A Brief History Of
The Hmong and the CIA
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1950590,00.html
By Christopher Shay
Dec. 30, 2009
On Dec. 28, Thailand's military packed more than 4,000 Hmong asylum
seekers into trucks and drove them from refugee camps to neighboring
Laos, a single-party state that's been accused of persecuting the
Hmong since they backed U.S. forces during the Vietnam War. Thailand
maintains that Hmong living illegally in Thailand are economic
migrants, not political refugees in need of international protection
but the decision to forcibly repatriate them drew international
condemnation. Human Rights Watch called the expulsion "appalling,"
while the U.S. State Department argued that the refugees deserved to
be protected from threats they faced in their homeland.
The incident is the latest step in a decades-old dance involving
Laos' communists, the Hmong and the U.S. In the lead-up to the
Vietnam War, North Vietnam carved a maze of transportation routes
through the jungles of Laos, creating a crucial supply link later
known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Laos was in the middle of a civil war
between the Royal Lao government and the communist Pathet Lao.
Seeking to disrupt the North's supply routes, the Americans enlisted
the help of the Royal Lao government's highest-ranking Hmong leader,
Vang Pao. He welcomed American guns, money and expertise, assembling
thousands of Hmong fighters from the hills. Together, they would
tackle a common enemy, the communists.
The partnership worked to a point. Vang Pao's troops gained a
reputation for being fierce jungle fighters who rescued downed U.S.
aircrews, gathered military intelligence and fought the communists to
a stalemate. The effort was for many years the CIA's largest covert
operation, until the agency funded the mujahedin against the Soviets
in Afghanistan. In 1969, Richard Helms, director of the CIA, told
President Richard Nixon that Vang Pao had 39,000 troops engaged in
active fighting. But casualties were so bad, he wrote, that Vang
Pao's forces were using teenagers as young as 13 to fill their lines.
This massive effort was hidden from the American public for years. It
became known as the secret war, and the Hmong mercenaries as the secret army.
After Saigon fell, America abandoned the secret army, and in 1975, as
many as 10,000 Hmong were slaughtered at the hands of the ascendant
Pathet Lao, according to Roger Warner, an author who is researching a
book on Vang Pao. Others fled to neighboring Thailand and the U.S.,
where about 100,000 were eventually resettled. It was not until 1997
that Washington officially acknowledged the valor of the Hmong
soldiers. A small stone with a copper plaque was placed in their
honor between the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the John F. Kennedy
Eternal Flame in Arlington National Cemetery.
The plaque has done little to resolve the Hmong's plight in Southeast
Asia. Thousands live in poverty in Thailand, and a few armed bands
still live in the Laotian highlands, refusing to surrender to the
government of Laos. Earlier this month, there were signs that the
conflict might be easing: Vang Pao, now 80 and living in California,
said he wanted to return home and help reconcile the Hmong and the
Communist government in Vientiane. But officials reportedly replied
that they'd welcome him back by executing him. It's no wonder
Thailand's Hmong refugees are worried that the rulers of their
homeland still hold a grudge.
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