Hmong leader Vang Pao dies

[alp227]

Source: Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Gen. Vang Pao, an iconic figure in America's Hmong community and a key U.S. ally during the Vietnam War, died late Thursday afternoon in Clovis, Calif., a close friend said Thursday night from California.

Vang Pao, 81, died just before 5 p.m. at Clovis Community Medical Center, where he had been hospitalized since Dec. 26, said Charles Waters, a longtime friend and veteran's advocate who worked with the general on various causes involving Hmong veterans. He had been was suffering from pneumonia and an ongoing heart problem.

News of Vang's death brought mourners flooding into the hospital, which was setting up space to accommodate them and preparing to move his body to a funeral home, Waters said. "We expect to have a huge memorial service here at the Fresno fairgrounds," Waters said.

Vang is revered by many as a leader who helped bring and settle the Hmong community into American life, particularly in Minnesota and California.

(snip)

Backed by the Central Intelligence Agency to fight the North Vietnamese throughout the Vietnam War, Vang later led his people from Thai refugee camps to new beginnings in the United States. But his reputation was deeply stained when federal agents arrested him in June 2007 for allegedly planning to buy about $10 million in illegal weapons for a violent, anti-Communist coup in the Laotian capital of Vientiane.

Read more: http://www.startribune.com/nation/113048899.html

[Odin2005]

1. A CIA thug, no sympathy.

[annm4peace]

2. I have mixed feelings

He did a lot for his people. He wanted the best for his people. His death reminded me a lot of the Hmong life in America and what it meant to me.

I remember in the early 80's when I was in eight grade and new Hmong students came to our Jr high in Fresno, cA. It was the group of them. They looked so scared and like the had just come from the camps. Their skin was tough and they looked so tired. They had taken names like John, Mary, Mark. etc. I guess it was a way to make the transition easier. I remember thinking how incredibly brave they were. at the time I didn't understand what they had been through.. they were often so quiet in class. My mom was a 2nd grade teacher and many of the kids came to her school. she would bring some over to our house and they would go swimming at the neighbors pool. They were so wonderful. We went to some events the Chinese Catholic church put on.. my mom was 5'3 and felt tall among these short people. It was weird to feel tall. that was in the 1st year of the 1st arrivals. They begun farming in empty lots.. soon Fresno and Clovis were filled with "strawberry farms". and there beautiful needlework filled many homes.. and where sold at craft fairs all over.
She loved teaching these wonderful students.. They were so sweet, grateful, happy.. etc. My mom grew up poor and a tenant farmer's daughter so she know what it was like to be seen as the poor or underclass. There were other immigrant children in her class also and they increased as time went on.
The mother and sometimes fathers stayed at the schools in the hallways while the kids were at school. They loved their kids very much.
As children books were written about Hmong migrating.. my mom would buy them to fill her little library so I grew up reading them.


So many of them made it through high school and many were in clubs.. how incredible. Fresno by that time had a large Hmong community and was blessed by it. They made their yards into gardens and you would see these as you drove through town.

As i know live in Minneapolis, I work with a Hmong woman who is in her mid 20's.. She is young enough to be my daughter. She was born at one of the Thailand camps and lived there till she was 8. Her father was a soldier in the Secret War.. he must have been very young.

An ignorant teammate at work asked her Who is this General.. and she said" "He is the reason we made it to America.. I wouldn't be here without him".
She is right. It is amazing. How did he do it? Usually the CIA and in particular the US doesn't help the people in other countries. Growing up in Fresno.. I heard of the news of the General through out the years.. and of the Hmong refugees coming to Fresno.. and the battles to bring their loved ones here. Classmates would take of their family members who were trying to reunite with them but were in different countries. They would tell stories of their escapes from Thailand, of family members who were abused or killed.

Maybe the General made the best choice for his people. If he didn't help the cia and the US government.. would his people survive ?

It was horrible times in Laos maybe being a thug was least of worse choices to make. I do know he never stopped carrying of his people and encouraging them to do good.