Asian American Press
Hmong Veterans Resolution passes legislature 20 August 2010
Sacramento, Calif. (August 19, 2010) – The Hmong Veterans
Resolution, Assembly House Resolution 33 (HR 33), was successfully passed by the California State Assembly today with a unanimous
vote. The 80-0 vote means that the resolution will now be enrolled and sent to the President and U.S. Congress. The resolution
also enjoyed wide bipartisan support as 68 Assemblymembers signed on as coauthors.
The resolution, authored by
Assemblymember Dave Jones (D-Sacramento), urges the United States Congress to pass – and the President to sign –
House Resolution Number 5879, introduced by Congressman Jim Costa (D-Fresno) in July. HR 5879 extends national cemetery burial
benefits to Hmong veterans who fought with the United States in Laos during the Vietnam War. Sacramento is home to the second
largest Hmong population in California.
“The Hmong fought side-by-side with American soldiers during the
Vietnam War, sacrificing their lives for the United States and the values we hold dear,” said Assemblymember Jones.
“It is only right that we honor these brave soldiers in the same way we pay tribute to all our veterans, so I am proud
to urge the passage of Congressman Costa’s HR 5879 with this resolution.
“The overwhelming support
and passage of HR 33 sends a clear and strong message to Congress and the President that we need to recognize these veterans’
contributions and memorialize all those who answered the call of duty and fought for our country,” he added.
During the Vietnam War, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) ran a covert counterinsurgency operation in
Laos that became known as the Secret War. From 1961 to 1975, approximately 40,000 Hmong individuals were recruited by
the CIA to join this effort. The Hmong were instrumental in efforts to stop supply convoys along the Ho Chi Minh Trail and
in rescue missions to save downed American pilots in Laos.
Following the 1975 communist takeover of Laos, approximately
130,000 Hmong soldiers and their families relocated to the United States as political refugees. Today, according to the 2000
U.S. Census, more than 65,000 Hmong live in California, with the highest concentrations living in Fresno and Sacramento counties.
If HR 5879 passes, approximately 6,900 Hmong veterans – including 1,500 in California – would have the
option to receive full United States burial honors. To be eligible for these honors, a Hmong veteran would have to be
a citizen or permanent resident of the United States, and his service would be verified by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“We are so grateful for Assemblymember Jones’ leadership on this issue, “ said Dr. Lue Vang, Acting
Director for SGU Veterans and Families of the USA. “So many Hmong soldiers fought and died for this country without
any sort of acknowledgement. It means so much to the Hmong community that our service may finally be recognized.” For
original article, click here.
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Opinion Op-Ed Contributor July 30, 2010 No
Afghan Ally Left Behind By SEYMOUR TOPPING
A TALIBAN spokesman announced Thursday
that the group is poring over the tens of thousands of classified military documents published by WikiLeaks this week, looking
for the names of pro-American Afghans.
As in the past, those identified will likely be added to lists of people
to be assassinated, or rounded up once the United States and its allies leave the country. We’re already seeing this
in Iraq where, as American troops prepare to withdraw, there is a campaign by insurgents to kill members of the Awakening
movement and others who have cooperated with the United States.
With the United States’ deadlines for leaving
Afghanistan only a year away, we need to plan for what will happen to our allies once we’re gone. And we must certainly
not allow a repetition of what happened in Indochina after the withdrawal in 1975 of our military forces, our diplomatic
establishment and the Central Intelligence Agency.
Because the United States made virtually no provision for
the security of its friends and collaborators, millions of people accused of being American sympathizers were killed, imprisoned
or compelled to flee as the North Vietnamese took power in South Vietnam, the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia and the Pathet Lao
in Laos.
In South Vietnam, only a small number of collaborators was evacuated by Marine helicopters to ships
off the coast. Just weeks later, as the North Vietnamese seized full control of the South, Le Duan, the hard-line Marxist
successor to Ho Chi Minh, instituted a purge of American allies, consigning as many as 400,000 people to prison camps.
More than a million others fled the country by boat over the next 15 years. Some were picked up at sea by the United
States and resettled here. But American policymakers never seriously considered the fate of our South Vietnamese allies.
Conditions were even worse in Cambodia. Pol Pot, the genocidal leader of the Khmer Rouge, ordered the immediate
execution of Cambodian soldiers and officials who served in the American-supported government of Lon Nol. Over the next four
years, the United States stood by while an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died by execution, starvation and maltreatment
as Pol Pot set about cleansing the country of “foreign influence.”
In Laos, the United
States abandoned its most loyal allies, the Hmong hill people, who had been employed by the C.I.A. to battle the Communist-led
Pathet Lao and disrupt North Vietnamese military traffic along the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which snaked through Laos on its way
into South Vietnam. True, from 2000 to 2005 the United States gave asylum to 15,000 of the estimated 100,000 Hmong who had
fled to Thailand. But it did nothing when, last December, Thailand deported more than 4,000 of the remaining refugees back
to Communist-ruled Laos, where they could face retribution.
There are many parallels between the
American experience in Indochina and the occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. As the United States prepared to withdraw
from Indochina, particularly Vietnam, it undertook a program of, in President Nixon’s words, “Vietnamization,”
in which American forces trained and equipped allied armies to take over the fighting.
That we are doing the
same in Afghanistan and Iraq should raise concerns. Vietnamization was predicated on the promise of continued American air
support and other military aid. But as Congress became impatient with the ineptitude of the allied leaders and the war’s
continued costs, that assistance was cut off, leaving our allies practically defenseless.
We can see similar
tendencies in Congress today. Criticism of government leaders in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as demands for reductions
in military spending and accelerated withdrawal timetables, could be a harbinger of cuts to financial and military aid after
we leave.
We must plan now to protect our allies in the future. We should consider leaving behind residual forces
to ensure their security. We should refuse to negotiate political settlements with Taliban factions without iron-clad security
guarantees for those who cooperated with the United States. We should seek international arrangements, possibly with United
Nations support, to assure peaceful and humane political transitions.
And, if need be, we should offer asylum
to anyone directly endangered for helping us. Having fought brutal wars in their countries to protect our interests, we
owe them nothing less.
Seymour Topping, an emeritus journalism professor at Columbia and a former correspondent
for The Times, is the author of “On the Front Lines of the Cold War: An American Correspondent’s Journal from
the Chinese Civil War to the Cuban Missile Crisis and Vietnam.” For original article, click here.
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