequacy of the RLA is demonstrated when comparing them to their PL counterparts. Cross, who as previously stated was able to mingle with the Communists freely, said his impression, “was that they were nothing more than second-class infantrymen at best, ‘advised’ by NVA cadres both political and military, without any resources of their own.”[xxxi]

The PL, while supplied by the Soviets, Chinese and North Vietnamese, were usually on shaky diplomatic ground with all three. The RLA were by no means facing an entirely united front. The Soviets especially were exasperated by “all those silly Laotian names [and] the individuals to whom those names belonged.”[xxxii] This attitude was shown when, after the PL occupied Vientiane in 1975, the Russian Defence Attaché, Tsakarov, “became so abusive to them, saying that they were so useless they were bound to make a nonsense of their victory ‘which you never won by yourselves’, that pressure was applied to have him removed.”[xxxiii]

Throughout his writings, Cross was always amazed at how the PL did not overwhelm the RLA sooner, but it should be recognised that the PL were badly trained and badly organised. They were up against similarly badly trained/organised forces in the form of the RLA. In the end the communist victory was a case of a sub-standard army overcoming an even worse one.

The Laotian royal army (their effective forces, at least) was basically a CIA army and Lon Nol was no different than the South Vietnamese military presidents since their own first coup.

For the same reason the Americans werent bombing the North Vietnamese ports.

The Ukrainians today are friendly (and over 1 million have lived and worked or went to schools in Poland normally), while the Russians are as hateful imperialist menace as ever.