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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Nonwanfai
Yes, that is America!!!!
Dave
On other account and side of the story, the remnants of Hmong guerrillas often ambushed and attacked public busses and attacked remote villages, killing innocent peoples in Laos. They also forced and threatened the lives their Hmong fellow tribes members, who wanted to come out of the jungle and live their normal lives. The writer might not have realised that when he first met them and they kneeled down, begging for help, they wanted him to help them out of the hands of their own "armed leaders" who had enslaved them for over three decades to sustain their losing absurd cause.
Ted
Having been there helping the RLAF in '64, I can say that the Hmuong served very hard to save their country from being overrun by the N. Vietmanese. We helped them as much as we could without it becoming a outright BIG war that would have drawn us into the conflict more and more.
jessica
Thats america for you. They run when things get hard. Sometimes im ashamed to say i am american. Eventhough im not hmong i understand and i feel sorry. I have tons of hmong friend and they all told me about war. But i thought the war was over. And Hmongs were safe. I just feel really sorry. Why wont government do anything now? Someone should stand up for hmongs.
Kelly
It so sad. I’m Hmong and was born in the U.S, and it’s not until I went to college that I fully understand the story behind how Hmong got to the U.S. I was so clueless that there was a genocide going on in Laos, killing thousand of Hmong men, women, children, and elderly, and this is the year 2011. Why didn’t I learned these things in school before? I didn’t even know U.S was in a secret war in Laos, and my grandparents and parents totally hid the truth from me. This article is so sad, but at the same time, stated truth facts that I will never encounter in a U.S history book. Even my college professors don’t even mention the U.S secret CIA involvement in Laos and with the Hmong. So sad, Hmong didn’t come to America because they wanted to, they came because they have no choice. Is either leave the country or stay and get your who family kill because you help the American, thus your label as a traitor. So sad.
Cha
I it very sad that this have to happen. Even today the war is still going on no matter if the US left.I learn about this when i was small. Hearing my family talking about it every time made my life change by far.Im proud to be Hmong.
John P.
Mr. George, can you please cite your sources. There are a number of questionable assertions of fact in this article. For example, I can assure you that American intelligence officers did not press children into combat in Laos. I would welcome respectful but fact-based dialogue on this subject, as I hold a view that you misrepresent the nature of the war in Laos, its value and its conduct.
Regarding the Hmong, I can tell you that they were being abused and persecuted by Communist forces long before the involvement of US intelligence officers and frankly offered the “last hope” the Hmong had of staying free in their mountain homelands. Furthermore, in more than one case, it was former US service members, CIA officers and Air America pilots who helped countless Hmong tribesman find new homes around the world, including in the US.
Thank you – John P.
J Thao
John P.,
If I were you, I wouldn’t be so quick to “assure” that the CIA didn’t recruit children. First of all, I am Hmong. My father joined forces with the United States at the age of 16, along with many of his school mates. That’s good enough resource for me, to personally know someone who was a child soldier. If you are interested in more accounts of children being recruited, I live among an entire community of Hmong veterans who can atteset to the fact that they too joined the war before becoming an adult. Desperate times call for desperate measures. It’s only logical to expect the possibility of children being recruited. After all, this was a secret war.
J Thao
I do agree with John P. about citing your sources, Mr. George.
I noticed that you quoted from Hmongs with names such as “Tho Ther”, “Bou Than”, and “Cho Fer”. Ther, Than, and Fer are not known clans of the Hmong people. There may be some variations here and there, such as Thao being spelled as Thor, but I find it odd that there are three accounts of unrecognized Hmong last names in your report. Are you sure they were real Hmongs from which you sourced these quotes from? Or did you only reference their “elder names” (which consists of two names to be addressed together) in this report, leaving out their last names?
Jane Reiser, Esq.
Hello,
Your article is sad…but very true. My father, Major Armand E. Reiser USAF, then Ass’t Air Attache to South Vietnam, along with other members of his crew were shot down over Laos (well before many in the US even heard about the situation) and were saved by these tribesmen. So “rescuing downed pilots” was well known to our family, as a lifesaving fact. We pray for their recovery and reassimilation. Bless them. J. Reiser
Thomas
It never ceases to amaze me how anyone would take up arms for a foreign invader to kill THEIR OWN people… WHY…!!!! WHY…!!!!!! Is it MONEY…??? What else could it be..?? Why not take the money and spy on the invaders..???
vaj
It never ceases to amaze me how anyone would take up arms for a foreign invader to kill THEIR OWN people… WHY…!!!! WHY…!!!!!! Is it MONEY…???
At the time of war hmong didnt take money and kill their own as you state. Hmong and Vietnamese are two difference nationality. We didnt go to the america for help they come and beg, i mean begg for our help. They promise and have a written agreement with GVP. ty all
J Thao
Thomas,
It never cease to amaze me that people like you would automatically assume all Asians are ONE PEOPLE. Vietnamese and Hmongs are NOT one in the same. The Hmongs who sided with the United States also shared very similar values with the United States: freedom and justice. We fought alongside with the United States, even though we were not citizens of the USA. Now THAT’s patriotism! We didn’t come to the United States illegally to steal benefits of citizenship. We came as refugees of the war. We earned our citizenship the legal way while in the USA. We didn’t whine and demand that citizenship tests be available in the Hmong language. Instead, we invested our time to learn the language of this country… to be a part of it. We were passionate for the United States because we believed in the values of this nation; so much so, that many of us died in the war, in the name of the United States of America. And we did so willingly.
Dan Pendleton
@Thao – the USA acknowledges and appreciates your service to our country. Many Hmong have been repatriated here to Wisconsin and surrounding states including Gen. Vang Pao. They are hard-working and honorable contributing members of society. I wish we had more of them, to be honest.
its me
the hmongs are still getting kill and need help
MLGprotato
you didn't need to emphasize the why so many times we got the point
Janman
Never, never should anyone of the right mind, trust the United Syates of America.
Walter Cole
Yes, and it is the American citizens who should trust it least.
mordicai3
yes who needs Americans and their CORRECT SPELLING
Tim
No need to hate Greg. You forget the suffering of the Hmong still in Laos is the fault of the Laotian government. Those officials could end the tragedy in an instant. Clearly they have ethnic and most likely economic (opium) reasons for not doing so.
John P.
This is correct. The ethnic abuse and hatred of Hmong goes much farther back and pre-dates US involvement and sadly extends forward past 1975. I assure you that if you speak personally to those involved in the US effort, that one of the most personal tragedies they suffered was having to leave the Hmong behind when they were ordered out of Laos according to peace treaty. They had seen the suffering of the Hmong when they arrived in Laos, and knew it would continue.
It makes an interesting angle for an article to allege political intrigue, however, the sad fact is that the plight of the Hmong is mostly due to age-old racism, genocide and hatred, not from people from far away places, but from their neighbors.
greg
Any wonder why most of the world hates America? You use, you abused, you lie, you leave, you are damned.
You did something like this in 91 to the poor southern iraq people, you used, you lied, you left them to die
John Chan
USA is the same all along; it has never changed its predatory imperialistic behaviour and financial egoism nature. USA only has tools no allies, a lot of people like it and suck it up. The current USA allies like Japan, SKroea, India, Australia, and ASEAN nations just have not had enough of the USA’s abuses, they are begging for more in the name of containing China.
Johnny
@John Chan You are missing the crux of the argument. If Japan, SKroea, India, Australia, and ASEAN nations are allying with USA against China then it signifies that China has been acting irresponsibly. It means that despite the chance of USA’s betrayal these nations know that between China and USA the US is lesser of the two evil. If america is horrible and backstabber then what does it makes China?
Liberty N
The US should do something for them. Any way, these poor people had been heartlessly abandoned and left behind after Uncle Sam shaking the bloody hands of Mao Tse-Tung in 1972!!
vaj
I like what u said that the truth and the only reason why america abodoned us Hmong people.
Search in history every CIA work for the usa could never live in peace.
Joe King
John not everyone in India and a lot of the other countries you mentioned actually like sucking up to the US. The people here despise American Foreign Policy and hate the fact that the American government chooses to impose economic and trade sanction on India on a whim with no rhyme or reason. Such trade sanctions have caused massive inflation and reduced growth rates and no one likes that. However the US is adept at both arm twisting and paying off government officials into complying with its demands. If anyone is to blame it is the stupid government officials who suck up to the US.
Soba noodles
Yes yes yes
Only so-called soft diplomacy of China is the way to go like in Africa
where they are stealing the African nations blind? Or maybe in Brazil
where they pay off the whole country? Or better yet the middle east?
American is not the best in foreign policy just the best at giving more to all the nations than any other including
the Chinese
Artemis
Didn’t the UN have more to do with ’91 than the US? Or are we jsut going to keep on US bashing without the facts?
John Chan, come up with something original, your posts are so hackneyed as to be boring in the extreme.
I do like the broad strokes about “US abuses” that everyone seems to know about and parrot, yet no one seems to be very specific.
Point to me one country that hasn’t done the same and maybe I’ll think you weren’t part of the 50 cent party.
Hanna
I am a highly educated young woman and I would just like to say that this is extremely offensive. America tried to do the right thing by helping other people out, to avoid an undesirable lifestyle. We had to protect our own citizens first. When we just couldn't help but put our citizens first, we had to withdrawal from Laos. We had good intentions at heart and I would very much appreciate if you could try to see things from an optimistic viewpoint and look for the good in people versus assuming that we only want to hurt the nation of Laos.