A hospital spokesman said his family had been at the hospital at the time of his death. "He's the last of his kind, the last of the leadership that carries that reference that everyone holds dear," said Blong Xiong, a Fresno city councilman and the first Hmong-American in California to win a city council seat. He was 81. Vietnam People's Army forces were also involved with military attacks on the Hmong people in Laos and illegal logging activities driving many Hmong from their mountain homelands. He was the chief of a secret army financed by the Central Intelligence Agency. Not in her DNA. improve functionality and performance. He says when he was 13, he saw a family from his village unable to pay their taxes. General Vang Pao died in California, Thursday. On July 12, 2007, under significant pressure from Vang Paos Hmong and influential American supporters, the California federal court ordered the release of the Hmong leader on a US$1.5 million bond secured by property owned by members of his family. Former CIA Chief William Colby once called Pao "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War," for the 15 years he spent heading a CIA-sponsored guerrilla army fighting against a communist takeover of the Southeast Asian peninsula. This covert war was also waged with the assistance of B-52 aerial bombardments and regular supply flights from Air America, a commercial airline fronting for the CIA, which flew in food and ammunition to mountain helipads cut out of the jungle. Air America pilots have since admitted that their planes not only transported rice, bullets and weapons, but also sacks of opium grown by the Hmong villages. [78] Participants at the special ceremony held at the Laos Memorial within Arlington National Cemetery included the CPPA, LVA, U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Department of the Army, Members of the Congress, U.S. Special Forces Association, Counterparts Veterans Association and others. Federal prosecutors alleged the Lao liberation movement known as Neo Hom raised millions of dollars to recruit a mercenary force and conspired to obtain weapons. During the 1960s/70s, he commanded the Secret Army, also known as the Hmong Army, a highly-effective Central Intelligence Agency-trained and supported force that fought against the Pathet Lao and People's Army of Vietnam. This excerpt is from Twin Cities PBS's documentaryMinnesota Remembers Vietnam: America's Secret War.Learn more at the bottom of the page. Former Hmong Gen. Vang Pao (right) in May 2000 during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam Memorial in Washington, D.C. [7] After World War II, French Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aroports (GCMA) authorities recruited Vang as a lieutenant during the First Indochina War to combat the Viet Minh (archive video on YouTube by Col. Jean Sassi). This CIA operative was a real-life 'Col. Kurtz' during the Vietnam War Vang Pao, or 'the General,' was selected for his charisma and leadership skills, honed when the Hmong had previously allied with the French against North Vietnamese forces. U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos, U.S. Congress, Center For Public Policy Analysis, Doctors Without Borders, Mdecins Sans Frontires (MSF) (1 May 2008), Agence France Press (AFP) & Asia One News, (13 May 2011), Agence France Press (AFP) (9 January 2011) "California funeral planned for Hmong general", Groupement de Commandos Mixtes Aroports, 2007 Laotian coup d'tat conspiracy allegation, History of the Hmong in Fresno, California, "Vang Pao, Laotian General Who Aided U.S., Dies at 81", "Revered Hmong leader Vang Pao stands tall in two worlds", "The life of General Vang Pao, Hmong guerrilla leader", "May Song Vang, widow of Gen. Vang Pao, dies at 62", "Hmong community, military leader Vang Pao dies at 81", "Hmong community reacts with alarm to charges against Vang Pao", http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-18164641.html, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-62628182.html, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-69595349.html, "3,500 Laotians Head for U.S. after 20 Years in Thailand", http://www.nysun.com/editorials/vang-pao-escapes/86878, http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1102/S00609/vietnam-laos-nationalist-fighter-honored-by-lao-hmong.htm, "Suspect in alleged Laos plot had friends, influence on Capitol Hill", Vietnam vet to get US honors after burial snub, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-133816289.html, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-89481454.html, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-95001293.html, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-116193843.html, http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P1-91813746.html, "Amnesty Urges Laos to Treat Hmong Humanely", "U.S. Secretary of State says he will talk to U.N. chief about Hmong in Laos", http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-110671550.html, "ST. PAUL; VANG PAO FOUNDATION; Chamber says money was for trade missions", THE COVERT WARS OF VANG PAO; Ex-guerrilla's gamble for peace backfires; With his empire unraveling, Gen. Vang Pao met with the enemy, a tactic that to his people felt like a total betrayal. His picture hangs in thousands of homes. New. Nobody will be left behind. About 35,000 Hmong died in battle. Among the hardest hit by this "Secret War" were the Hmong of northern Laos. I decided to record her. This got me wondering about the surviving sisters of Gen. Vang Pao Lee, Xai, Ying and Der. [9], Vang emigrated to the United States after the communists seized power in Laos in 1975. Vang Pao (Hmong: Vaj Pov, born 1929) is a former Major General in the Royal Lao Army. Vang Pao | Military Wiki | Fandom He didn't want them to attract suitors or to get married. A report from the civil rights nonprofit Southeast Asia Resource Action Center noted that 45 years after the community established roots in the U.S., nearly 1.1 million Southeast Asian Americans are low-income, and about 460,000 live in poverty. [46], Prior to his arrest, Vang was scheduled to have an elementary school in Madison, Wisconsin named after him, a proposal that met with opposition over historian Alfred W. McCoy's allegations that Vang had been involved in war crimes and drug trafficking,[47] with Hmong scholars Gary Yia Lee[48] and Jane Hamilton-Merritt, as well as former Air America Association president Jack Knott, strongly disputing his claims. NPR reporter Doualy Xaykaothao speaks with her great-aunts Gen. Vang Pao's sisters in Fresno, Calif. Lee starts talking about her brother and then tells me a secret: Her brother did not marry eight wives to unite the many Hmong clans, as legend has it. In 2009, charges were quietly dropped against Vang Pao. He is an ethnic Hmong and a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States. Tony Poe (middle-left) and General Vang Pao (middle right) with an unknown Hmong soldier (far left) and American (far right). He became a sergeant in the French colonial army, and, in 1954, an officer in the army of the newly independent Laos. Hmong women wearing traditional clothing line the streets during the funeral procession. In the mid-1990s, Vang Pao, aided by influential American diplomatic allies and vast numbers of Hmong-Americans, halted forced United Nations-sponsored repatriation back to Laos of thousands of Hmong refugees in Thailand. [27] This created suspicion and distrust among many of Pao's supporters and advisers who quickly began to abandon Vang Pao and his new direction in support of the Lao government's foreign policy, economic and military agenda. Vangs June 2007 arrest later led the Madison School to reopen discussion on the schools naming. May Song Vang(February 5, 1951 - August 5, 2013) was an American Hmongcommunity leader and activist. The U.S. government declassified some of the documents relating to Poe and his activities in Laos, but hardly mention the operative by name. May Song Vang - Wikipedia Foreign dignitaries, U.S. military officials and elected representatives were among the thousands who came to mourn the general. As you well know, General Vang Pao led the Royal Lao Army during thesecret war in Laos, fighting against the People's Army of Vietnam incooperation with the CIA and US military forces. By continuing to browse the site Reporting from Fresno . Vang Pao ( RPA: Vaj Pov [v p], Lao: ; 8 December 1929 - 6 January 2011) [1] was a major general in the Royal Lao Army. General Vang Pao was a major general in the Royal Lao Army. Vang Pao and the other Hmong were also initially denied bail by the California federal court, which cited each of them as a flight risk. At the funeral hall, I meet the other two surviving sisters, Xai and Der. Chan. Vang Pao even set up a heroin laboratory at the secret US CIA base at Long Cheng. [52], On 12 July 2007, the California federal court ordered the release of the Hmong leader on a US$1.5 million bond secured by property owned by members of his family. Vng Pao - Wikipedia ting Vit What were their lives like with a brother like VP? Even before President Dwight D. Eisenhowers vow in 1960 that Laos must not fall to the Communists, the country was immersed in bloody conflict. His reputation was further damaged when he was arrested in 2007, with other Hmong activists and a retired US military officer, for conspiracy to procure weapons of war, including Stinger missiles, to launch a terrorist attack on strategic buildings in Vientiane, the Laotian capital. Courtesy of Doualy He was invited to speak at the U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos, with Members of Congress, about the persecution of the Laotian and Hmong people on several occasions in the U.S. Congress from 1999 to 2003. In 2002, the city of Madison, Wis., dropped a plan to name a park in his honor after a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor cited published sources alleging that Vang Pao had ordered executions of his own followers, of enemy prisoners of war and of his political enemies. Vang Pao has been widely portrayed by his Hmong supporters and the US media as an American war hero and venerated leader of the Hmong people. He needed to ensure his familys survival, but it was heartbreaking to leave everything he owned and knew behind, he said. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser. General Vang Pao (Vaj Pov) It was, she says, for love. As an American teenager, whenever I asked grown-ups about the Vietnam War, few wanted to discuss it. He is an ethnic Hmong and a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States. hide caption. He was the only ethnic Hmong to attain the rank of General officer in the Royal Lao Army, and he was loyal to the King of Laos while remaining a champion of the Hmong people. recruited General Vang Pao for the job. She was afraid of no one. Obituary: Vang Pao - BBC News A mourner holds a photo of Gen. Vang Pao during the funeral procession. Later, in the United States, he was so revered that some of his people believed he had supernatural powers. They're honoring General Vang Pao, who led guerrilla fighters in the CIA's secret campaign in Laos during the Vietnam War. "Gen. Vang Pao, an iconic figure in the Hmong community and a key U.S. ally during the Vietnam War, died Thursday afternoon in Clovis [Calif.] after spending days in the hospital with pneumonia. I never knew his story. Reality soon dispersed that dreamworld. Yang said leaving Laos was probably the hardest decision he ever had to make. The federal charges allege that members of the group inspected weapons, including AK-47s, smoke grenades, and Stinger missiles, with the intent of purchasing them and smuggling them into Thailand, where they allegedly would be shipped to anti-Laotian governmental resistance movement forces inside Laos. Love? The captain dictated the answers to Vang so he could join the army. You see, the Vietnam War took place in my family's backyard. We want to bridge divides to reach everyone. During the 1960s and 1970s General Vang commanded the Secret Army, a highly-effective CIA-trained and supported force that fought against the Pathet Lao and Peoples Army of Vietnam. The Monitor Daily amplifies and clarifies how we deliver on the Monitors purpose, to benefit humanity by reporting what is happening in the world and why and how this information matters to you. He had to divorce all but one of his five wives when he went to the United States in 1975, settling on a ranch in Montana. Vang Pao dies at 81; exiled Hmong general - Los Angeles Times FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -- Vang Pao, a revered former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led thousands of Hmong guerrillas in a CIA-backed secret army during the Vietnam War, has died. [76] The Lao Veterans of America, Philip Smith, the CPPA and other prominent figures also highlighted and lauded Vang Pao's contribution to U.S. national security interests during the Vietnam War. He was also known as General Vang Pao to the people in the Hmong community. Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy, U.S. VP, as he was known to the CIA, personally trained thousands of irregular soldiers. continue to use the site without a In the shadows of the Vietnam War, the CIA conducted a secret war in Laos that relied on Hmong soldiers to prevent the threat of communism from spreading deeper into Southeast Asia. His son Chu Vang told The Bee in 2007 that General Vang Pao had fathered more than 20 children and had more than 40 grandchildren. [10] He remained widely respected by his fellow Hmong and was an esteemed elder of the American Hmong people, many of whom experienced the war or the reprisals that followed. He and his wife, May Song Vang, whom he married in 1973, initially moved to Montana before settling in California. As a . The former Hmong guerrilla leader was called 'the biggest hero of the Vietnam War' but also had a long history of violence. To family, friends and many in the CIA, VP was a military hero, but I hardly knew him. "He had been getting better for the last few days, but last night he was getting worse and now he has left us.". Congressional committees discussed the war in secret sessions at the time it was being fought, and the press uncovered significant details. [77], In May 2011, Vang's efforts during the Vietnam War were officially commemorated at memorial ceremonies in Arlington National Cemetery organized by the Lao Veterans of America Institute, LVA, the CPPA, the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Special Forces Association, and others. General Vang Pao, who has died in California at the age of 81, was once described as "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War" by former CIA chief William Colby. Vang began his early life as a farmer until Japanese forces invaded and occupied French Indochina in World War II. That's why I never told friends and neighbors about my family's history. hide caption. Gen. Vang Pao, the controversial but revered Hmong leader who was a key ally to the United States during the Vietnam War, died Thursday in Clovis, Calif. logged you out. After immigrating to the United States once the communists seized power in Laos in 1975, Vang Pao was venerated as a leader and a father figure by the large Hmong refugee populations who resettled in California's Central Valley, Minneapolis and cities throughout Wisconsin. His fellow friends, including Hmong, Mienh, Lao, Vietnamese, and Americans individuals who knew Vang protested the arrests, rallying in California, Minnesota, Michigan, North Carolina and Wisconsin. The one non-Hmong person among the nine arrested, Harrison Jack, a 1968 West Point graduate and retired Army infantry officer, allegedly attempted to recruit Special Operations veterans to act as mercenaries in an invasion of Laos. Explore them here. Southeast Asian American refugees have survived war, famine and genocide. GENERAL VANG PAO SCHOLARSHIP THE PRAYA NORAPARMORK GENERAL VANG PAO LEADERSHIP LEGACY MEMORIAL SCHOLARSHIP FUND APPLICATION PACKET December 8, 1929 - January 6, 2011 PRESENTED BY THE HMONG AMERICAN EDUCATION FUND www.thehaef.org This scholarship was donated by Dr. James Nhia Vang & his wife Vanessa Yang in loving memory of General Vang Pao. The Lao and Hmong refugees were allowed to resettle in the United States, France, Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. Many, like Yang, received little to no assistance in rebuilding their lives, were resettled in underresourced neighborhoods and faced racism. Several of Vang's high-level U.S. supporters criticized the California court that issued the arrest warrants. (of a rule, principle, etc.) The Thailand-based refugees, many of whom had been living in refugee camps at Wat Tham Krabok, a Buddhist temple in Thailand, were afforded the right to avoid the forced return to Laos and instead were offered relocation rights and assistance to the U.S. Prior to his arrest, Vang Pao was slated to have an elementary school in Madison, Wisconsin named after him, a proposal that met with opposition over Alfred W. McCoys allegations that Vang had been involved in war crimes and drug trafficking, with Gary Yia Lee and other scholars strongly disputing his claims. ". I tell them I promise to be the keeper of their stories, so they smile proudly and agree to meet again soon. Smuggled narcotics became a routine cargo transported from Laos and delivered into the corrupt arms of a clique of South Vietnamese generals in Saigon. General Vang Pao, who battled diabetes and heart problems, died aged 81 of pneumonia with heart complications on January 6, 2011, at Clovis Community Medical Center. Laos general and Hmong leader Vang Pao dies in exile - BBC News If he didnt leave, he expected to be sent to a labor camp where he would have been worked to death. [65], Diana Aguilera of the Fresno Bee wrote that May Song Vang, who was Vang Pao's wife at the time of his death, "became the face of the Hmong community" after Vang Pao died. The monsoon rains had just begun, the farm animals were waking, and Grandma, well, she did what she does best speak her mind. [54][55], At special sessions of the U.S. Congressional Forum on Laos, Smith and the Center for Public Policy Analysis joined by Members of Congress, including U.S. Representative Dana Rohrabacher, and others, called on the U.S. Department of Justice to immediately drop the case, and the charges, against General Vang and the other Hmong defendants, especially in light of the Lao government's and Lao Peoples Army's (LPA) ongoing military attacks and egregious human rights violations directed against many of the Laotian and Hmong people, which included attacks on unarmed civilians and political and religious dissidents, atrocities, rape, torture and the use of mass starvation. He put the figure at 17,000 dead by 1968. Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, said Vang did not express any embarrassment over this cheating. Though she's newer to Minnesota and less well-known in the community, she shares a name with her father, the legendary General Vang Pao. Vang didn't deny the charge, but countered that the CIA was well aware of his plans to send American weapons to his former comrades in arms. Vang . General Vang Pao (The Hmong Legendary & Iconic Leader) 1970 The next year, he would also fight Communists from Vietnam after they had crossed the Laotian border. Military officials salute the casket of Gen. Vang Pao during his funeral procession in Fresno, Calif., on Feb. 4. Vang Pao, a revered former general in the Royal Army of Laos who led thousands of Hmong guerrillas in a CIA-backed secret army during the Vietnam War, has died. With the help of . "Vang Pao was a great man and a true American hero. We tackle difficult conversations and divisive issueswe dont shy away from hard problems. ", "Hmong project worried some from start; Mayor Randy Kelly's advisers fretted about the Vang Pao Foundation's ability to raise funds to build a funeral home, and about political fallout. Fadiman added "it is worth noting that in this incident, far from tarnishing Vang Pao's reputation as, for example Ted Kennedy's fudged Spanish exam at Harvard University tarnished his merely added to his mythology: this was the sort of man who could never be held back by such petty impediments as rules."[6]. He said he spoke briefly with family members, who were planning a memorial service, but had no details on what caused Vang Pao's death. More than 10,000 Hmong mourned the leader on the first day of the funeral. She says the Hmong in the U.S. are now without leadership, that her brother was the uniting force behind 18 clans. [citation needed], The Pathet Lao Marxist government Laos was engaged in serious human rights violations, including military attacks on civilians by the Lao People's Army in Laos in 2007 and prior, according to Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the Center for Public Policy Analysis, the Lao Veterans of America, the Lao Human Rights Council, headed by Dr. Vang Pobzeb, Members of the United States Congress and others. Quyen Dinh, executive director of SEARAC, said in an email that the community is becoming more civically engaged by running for political office and demanding political accountability in areas including education equity and criminal justice. That man was my great-uncle, the late Gen. Vang Pao. [18], From 1993 to 2003, Vang relied on Philip Smith for much of his efforts with policymakers in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Congress. Tens of thousands were killed during the war, and even more lost their lives while attempting to escape to freedom after the war ended. He is like the earth and the sky, Houa Thao, a Hmong refugee, said in an interview with The Fresno Bee in 2007. As a teenager, he had been recruited to fight communism alongside the United States. Death. Thousands of sobbing mourners in military uniform and traditional Hmong dress paid their final respects Friday to the late Gen. Vang Pao, a U.S. ally in the Vietnam War whose proposed burial at . General Vang Pao Biography | General Vang Pao Biography But the United States government did not officially recognize the Hmongs contribution until 1997, when the Clinton administration authorized a plaque at Arlington National Cemetery saying that the valor of General Vang Paos troops would never be forgotten. Vng Pao ( RPA: Vaj Pov, ch Lo: ; Ch Hmng Vit: Vangx Paor, 1929 - 2011 [1]) l ngi H'mong u tin c phong hm tng Qun i Hong gia Lo. Family History: The General, His Sisters And Me : NPR

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