Hmonging Home: Memorial

The 1978 melodramatic propaganda film “Coming Home” reached into widespread opposition to the Vietnam War to portray injured American veterans as betrayed by lack of caring by those who sent them and being ill-used for a wrong war. The star was Jane Fonda.

This was three years after IndoChina’s fall to communists who quickly proceeded to murder millions, force more millions into brutal concentration camps, and send more millions fleeing into seas and jungles where an untold hundreds of thousands died. Among those most brutally and murderously persecuted, to this day, are the Montagnards of Vietnam and Hmong of Laos. To this day, Jane Fonda, and her allies who abused our purpose and veterans, stands by support of the North Vietnamese and their minions who perpetrated this ongoing bloodbath.

Their story, their betrayal, has not evoked similar concern from Hollywood. With little exception, they’ve been shunted to the recesses of memories. The exceptions are the very few who continue to pay attention to the Montagnard and Hmong’s continued suffering today, 33-years later, and by those who served with them.

As our Memorial Day approaches, a little reported (this small newspaper chain in Wisconsin) memorial service took place at Arlington National Cemetery. (It’s not that the event wasn’t sent to the nation’s media. It wasn’t seen as worthy of their coverage.)

Dedicated to the U.S. secret army in the Kingdom of Laos 1961-1973
In memory of the Hmong and Lao combat veterans and their American advisors who served freedom's cause in Southeast Asia. Their patriotic valor and loyalty in the defense of liberty and democracy will never be forgotten.
Lao Veterans of America
May 15, 1997

The official Arlington National Cemetery site’s description of the memorial is here. This poem is at the site:

As the fallen leaves of Autumn
in unregimented ranks,
Countless unrembered soldiers
rest…eternally.
Let us now praise forgotten men…
and some there be,
Which have no memorial;
Who have perished, as though
They had never been.
But they served, they died;
for cause and by happenstance…
Expended in the hopes for Southeast Asia,
and will forever be remembered,
Mourned for their sacrifice.
If by weeping I could change
the course of events,
My tears would pour down ceaselessly
for a thousand Autumns.
Thursday, May 15, 1997
Salute to Lao/Hmong Patriots
& their American Advisors
Arlington National Cemetery

The Wisconsin newspaper reports:

A small band of former Hmong soldiers and their American advisers gathered at Arlington National Cemetery on Friday to remember comrades killed in the U.S. covert war in Laos.

For the occasion, Chang Ger Xiong of Milwaukee wore a camouflage uniform and medals on his chest from past battles. He exchanged salutes and handshakes with others at the gathering.

Xiong was 22 in 1964 when he decided to side with the United States and fight communist insurgents trying to take the Hmong homeland in the mountains of Laos, a neighbor of Vietnam. The U.S. recruited the Hmong throughout the Eisenhower, Kennedy and Johnson administrations.

Xiong said he cast his lot with the Americans to protect his homeland. His father and a 1-year-old daughter were shot as the family fled across the Mekong River trying to escape the country. Still Xiong was one of the luckier Hmong because he got out of Laos after the communists captured it.

The victors began tracking down the Hmong, a minority ethnic group, who had fought against them. Human rights advocates say the practice continues today.

About 200,000 Hmong live in the United States. Wisconsin is home to the largest population of Hmong in the country.

Now 65 and the owner of a supermarket in Milwaukee, Xiong said he made trip east "to remember our fallen soldiers."

Under skies that alternated between cloudy and partly sunny, Xiong and nearly 30 people marked the 11th year since they had a blue Atlas cedar and a memorial tablet placed in the cemetery to honor Hmong and Laotian fighters as well as the Special Forces soldiers and Central Intelligence Agency agents they worked with. A military color guard carried the U.S. flag, a soldier placed a wreath of white roses and lilies near the Hmong memorial and a bugler played taps.

Speakers included Colonel Wangyee Vang, National President of the Lao Veterans of America ( LVA ) in Fresno, California; Dr. Jane Hamilton-Merritt, Laos and Hmong Scholar; Philip Smith, Executive Director, Center for Public Policy Analysis ( CPPA ) and Washington Director, Lao Veterans of America, Inc.; The Honorable John Barnum, Esq. Former Deputy Secretary of Transportation and Attorney at McGuire Woods Law Offices; Attorney B. Jenkins Middleton, Former Vice President, Export-Import Bank; Ambassador James Lilley, Former Ambassador to the Peoples Republic of China ( PRC ); Mike Benge, Former POW and Montagnard human rights advocate; Grant McClure, Counterparts Veterans Association; Schuyler Merritt, Research Director, CPPA, and Hugh Tovar, former CIA Station Chief in Laos during key years of the Vietnam War.

Some of what these brave Hmong contributed:

"A measure of the heroism and effectiveness of the Hmong struggle can be seen in the fact that the North Vietnamese forces arrayed against them increased over the years from the original 7,000 to 70,000, including several of North Vietnam's best divisions. The battle became increasingly conventional."
-- Ambassador William Colby, former CIA Director, Congressional Testimony before the House Subcommittee on Asia and The Pacific, April 26, 1994.

The most conservative estimated number that during the United States' involvement in the Vietnam War, 35,000 to 40,000 young brave Hmong were killed in combat; 50,000 to 58,000 were wounded; and 2,500 to 3,000 were missing in action. When the United States withdrew from Southeast Asia, genocide followed the Hmong--thousands of Hmong were murdered by the communists when they tried to flee to neighboring Thailand.

"Everyone of them that died (Hmong), that was an American back home that didn't die, or one that was injured that wasn't injured. Somebody in nearly every Hmong family was either fighting or died from fighting... They became refugees because we (United States Government)... encouraged them to fight for us. I promised them myself: "Have no fear, we will take care of you"."
-- Edgar Buell, senior U.S.AID/CIA official working with the Hmong "Secret Army" During the war years, quoted on 60 minutes, March 4, 1979.

Hmong write:
Some source said: There was about 100,000 North Vietnamese soldiers fought in Laos: 70,000 of this number including several of North Vietnam's best divisions fought directly against the Hmong soldiers, and about 30,000 were fighting with the U.S. SOF and Hmong soldiers along the Ho Chi Minh Trail.

About April 1975, the United States withdrew its troops from Indochina. During May 12-14, 1975, the CIA/Air America evacuated about 2,500 Hmong officers and their families from the secret base at Long Cheng in Laos (Headquarters of General Vang Pao--the combined base for the Hmong, CIA, Air America, and U.S. Air Force "Ravens"). They were evacuated to the U.S. former air base in Namphong, Khonekene, Thailand. The rest of the Secret Army (Special Guerrilla Units {SGU} and other special units) who were left behind began to walk to the Mekong River and attempted to cross into Thailand. The Communists killed thousands of these soldiers and their families. During the evacuation, and in subsequent years, thousands of Hmong and Lao veterans and their families were killed by communists North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao security forces. Thousand died of starvation as they fled toward the security and freedom on the other shore of the Mekong River. Thousands drowned in the river before reaching the Thai border. Even today, despite official denials at senior levels of the Pathet Lao government, the communist regime in Laos continues to persecute and discriminate against Hmong because of their role in the U.S. Secret Army.

The Vietnam War ended in 1975, genocide and persecution of the Hmong followed. This Stalinist regime arrested King, Queen, Crown Prince, members of the Royal Lao Family, and its high ranking officials in the Royal Lao government about 46,000 to put in the re-education camps, and also used chemical warfare "Yellow Rain" to eliminate members of the U.S. Secret Army and their families. From the period of 1975 to 1980, the Stalinist regime in Laos killed about 30,000 Hmong men, women, and children in the former 2nd Military Region of Laos where the major of the CIA operations took place, especially, around the foothills of Phou Bia Mountain. This is the Lao People's Democratic Republic's (LPDR) "ethnic cleansing" policy against the Hmong people. Today, LPDR government still continues systematically to persecute the Hmong people in that part of the world.

In addition to a devastating loss of life, the war resulted in a loss of our homeland, and we had to become countryless people and political refugees in a third country such America, Argentina, Australia, Canada, China, France, Japan, and Newzeland.
Later in 1975, the Hmong and Lao soldiers and families began to take refuges in the United States. Their exodus continues to the present period. Many of those are still separated from their families and are finding reunification difficult. This, they have organized "Lao Veterans of America" as a Non-Profit organization. Its home office is in Fresno, California where it will be a central communication to all Lao veterans, which scattered through out the world.

To learn more about how those Hmong in America have fared, see this Pluralism Project site at Harvard University.

Meanwhile, for those festering in Thai refugee camps, Reuters reports on Human Rights Watch’s March 2008 report:

"The Thai government's claim that these were 'volunteers' who wanted to return to Laos is highly dubious," said Bill Frelick, refugee policy director at Human Rights Watch. "Volunteers don't need police dogs to coax them onto trucks."

This forced repatriation was just the latest in a series of joint actions by Laotian and Thai military authorities in violation of international standards for the protection of asylum seekers fleeing persecution. Under customary international law, the principle of non-refoulement protects people from being sent back to countries where their lives or liberty would be threatened.

In May 2007, the Thai government denied the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) permission to conduct refugee status determinations in Thailand, insisting that it would screen asylum seekers itself.

"Without a fair and transparent procedure to screen refugees, Human Rights Watch considers Thailand's forcible return of these 11 Hmong to Laos as refoulement, a violation of its international law obligations," Frelick said. Since the 1970s, the Laotian authorities have targeted ethnic Hmong in Laos and subjected them to arbitrary arrest and detention, torture, sexual violence, and extrajudicial killings….

The Thai government denies nearly all requests by representatives of foreign governments, UN agencies, journalists, and nongovernmental organizations for entrance into the fenced-off facility in Petchabun province where roughly 8,000 Hmong are currently restricted. The authorities denied a Human Rights Watch visit to the camp in mid-2007. UNHCR personnel are also barred from the camp. The only organization that is allowed into the facility, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), currently provides all services for the Hmong living there.

This letter from a refugee, at the Hmong International Human Rights Watch site, speaks to their plight, and abandonment:

LAOS DENIES HMONG PERSECUTIONS, March 14, 2008 PDF

With due respect to the Lao PDR Government’s policies, regulations, rules and laws, the Lao Government should treat the Hmongs in the jungle as citizens of Laos and stop killing women and children as claimed by the Hmongs from the jungle.

The Lao PDR Government denies the persecutions, but the Hmongs claim that they have been hunted and shot at for the last 33 years by the Lao PDR Military forces. Even though the Lao PDR Government denies there is any fighting in Laos, the Hmongs continue to hide in the jungles due to fear of persecution.

I escaped from the jungles of Laos to Thailand when I was just a little girl. I can understand how much they have suffered. I am Hmong and speak the language. I went back to Thailand to pre-screen more then 1400 people who claimed to have escaped from the jungles of Laos. I personally talked to them and screened them. I have first hand information on how they were treated by the Lao PDR Government in the past 30 years. They gave me their written statements and provided live testimonies on film. I believe the people I screened have legitimate claims and are telling the truth. Evidently, women and children as well as men are injured with bullet wounds all over their bodies.

They told me that they have witnessed the Lao PDR military troops kill their parents and relatives. Due to these kinds of military attacks, the children had to hide for their lives.

As you can see, the group of 438 who surrendered on October 12, 2006 to Meaung Meh, Vang Vieng, Laos, 80% of are children and more than half of the remaining 20% are women. Furthermore, the group of 1000 currently in the jungle and was filmed by Aljazeera’s journalist a few weeks ago, are mostly women and children.

The refugees in Thailand have told me that they have wanted to surrender to the Lao PDR Government, but feared persecution. Either they escape to Thailand seeking asylum protection, or stay in the jungle and hope for rescue. I believe there was fighting going on in closed doors in the past 33 years, which the international communities do not know about.

Recently, the leaders from the Jungle have contacted me and stated that they will not surrender to the Lao PDR Government because they don’t trust the Government. They request that the UN bring them out of the jungle peacefully.

In order to resolve this conflict, the Lao PDR government should allow the leaders and their families to leave Laos - under an ODP (Orderly Departure Program). If they must be relocated within Laos for safety reason, a monitoring system must be provided to assure they receive adequate treatment.

Due to the lack of trust between the Lao PDR Government and the Hmongs in the Jungle, thousand of Hmong have escaped to Thailand seeking asylum protection.

Any question or comment about this broadcast, please contact Laura Lo Xiong at lauraxiong@cox.net

In 2001, Congress passed a resolution honoring the Hmong’s contributions during the Vietnam War. In 2007, Senator Leahy introduced a measure to ease entry to the U.S. by Montagnards or Hmong, previously erroneously grouped in current terrorist legislation and barred entry for actions before 1975. It was included in the State Department appropriations signed into law. Otherwise, there’s little effort on our government’s part to ease their suffering, or welcome the remnants languishing in Thai camps or the Lao jungle.

Laos has “two faces”, as Mike Benge puts it, one for tourists and the other “intent on annihilating an ethnic group of people -- the Hmong….While news of the genocide in Dafur is a daily dish for the major news media, and a favorite pastime for some rich and famous in Hollywood, the genocide in Laos has by and large gone unreported….” Benge describes the methods by which the Hmong are hunted, starved and murdered. “Estimates as high as 20,000 Hmong veterans and their families are thought to still be hiding in the jungle, mostly in Northern Laos; however, the actual number will never be known.” Benge wonders: “Thailand has been threatening to send 8,000 Hmong refugees back to Laos to face further repression, gulags, or death from the communist Pathet Lao; however, some think this threat was a gambit by high-ranking Thai military officers to pressure the State Department to ease up on their travel ban to the U.S. put in place as a result of the recent coup d'état.” Benge concludes:

Some legislative leaders on Capitol Hill have written letters to the Secretary of State and to the King of Thailand pleading the case of the Hmong. But the real question is, will the US and other Western governments continue to acquiesce to the rampant brutality of the communist Lao government and their genocide against the Hmong (just “business as usual” and human rights be damned); or will the US accept the moral responsibility that it bears for its former Hmong allies and intervene in their behalf to plead their plight and expose this genocide before the United Nations.

As it seems to be becoming more frequent with the United States’ indigenous allies, the thanks the Hmong receive for their trust and loyalty is abandonment by a government with a sound bite mentality and even a smaller dose of honor.

The Center for Public Policy Analysis reports in May 2008 that 7000 Hmong in a Thai refugee camp “have gone on hunger strike to protest their threatened forced repatriation back to the communist regime in Laos.”

Hmong Americans across the U.S. have relatives trapped in this Thai camp. These American citizens continue to demand that the U.S. Congress take action to save their family members from forced repatriation to Laos where tens of thousands of Hmong have been killed by the current government of Laos.

On our Memorial Day, we must add R.I.P. to elemental decency by the U.S. toward our brave former allies. This must be corrected before more thousands of our brave allies are allowed to be exterminated.