How many hmong people died in the secret war

Yang Long giving instructions to soldiers who will be trained as radio operators in Long Cheng air base in Laos, late s. Courtesy Yang Long, St. Vang Pao and about 2, Hmong military forces and family members were airlifted from Long Cheng air base to Thailand. As many as 30, other Hmong crowded into Long Cheng, hoping for escape. The official US military death total in Vietnam exceeded 58, Since , the war had displaced hundreds of thousands of Hmong and other ethnic minority families and often they were relocated to locations developed by US aid workers.

Photo late s. Courtesy Capt. Vang Neng, St. After overthrowing the Laotian monarchy, the Pathet Lao launched an aggressive campaign to capture or kill Hmong soldiers and families who sided with the CIA. Thousands of Hmong were evacuated or escaped on their own to Thailand. Thousands more who had already gone to live deep in the jungle were left to fend for themselves, which led to the creation of the Chao Fa and Neo Hom freedom fighters movements.

Many men also took up arms again to protect their families as they crossed the heavily patrolled Mekong River to safety in Thailand. The first Hmong family to resettle in Minnesota arrived in November The largest wave came after the passage of the US Refugee Act of In , the Buddhist monastery at Wat Tham Krabok—the last temporary shelter for 15, Hmong remaining in Thailand—closed.

The census recorded more than , Hmong in the United States. More than 66, of that number lived in Minnesota, most of them in or near the Twin Cities—the largest urban population of Hmong in America. Toward the middle of May , thousands of Hmong swarmed into the air base at Long Cheng in hopes of being evacuated. The decision to airlift Gen. Vang Pao out of Laos, along with other high-ranking military officers and their families, came from top US government officials.

About 2, people were evacuated to Thailand. Those left behind had to trek on foot. Courtesy Thua Vang, California. Skip to main content. Hmong Timeline 4,, BCE Oral tradition and evidence from archives and archaeological finds suggest that Hmong people originated near the Yellow and Yangtze rivers in China.

We always knew that our history was rooted in China. However, our ancestors never got along with the Imperial Chinese. They invaded our lands. Killed our people. This went on for hundreds of years. Many Hmong leaders and their families, including my great-grandparents, moved to Laos to escape being persecuted. Cher Cha Vang , former military major and Hmong leader, Minneapolis, interview From Hmong at the Turning Point, , by Dr. Yang Dao.

The Laotians wanted one kilo of opium per household. They even took our livestock and money. Some of the parents had to sell their children to pay for the taxes. Some parents were so upset they committed suicide by taking poison. Touby Lyfoung , in Dr. Portrait of a Hmong girl in Laos, s.

Courtesy Noah Vang, St. I want to make it clear to the American people, and to all of the world, that all we want in Laos is peace, not war—a truly neutral government, not a cold war pawn, a settlement concluded at the conference table and not on the battlefield.

Our response will be made in close cooperation with our allies and the wishes of the Laotian government. We will not be provoked, trapped, or drawn into this or any other situation but I know that every American will want his country to honor its obligations to the point that freedom and security of the free world and ourselves may be achieved.

We had to find a way to stop them. The US had the vision to stop them from spreading into these countries. Those who were left behind sought protection from the Lao regime, and some continued to resist the government WPT.

Just because the Hmong people were involved in the war, the government saw them as unfriendly and attacked unarmed Hmong civilians WPT. Out of , Hmong in Laos, 30, Hmong died due to the war. And until this very day, they are still killing the Hmong people in the jungle WPT. On the fourth and fifth pages you will learn more about the aftermath. About , remained in Laos. Hmong recruited by the CIA to fight on behalf of a pro-American government during the Vietnam War were all but abandoned in Laos after their communist enemies won a long civil war and began single-party rule in Laos.

Many managed to flee into Thailand and later resettled in the United States and elsewhere, but thousands stayed behind, some adjusting to the new regime and others staying in the jungle, where they faced continuing attacks by the government.

Paul was torched five months after his father had called for normal trade relations with the Laotian government and its president, Khamtai Siphandon, and negotiating an end to the year-long jungle warfare. The U. State Department currently advocates normal trade relations with Laos. In September , the two countries took an important step when they signed a trade agreement.

It is awaiting Congressional approval. Many of the Hmong in the United States are outspoken in their calls for the overthrow of the Laotian Communist government. The leader of the Hmong resistance movement against the Lao government was Gen. Vang Pao, once a close American ally. He lived in California for many years and died in January In the s he was criticized by the American government for his support of the armed resistance movement against the Lao government and was charged in a U.

But, when the war was over, and U. Many felt the United States betrayed the Hmong in the worst way. If the Hmong were good enough to fight and die for us, they have to be good enough to resettle. Government agencies did not acknowledge the role played the Hmong until the s. Veterans led by the former Hmong leader Vang Po want recognition and benefits from the United States government.

Today, as many as 17, of them who fled into the jungle 30 years ago are said to remain in hiding, fearing for their lives and conducting sporadic guerrilla incursions against the still-communist Laotian government. Reports suggest that hundreds of Hmong have recently begun to emerge from the jungle, lured by the prospect of amnesty. Douglas Hartwick, U. The Laotian government denies this. Vang fought in Laos alongside U. But according to some interpretations of the Patriot Act, Vang is a former terrorist who fought against the communist Laotian government.

Although his admission that he fought with Americans helped him gain refugee status in the United States in , it may have hindered his green-card application after Sept. The application has stalled at the Department of Homeland Security, and Fresno Interdenominational Refugee Ministries, the California group that helped him fill it out, is suspicious.

The last, almost forgotten conflict of the Indochina war may still be continuing in northern Laos. Several insurgencies operate or operated in northern jungles of northern Laos, some of them around the former Ho Chi Minh Trail. It is not often clear what they are fighting for. Some want more autonomy for the Hmong regions. Others just seem to be out to get revenge for the awful things the Communist regime did to them.

Most of the insurgent groups were small a little more than militias. They don't like each other, and they often seem to work at cross purposes. In the s and 80s, the Lao army with massive help from the Vietnamese military largely eliminated these groups but was unable to get rid of them completely.

Some insurgents lived like wild men in the jungle with families because they were afraid if they emerged they would be imprisoned or killed by Laotian security forces. As of , around 17, Hmong were still believed to be living in the jungles. In the late s and early s, Hmong insurgents became active again in Xianghoang and Oudomxai northern Laos. The fact that there was evidence of an insurgency despite the best efforts by the Lao government to hide it was given a proof that insurgency was fairly large spread.

Despite the secrecy maintained by authorities here, the casualties being suffered the army can no longer be hidden from a population in which relatives are being killed As well as troop loses, a large number of government officials in northern villages have been killed by rebels.

The Hmong have little incentive to attack foreign, particularly Americans, because many Hmong now live in the United States and many of them were once fighters themselves and they continue to support insurgencies in Laos. The Hmong insurgents ambushed army convoys, burned houses and tried to defend families that were involuntarily being resettled in the lowlands.

Caryle A. The fighting was heaviest in Xiangkhouang Province. Five people were killed, including two children, 14 were wounded and buildings were wrecked in a night time raid in Muang Khoun, a former royal capital in Xiang Khuong, residents there said. We all just ran out and hid while they ransacked and burned our homes. In an effort to win the hearts and minds of Hmong insurgents and their sympathizers, the Laotian government quietly allowed them to enter civilian life and provided them with some assistance to start new lives in return for laying down their weapons.

In the early s, Vietnamese security forces became active again on Laos, at least in a supporting role, after the increase in insurgency activity. Analysts estimated that there were between and 1, Vietnamese soldiers fighting with the Lao Army. The government denied that any Vietnamese forces were involved but suspicions about this claim were raised in when a plane carrying top Vietnamese officials crashed in Xiangkhiang, killing everyone on board.

Little reliable information about fate of the Hmong insurgents emerged until late , when two Western journalists working for Time magazine made contact with one of the Hmong groups and came out with startling photographs and stories of their desperate existence. We found those reports true on a small scale. Scattered bands of ragged fighters subsist off wild plants, trying to evade the Laotian army and almost every day, the leaders of these Hmong bands talk on satellite phones with their Hmong-American relatives.

Some might say it is heroic and steadfast for old allies to continue the fight for years after the US forces went home. Human-rights workers have another angle: go to the Amnesty International Website, they say, search under "Hmong" and start reading about all the violence done against tribespeople by the Lao regime, which adds up to borderline genocide.

You can frame the arguments any way you want, but for me, the more I learn about the Hmong resistance in Laos, the more I find it ambiguous and troubling. There's a cycle of violence in the boondocks of Laos, and all sides are keeping it going. I put the blame first and foremost on the Lao People's Democratic Republic, which is doing the actual killing; the Hmong-Americans rank a distant second. In , AP reported: Nearly members of a Hmong hill tribe surrendered to authorities early today after decades on the run in Laotian jungles, a move that heralds a possible end to a tragic legacy of the Vietnam War.

If all proceeds peacefully, those who surrendered today are expected to be followed by several thousand others, from various Hmong bands in hiding around Laos, said Szendrey, who 's with the U. Szendrey said the initial official reception for those surrendering was warm and relaxed and that the police chief said the military had been told to stand down.