THE RATIONALE WHY THE MONG AND THE HMONG CAME TO THE U.S.
When the United States became involved in the Vietnam War, there was a lot of resistance against the Communists from the South Vietnamese’s and the United States’ troops. Because the United States’ and the South Vietnamese’s troops were deployed along the seventeenth parallel, it was difficult for the Communists to transport their troops, food, and ammunition to support their ground fighting squads in South Vietnam. For this reason, the Communists cut a new route to South Vietnam known as the “Ho Chi Minh Trail” zigzagging through Laos where the Mong and the Hmong lived. By sending troops and supplies to South Vietnam through the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail, the Communists breached the Geneva Accords of 1962. It should be noted that the Communist North Vietnam and the U.S. were among the twelve countries that signed the Geneva Accords of 1962 to guarantee the neutrality of Laos. Therefore, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) approached General Vang Pao to form a special force known as the “U.S. Secret Army in Laos” to perform two missions.
General Vang Pao was one of the few high-ranking Hmong military officers in the Lao Royal Army at that time. General Vang Pao specified the two-fold missions of the U.S. Secret War in Laos during a keynote address in a New Year Celebration on November 29, 1980 in Des Moines, Iowa. The first mission was to strategically penetrate the Communist force to reduce their troops, ammunition, and food supply line along the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail. The second mission was to provide general and special rescue missions to downed American pilots. General P. Vang also confirmed the same information to one of the authors during a trip to Hamilton, Indiana to attend Edgar Pop Buell’s funeral (personal communication, January 5-6, 1981).
When U.S. planes were shot down during bombing raids of North Vietnam, the pilots could either attempt to go east to the Gulf of Tonkin where they could be picked up by the U.S. Forces or they could fly west as far as possible to be rescued by the Mong and the Hmong commando units. Sometimes, the Mong and the Hmong sacrificed many lives just to save one downed American pilot. Each soldier of the U.S. Secret Army was paid two to three dollars a month for these dangerous missions. The American allies were treated with respect, dignity, and hospitality in the Mong and the Hmong homes. Even though the Mong and the Hmong were poor in terms of money, but they were rich in their accommodation, respect, and human dignity. As farmers, the Mong and the Hmong were self-sufficient because of their agricultural economy.
The U.S. intervention in Laos resulted in large-scale air operations over Northern Laos, especially in the province of Xieng Khouang, the home of thousands of the Mong and the Hmong. Branfman (1972) reported that over 25,000 missions were flown against the Plains of Jars (“Plaines des Jarres”) from May 1964 through September 1969. Over 75,000 tons of bombs were dropped and over 50,000 airmen at distant bases were involved in the bombing. Robbins (1978) asserted that the American airmen who fought this U.S. Secret War in Laos were known as "the Ravens" and that their stories during the Vietnam conflict were locked away in classified archives and would not be revealed until after the year 2000. Bruchett (1970) reported that the tonnage of bombs dropped on Lao [Mong and Hmong] villages exceeded that dropped in any year on North Vietnam, more than on Nazi-occupied Europe in World War II.
Even though thousands of the Mong and the Hmong people were killed and wounded, and there are still remnants of enormous bomb craters at the Plains of Jars (“Plaines des Jarres”), the massive bombardment was kept secret from the world. If it had been publicized, the United States would have been known to breach the Geneva Accords of 1962 that guaranteed the neutrality of Laos. The province of Xieng Khouang, Laos might have been used as a testing 3 ground for chemical warfare, first by the United States and later by the Soviet Union during their competition for the leading role in the arms race during the Cold War. After 1975, the Soviet Union used aerial attacks on the territories where the Mong and the Hmong lived, with gas rockets of different types -- yellow, green, or red -- that caused headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, dysentery, and death to people exposed to those gases. The Mong and the Hmong referred to this phenomenon as the "Yellow Rain." An editorial in the Wall Street Journal on June 17, 1992, noted that "Russian President Boris Yeltsin has explicitly confirmed that his Soviet predecessors were lying when they denied that the 1979 anthrax epidemic in Sverdlovsk was the result of an accident at a germ warfare installation and asks when we will learn the truth about the yellow rain reported by [the Mong and the Hmong] tribesmen in Laos" (Wall Street Journal, 1992, June 17). Hamilton-Merritt (1981, Aug) asserted that about 20,000 Mong and Hmong might have been exposed to poisonous gassing during the war. The United States Department of State documented over 13,000 people dead.
From 1960 to 1975, the numbers of the Mong and the Hmong casualties were enormous. Branfman (1972) estimated that ten percent or more of the population in the Northeast of Laos had either been killed or died due to war injuries that accounted for approximately 40,000 dead (p. 245). The Vietnam War was extremely detrimental to the Mong and the Hmong. Many innocent Mong and Hmong children, as young as twelve years old, were drafted and sometimes were forced to join the U.S. Secret Army in Laos to bear arms. Interestingly, there was no official record to indicate how many Mong and Hmong were killed in this fifteen-year war.
After the United States’ troops withdrew from Southeast Asia, many Mong and Hmong in Laos were sent to the re-education camps (labor camps) and were persecuted for political reasons by the Communist government. Thousands of the Mong and the Hmong escaped to the jungle and found their way to Thailand to seek political asylum. In 1976, U.S. Congress recognized that the Mong and the Hmong were the U.S. Secret Army in Laos during the Vietnam War and authorized the State Department to admit their families as refugees to the United States. However, approximately 15,000–18,000 Mong and Hmong still remain in Wat Thum Krabork, Lopburi, Thailand since 1976 until 2004 when the United States government decided to bring them over to the United States.
When the United States became involved in the Vietnam War, there was a lot of resistance against the Communists from the South Vietnamese’s and the United States’ troops. Because the United States’ and the South Vietnamese’s troops were deployed along the seventeenth parallel, it was difficult for the Communists to transport their troops, food, and ammunition to support their ground fighting squads in South Vietnam. For this reason, the Communists cut a new route to South Vietnam known as the “Ho Chi Minh Trail” zigzagging through Laos where the Mong and the Hmong lived. By sending troops and supplies to South Vietnam through the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail, the Communists breached the Geneva Accords of 1962. It should be noted that the Communist North Vietnam and the U.S. were among the twelve countries that signed the Geneva Accords of 1962 to guarantee the neutrality of Laos. Therefore, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) approached General Vang Pao to form a special force known as the “U.S. Secret Army in Laos” to perform two missions.
General Vang Pao was one of the few high-ranking Hmong military officers in the Lao Royal Army at that time. General Vang Pao specified the two-fold missions of the U.S. Secret War in Laos during a keynote address in a New Year Celebration on November 29, 1980 in Des Moines, Iowa. The first mission was to strategically penetrate the Communist force to reduce their troops, ammunition, and food supply line along the Ho-Chi-Minh Trail. The second mission was to provide general and special rescue missions to downed American pilots. General P. Vang also confirmed the same information to one of the authors during a trip to Hamilton, Indiana to attend Edgar Pop Buell’s funeral (personal communication, January 5-6, 1981).
When U.S. planes were shot down during bombing raids of North Vietnam, the pilots could either attempt to go east to the Gulf of Tonkin where they could be picked up by the U.S. Forces or they could fly west as far as possible to be rescued by the Mong and the Hmong commando units. Sometimes, the Mong and the Hmong sacrificed many lives just to save one downed American pilot. Each soldier of the U.S. Secret Army was paid two to three dollars a month for these dangerous missions. The American allies were treated with respect, dignity, and hospitality in the Mong and the Hmong homes. Even though the Mong and the Hmong were poor in terms of money, but they were rich in their accommodation, respect, and human dignity. As farmers, the Mong and the Hmong were self-sufficient because of their agricultural economy.
The U.S. intervention in Laos resulted in large-scale air operations over Northern Laos, especially in the province of Xieng Khouang, the home of thousands of the Mong and the Hmong. Branfman (1972) reported that over 25,000 missions were flown against the Plains of Jars (“Plaines des Jarres”) from May 1964 through September 1969. Over 75,000 tons of bombs were dropped and over 50,000 airmen at distant bases were involved in the bombing. Robbins (1978) asserted that the American airmen who fought this U.S. Secret War in Laos were known as "the Ravens" and that their stories during the Vietnam conflict were locked away in classified archives and would not be revealed until after the year 2000. Bruchett (1970) reported that the tonnage of bombs dropped on Lao [Mong and Hmong] villages exceeded that dropped in any year on North Vietnam, more than on Nazi-occupied Europe in World War II.
Even though thousands of the Mong and the Hmong people were killed and wounded, and there are still remnants of enormous bomb craters at the Plains of Jars (“Plaines des Jarres”), the massive bombardment was kept secret from the world. If it had been publicized, the United States would have been known to breach the Geneva Accords of 1962 that guaranteed the neutrality of Laos. The province of Xieng Khouang, Laos might have been used as a testing 3 ground for chemical warfare, first by the United States and later by the Soviet Union during their competition for the leading role in the arms race during the Cold War. After 1975, the Soviet Union used aerial attacks on the territories where the Mong and the Hmong lived, with gas rockets of different types -- yellow, green, or red -- that caused headaches, vomiting, diarrhea, dysentery, and death to people exposed to those gases. The Mong and the Hmong referred to this phenomenon as the "Yellow Rain." An editorial in the Wall Street Journal on June 17, 1992, noted that "Russian President Boris Yeltsin has explicitly confirmed that his Soviet predecessors were lying when they denied that the 1979 anthrax epidemic in Sverdlovsk was the result of an accident at a germ warfare installation and asks when we will learn the truth about the yellow rain reported by [the Mong and the Hmong] tribesmen in Laos" (Wall Street Journal, 1992, June 17). Hamilton-Merritt (1981, Aug) asserted that about 20,000 Mong and Hmong might have been exposed to poisonous gassing during the war. The United States Department of State documented over 13,000 people dead.
From 1960 to 1975, the numbers of the Mong and the Hmong casualties were enormous. Branfman (1972) estimated that ten percent or more of the population in the Northeast of Laos had either been killed or died due to war injuries that accounted for approximately 40,000 dead (p. 245). The Vietnam War was extremely detrimental to the Mong and the Hmong. Many innocent Mong and Hmong children, as young as twelve years old, were drafted and sometimes were forced to join the U.S. Secret Army in Laos to bear arms. Interestingly, there was no official record to indicate how many Mong and Hmong were killed in this fifteen-year war.
After the United States’ troops withdrew from Southeast Asia, many Mong and Hmong in Laos were sent to the re-education camps (labor camps) and were persecuted for political reasons by the Communist government. Thousands of the Mong and the Hmong escaped to the jungle and found their way to Thailand to seek political asylum. In 1976, U.S. Congress recognized that the Mong and the Hmong were the U.S. Secret Army in Laos during the Vietnam War and authorized the State Department to admit their families as refugees to the United States. However, approximately 15,000–18,000 Mong and Hmong still remain in Wat Thum Krabork, Lopburi, Thailand since 1976 until 2004 when the United States government decided to bring them over to the United States.
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