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August 2010

Written By: Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt

Some Good News.

In late July 2010, legislation was introduced in the House of Representatives that would, if enacted, grant burial rights to Lao Hmong veterans at National Veterans Cemeteries across this country.

Rep. Jim Costa of California, along with 22 other Members of Congress, introduced HOUSE RESOLUTION 5879 which seeks to open our National Veterans Cemeteries to individuals who supported the U. S. in Laos during the Vietnam War era.

According to Costa, “Many [Hmong] paid the ultimate sacrifice....Our nation owes a debt of gratitude to those patriotic individuals and their service should be honored with burial benefits in our National Cemeteries.”

Colonel Wangyee Vang, National President and founder of the Lao Veterans of American Institute who, for years, has worked with Members of Congress on this legislation. said: “Our Laotian and Hmong veterans and their refugee families across the United States are honored and deeply grateful for the potential opportunity to be buried in U.S. National Cemeteries along with the American veterans we helped to defend and save during the Vietnam War. “

This bill offers a wonderful opportunity for the Hmong American community and for others who want to honor the sacrifices of those who fought in the Lao theater of the Vietnam War. Alert your Congressional Representatives to H.R. 5879: Ask them to sign on to this proposed legislation.

In my view this legislation, if enacted, will allow the surviving Hmong veterans to rest eternally near other veterans of the Vietnam War. This will provide dignified recognition of their important and unique role in U.S. military history.

Acknowledgment and thanks must be made to the following Members of Congress who, over the years, have worked diligently on this issue:

Mr. Jim COSTA (CA), Mr. Dennis CARDOZA (CA), Mr. Michael HONDA (CA), Mr. Steve KAGEN (WI), Mr. James LANGEVIN (RI), Mr. Tim Holden (PA), Ms. Madeleine BORDALLO (Guam), Mr. Patrick KENNEDY (RI), Mr. Ron KIND (WI), Mr. Bill DELAHUNT (MA), Mr. Pedro PIERLUISI (Puerto Rico), Mr. Collin PETERSON (MN), Ms. Tammy BALDWIN (WI), Mr. Pete STARK (CA), Mr. Jerry MCNERNEY (CA), Mr. Devin NUNES (CA), Mr. Frank WOLF (VA), Mr. George RADANOVICH (CA), Mr. Patrick MCHENRY (NC), Mr. Joesph CAO (LA), Mrs. Sue MYRICK (NC), Mr. Thaddeus MCCOTTER (MI), Mr. Tom PETRI (WI).

June 2010

“It takes ten years to grow a tree. It takes 100 years to establish the identity of a people," observed Confucius.

This intriguing observation by Confucius centuries ago seems applicable to the Hmong from Laos who were resettled in the U.S. as political refugees following the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam and Laos.

On June 5, 2010, Hmong Americans in Sheboygan, Wisconsin held a “Healing Banquet” to acknowledge refugee life that began 35 years ago when Hmong from Laos fleeing retribution from the victorious communist forces in Laos sought sanctuary in northern Thailand.

Remembering and recognizing the past was a critical component of this occasion.

Following are some excerpts from my event remarks and from Tragic Mountains about remembering the past suffering and sacrifices, recalling how the Hmong and the Americans came together under President John F. Kennedy, reflecting on the problems of the early years of resettlement in the U.S. and of creating an identity. It is an Incredible Journey.

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We are here to commemorate an Incredible Journey by those Hmong Americans who are with us in the United States and to memorialize those who were lost on this long journey.

We assemble to remember an important historic time in both Hmong and American history, when the Hmong and the Americans came together in Laos to work towards the defeat of communism in Southeast Asia. That coming together occurred 50 years ago!

During the Vietnam War era, Communism threatened the non-communist country of Laos. In response, the Kennedy Administration opted to fight the North Vietnamese-directed communist insurgency in Laos by arming and training indigenous people to defend their homelands from the foreign forces bent on toppling the Royal Lao Government.

Because the Hmong homelands and countrymen in Northern Laos were threatened by North Vietnamese advances, they joined with the Americans to keep Laos from falling to communism.

The Americans armed and trained those fighting under the command of Vang Pao, a Hmong officer in the Royal Lao Army, who would in time earn the rank of Major General. These forces would be the American boots on the ground in northern Laos for the duration of the Vietnam War.

To help set the record straight, it should be known that it was the Hmong, an ethnic minority of Laos, who helped the Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon Administrations in the critical and secret Lao Theatre of the Vietnam War. It was General Vang Pao’s forces, with U.S. backing who kept General Vo Nguyen Giap’s North Vietnamese Army at bay in northern Laos for ten long years.

Hmong gathered critical intelligence, rescued downed U.S. aircrews, and observed and sabotaged the Ho Chi Minh Trail Complex in Laos, so vital to North Vietnam’s regional military strategy. General Vang Pao’s soldiers also defended navigational sites in Laos; including the ultra-secret TSQ installation at a CIA-U.S. Air Force location atop a Hmong mountain, designated Lima Site 85. Under President Johnson, this critical site directed U.S. pilots in around-the-clock, all-weather, precision bombing strikes against enemy targets in northern Laos and North Vietnam.

Hmong did this at great loss of life. Not just soldiers, but old people, women, and children died and suffered in large numbers. Unfortunately, Westerners did not know about this alliance nor about the Hmong sacrifices.

Few knew about the events that took place on the historic Plaine des Jarres, or along the Ho Chi Minh Trail Complex in Laos, or in the tribal villages and on the mountain tops of Laos in the longest covert operation ever undertaken by the U.S. Even fewer knew about the Lao “killing fields” that took the lives of tens of thousands after the communist takeover in 1975.
Much of what we, the public, had heard about the “secret war” in Laos during the 1960s and 1970s and the fate of the Hmong under the communist rule of the Lao People’s Democratic Republic was rumor, innuendo, propaganda, and disinformation.

Thirty-five years ago, the Hmong and the Americans were defeated and the communists came to power in Laos and vowed to “wipe out” those who allied themselves with the Americans and the Royal Lao Government.

These new rulers and their foreign advisors proceeded to do so with extraordinary violence. The majority of the Hmong living in the U.S. are survivors of that attempt. They are the lucky ones. Many of their friends and family did not survive.

Hmong faced with the unrelenting attacks upon their villages found that eventually there was no place to hide, no place to run, no way to have life. Escape from Laos was the only alternative. Many fled south toward the Mekong River to cross the river for sanctuary in Thailand.

Hmong in Thai refugee camps hoped that in time it would be safe to return to their mountain homelands in Laos, but that hope faded as the communist government of Laos continued targeting Hmong allied with the U.S.

With their homeland lost and no place to go, these former U.S. allies could not remain forever in the refugee camps dotting northern Thailand. Slowly Hmong were resettled in the U.S. France, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and French Guiana.

Hmong resettlement in the early years--late 1970’s through the 1980s--was extremely difficult for both the Hmong and their sponsors.

Unfamiliar with Western living and the fact that most Americans did not know about Hmong history or culture, or their relationship with the U.S., nor the sacrifices that they had endured for that alliance, Hmong families suffered in silence in a foreign, confusing and often frightening environment.

And that brings us back to Confucius and his observation that it takes 100 years to establish the identity of a people.

In 1989, General Vang Pao addressed the Hmong community, encouraging his countrymen to be proud of their accomplishments so far and urging them to continue the struggle to integrate into the American way of life. He pointed out that when the Hmong first came to the U.S. they were like babies. They knew nothing about life in the U.S. In 1989, he pointed out that the Hmong had been in the U.S. for 13 years and were now like a 13 year-old with much still to learn.

In 2010, the Hmong community in the U.S. is now in its mid-30s and its accomplishments are stellar.

In the intervening years, Hmong Americans have made impressive accomplishments on this Incredible Journey. Hmong Americans are now doctors, lawyers, professors, dentists, nurses, pharmacists, teachers, artists, writers, elected government representatives, and members of the U.S. military--some as senior officers.

It would seem that the Hmong American community is well ahead of the Confucian schedule that it takes 100 years to establish the identity of a people.

The Incredible Journey of the Hmong American community is not over yet. In fact, I suggest that it has just begun. This journey that began 50 years ago, that has been so filled with suffering, struggling, and sacrifice, has produced a young generation of Hmong who are educated and informed citizens of the world. These Hmong will be a shining light--a sign of hope and of a better life for struggling Hmong around the world.

And, importantly, an example of what can be accomplished when people are free and devoted to bettering themselves and their communities.

Winter 2009/2010
Written By: Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt

The 2010 New Year has started off on a very sad note with the Thai Military's forced repatriation in late December 2009 of over 4,500 Hmong refugees from Ban Huay Nam Khao refugee camp back to Laos.

These are refugees: many of whom are women and children, some of whom have been identified over the years by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Medicines Sans Frontieres and UNHCR as political refugees, and most of whom fled persecution in Laos because of their father's and grandfather's involvement with American military operations in Laos over 40 years ago.

The New Year is supposed to be a time for new beginnings and celebrations. Unfortunately, true celebrations are not possible due to this forced repatriation.

However, it is possible for a new beginning. There is an opportunity for the Obama Administration to fulfill its promises over the past year to assist these refugees. During the 2008 Presidential Campaign, now-President Obama issued a statement of support to the Hmong community in which he declared, "The U.S. must be clear in calling for all parties to respect international law and ensure that displaced Hmong are not placed in harm's way." Yet harm did come their way. The Thai refused to allow the UNHCR into the camp to interview the population to determine refugee status. Then the Thai used overwhelming force to repatriate the Hmong to Laos. Some 5,000 Thai soldiers massed at the camp to oversee the repatriation of some 4,500 Hmong refugees, many only women and children. (To View the President's Full Campaign Support Letter Click Here)

President Obama sent a New Year greeting to the Hmong American community, thanking them for their contributions to the United States and indicating an historical awareness of the Hmong plight in Southeast Asia. At the International Hmong New Year in Fresno CA where his statement was read, Hmong Americans were distraught as they listened to the President's hollow words while their relatives in Thailand were being herded back to Laos by the Thai Military. The Hmong were shocked that the President neglected to mention Thailand's breach of international law: specificially "non-refoulment" which prevents people with legitimate fears of persecution from being forcibly returned to the country they fled from. (To View the President's Full Hmong New Year Statement Click Here)

To fulfill his campaign promise to the Hmong-American community, President Obama should pressure the Thai Military to document the assurances it claims to have been given by the Lao government that these Hmong repatriates will be fairly treated.

The Obama Administration should also call for unfettered international access to these refugees to ensure their safety and well-being in a country where they have been mistreated and brutally "cleansed" from the resource rich mountains of Northern Laos for over four decades.

Finally, the Obama Administration and the U.S. Congress should insist on a full review by the United States Ambassadors to Thailand and to Laos of the situation in the newly created resettlement camp in Laos, including documenting the names of the individuals returned, if they have relatives in third countries where they could potentially resettle to be assured safety, and if these returnees are truly being treated with dignity and respect.

The New Year allows for fresh beginnings. This 2010 New Year season should not become known as the time when America turned a blind eye to its former allies who saved countless American lives during the Vietnam War by halting military advances into Laos and stalling tens of thousands of Vietnamese troops in Northern Laos throughout the conflict in Southeast Asia. As President Obama stated in his 2008 campaign letter, "...now it's time for the federal government to restore its promise to you...".

2010 should be known as the time when America stood up for its allies. Let this not be yet another tragic betrayal of the Hmong.

FALL 2009
BY: DR. JANE HAMILTON-MERRITT

TRAGIC MOUNTAINS IS CELEBRATING its 15th anniversary of publication by Indiana University Press.

Fifteen years ago, Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, The Americans and the Secret Wars for Laos was launched at the Hmong New Year Celebration in Fresno, California by the Lao Veterans of America in conjunction with Indiana University Press. It was the culmination of some 14 years of research and writing.

Tragic Mountains took so long to write because the key players lived all over the world. Some of these individuals had worked for intelligence agencies and by contract were prohibited from discussing their activities--although many did recall their own experiences. Since the U.S. military operations in Military Region II (Hmong homelands) in Laos were covert, U.S.government documents were classified--not available. This made it difficult to piece together the history of the Hmong, the Americans, and the secret wars for Laos. After interviewing well over l,000 people, the story of what happened in northern Laos during the Vietnam War era took shape and those first-hand testimonies became a profound document. To all who spent many hours with me in interviews, this 15th anniversary celebration of Tragic Mountains is an acknowledgment of your contributions to history.

In this message, I also want to acknowledge the Hmong American college students--past and present. Over the years, Hmong American student organizations have sponsored me as a lecturer on their campuses to talk about how the Hmong and the Americans came together under President Kennedy, to describe the roles of the Hmong soldiers in the Lao theater of the Vietnam War, and to address the terrible consequences of the Hmong alliance with the U.S. As a result, I have had the opportunity to meet thousands of Hmong American students. You are most impressive!

In our private discussions, they voice their frustrations that their fellow students, their college staff and faculty personnel often know very little about the Hmong--or are misinformed.. They report that there is often no mention of the Hmong in their elementary and high school classes. These students conclude: "It is as if we don't exist."

Hmong American high school and college students have recently become active in bringing public attention to the plight of the Hmong political refugees in jeopardy in Thailand and of the tragedy of those Hmong who are running and hiding in the high jungle of Laos. College students and recent graduates are pushing for inclusion of Hmong history in the public school curricula in states where there are large numbers of Hmong American students.

U.S. President- Elect Barak Obama's recent letter to the Hmong American community hopefully opens new opportunities to address the issues of Hmong Americans and to resolve the Hmong humanitarian crises for the Hmong political refugees in Thailand and for the Hmong hiding in the Lao jungle. (Obama's letter is posted above.) With the interest of President-Elect Obama in the Hmong American community issues, perhaps we can hope that the Hmong concerns and issues can be raised to the highest level in our society.