The name Nakhon Phanom, meaning "city of mountains", was given to the city by King Rama I. There are no mountains within Nakhon Phanom itself; the limestone mountains are concentrated in the city of Thakhek of Laos, which is on the other side of the Mekong. Nakhon Phanom should then mean a city where you can see mountains.
The area was long settled by Lao people and belonged to the Lan Xang kingdom. Also after it came under the control of Ayutthaya the population stayed predominantly Lao. At first it was known as Si Kotrabun, and during the times of King Rama I as Maruka Nakhon.
Nakhon Phanom saw some of the most serious fighting between North Vietnamese insurgents and the US forces during the Vietnam War (or American War as the Vietnamese called it). During the 1960s, 73 of the 131 subdistrict (tambon) were said to be infiltrated by the Vietnamese and Lao communists, it was known as the "heartland of insurgency".[citation needed] American and Thai forces established a base at Nakhon Phanom where the Thai military hosted the 56th Air Commando Wing which conducted special operations against both the Ho Chi Minh Trails in Laos and carried out counter insurgency operations against Thai Communist forces while conducting search and rescue operations primarily within Laos and North Vietnam.
Between 1967 and 1971, most of the communists were defeated and towards the end of the Vietnam War, American forces moved their Indochinese military operations to Nakhon Phanom.
Another point of interest: Ho Chi Minh resided between 1928 and 1931 at Ban Nachok, a small village on the road between the airbase and Nakhon Phanom. Both his home and a new modern museum are now open to the public
