'The Greatest Hero of the Vietnam War'
General Vang Pao (The Hmong Legendary and Iconic leader) was born on December 8, 1929 in Nonghet, a village in northeast Laos. As a teenager in World War II, he enlisted in the French military to protect his fellow Hmong against the Japanese invaders. He later became a sergeant in the French colonial army and, in 1954, an officer in the Royal Lao Army of the newly independent Laos.
When the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency approached him in 1961, General Vang Pao was already fighting Laotian Communists. The next year, he would also fight Communists from Vietnam after they had crossed the Laotian border. The importance of Laos grew immensely during the Vietnam War, when most of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the serpentine route that North Vietnam used to funnel supplies southward, ran through Laotian territory. The United States wanted to interdict the supply route, rescue American pilots shot down over Laos and aid anti-Communist forces, but was hampered in doing so publicly because Laos was officially neutral, so the C.I.A. recruited General Vang Pao for the job. At the time, he held the highest rank ever achieved by a Hmong in the Royal Laotian Army, major general.
The general quickly organized 7,000 guerrillas, then steadily increased the force to 39,000, leading them in many successful battles, often against daunting odds. William Colby, C.I.A. director in the mid-1970s, called him "the Greatest Hero of the Vietnam War." The C.I.A. did not command the general's army at any level because he never permitted it. The general led troops into combat personally, suffered serious wounds and was known to declare: "If we die, we die together. Nobody will be left behind." About 35,000 Hmong died in battle.
Congressional committees discussed the war in secret sessions at the time it was being fought, and the press uncovered significant details. But the United States government did not officially recognize the Hmong's contribution until 1997, when the Clinton administration authorized a plaque at Arlington National Cemetery saying that the valor of General Vang Pao's troops would never be forgotten.
After the communists took over Laos in 1975, the general led the effort to resettle tens of thousands of Hmong from the hills of Laos into cities throughout America. In the mid-1990s, Vang Pao, aided by influential American diplomatic allies and vast numbers of Hmong-Americans, halted forced United Nations-sponsored repatriation back to Laos of thousands of Hmong refugees in Thailand. It was a major human rights victory for the Hmong. The Thailand-based refugees, many of whom had been living in refugee camps at Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist temple in Thailand, were afforded the right to avoid the forced return to Laos and instead were offered relocation rights and assistance to the U.S.
Compiled and edited by Dr. Tony Vang. (Sources: New York Times, The Fresno Bee, Wikipedia).
This documentary of the Secret War in Laos was given by the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) News to Dr. Tony Vang on May 29, 1984 in Fresno, California. The Hmong people want to express their heartfelt thanks to the late NBC News reporter Ted Yates and his colleagues, Robert Rogers, Julian Townsend and others, for this historical documentary of the Vietnam War. All rights belong to NBC News and their respective owners.
