Decades after US forces exited the Vietnam War the remnants of a CIA-backed force of Lao villagers still live in fear in the jungle.
In a clearing deep inside the Laotian jungle, a group of Hmong fall to the ground and beg me for help as soon as they see me. Chor Her, a skinny man wearing torn camouflage, is the only one to remain standing. He salutes before joining the others on the muddy ground.
‘We have no food, every day we have to run, we are being hunted like animals,’ says one elderly woman,weeping. The young children surrounding her are also crying—I’m told it’s the first time they’ve seen a foreigner. Indeed, these people have been largely cut off from the outside world since the Vietnam War.
Back then, the Hmong were fighters—secret fighters in a 15-year covert US operation backed by the CIA. Now they are forced to constantly run for their lives in a country whose government doesn’t officially acknowledge they exist.
‘The Americans gave us weapons and told us to shoot the enemy,’ says Chor Her, waving a battered CIA-issued M79 in the air. ‘Then they left us and we’ve been slowly dying here ever since…When the Lao Army kills one of our men, they feel as though they’ve killed an American in revenge for us helping them during the war.’
Almost before he has finished his sentence, another man jumps into the conversation, pleading for food and medicine. ‘We are human beings, so why does the world turna deaf ear and blind eye to us?’ he asks.
As the Vietnam War raged,Washington noticed that communist forces had spilled over into Laos. In response, the Americans launched what was later called a secret war. At the time, Laos had been declared ‘neutral,’ but with a growing communist presence, the CIA saw it as the next front in the conflict. A handful of CIA agents were flown in to build on existing tensions between the Hmong and the Laotian government, led by the communist Pathet Lao.
‘They were better than anyone else around, every step they took was up or down so they could move a lot faster than the enemy,’ says Bill Lair, a legendary CIA agent who headed the agency’s paramilitary operations in Laos. ‘They needed a leader and Vang Pao seemed like the most suitable man for the job.’
Vang Pao, or ‘the General,’ was selected for his charisma and leadership skills, honed when the Hmong had previously allied with the French against North Vietnamese forces. With the help of the CIA, he reportedly trained and armed more than 60,000 Hmong fighters. While the Americans set up a major military airport in Northern Laos, the Hmong were in charge of disrupting communist supply lines and rescuing downed pilots.
It has been estimated that the Hmong lost nearly 100,000 people during this secret operation. As the war progressed, and with casualties quickly mounting, Vang Pao and his CIA backers eventually had to turn to the use of child soldiers to keep up the resistance efforts.
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Eric
From the beginning I honestly believe most of the Hmong people or my people had no saying rather to fight or stay neutral. General Vang Pao and other leaders that followed him made the call for everyone else. In my opinion, the Hmong people really knocked on the devil's door. The trade off wasn't worth it at all, the price was too much. No one shall ever be force to goto war without their own consent. Especially with no education, no knowledge, poor and barely 4ft tall. C'mon you're like sending a Hobbit to fight an Orc. But General Vang Pao did what he did and I'm sure he regret and feel very ashame for himself throughout his life. Do note that it wasn't the Viet Congs or P. Lao that defeated the Hmong people. It was Hmong people who betrayaled their own kind that lead us to our doom in the Vietnam War. I do believe that if we as one fought together, we would of been unstopable or we would of put up a very good fight like the movie 300(Spartans). After all, we as the Hmong people are not meant to rage wars, we're known for peace and quiet with love and prosperity. Kind of like the hobbits :) . Sorry for grammar or if it offended anyone, this is my personal opinions. Thanks!
dendy
vietnam by thu he are yo thu my fren by thu CIA asia
David Faas
I believe that the Communist Vietnam gov’t ?
Will one day be done with!!! :-)
Ghenghis
This article is an outright admission that the USA used child soldiers to fight their wars.
Perhaps the ICJ should look into this as this is a crime against children and humanity, no?
Mr Vision
The US has done, and will continue to do morally questionable things. We aren’t a perfect nation. But consider the options here, please, before labeling the US something similar to Nazi Germany. What if the USSR were dictating world politics right now? Or god forbid, Nazi frickin Germany? No one likes the superpower. Nobody liked France, or the United Kingdom, so of course nobody likes American interference. Vietnam and Laos were bad conflicts, but we maintained some semblance of humanity during them. The same cannot be said of Russia in Afghanistan or Germany in Poland. Geez. We may be arrogant, but we’ve kinda earned the right to be, and were nowhere near as brutal as the Russians, unlucky as the French, or kineving as the British. There hasn’t been a massive conventional world war in 70 years. Europeans caused one almost every ten years. Lets do the math here.
Venger
This is probably the most thoughtful comment I have read on this stream ,Mr. Vision.
janna
Was Laos fighting with American forces or against them?
Jah
Laos was officially neutral but let North Vietnam use its land to transport troops and equiment to the south where the war was. The Hmong were caught in the middle, living on the land where the Ho Chi Minh Trail and major North Vietnamese base camps were located in Laos. The Americans recruited the Hmong to stop the North transportation line, and also to protect their own homes and families.