Flashermac Posted January 8, 2011 Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 Bangkok Post 8 Jan 2010 Former Laotian Hmong general Vang Pao, who died in the United States Thursday aged 81, was a controversial figure who led a CIA-backed "secret army" during the Vietnam war, and never abandoned the dream of leading his people home from exile. The legendary guerrilla leader commanded thousands of fighters in the 1960s and 70s in the US-funded covert war against North Vietnamese and Lao communist forces. When the Washington-backed Lao royal government fell to Hanoi in 1975, Vang Pao fled to the United States, where he was credited with helping negotiate the resettlement in America of tens of thousands of fellow Hmong. For decades he remained a revered figure in the Hmong community. Many considered the fervent anti-communist their leader in exile, and he was an active defender of the minority, many of whose members, according to human rights groups, are still persecuted and killed in isolated Laos. But he was a polarising figure, one who raised money from the Hmong community through a secretive organisation some critics believed was being used to funnel funds to support of a new rebellion against the PDR Laos government. In 2007 Vang Pao was arrested in California along with eight others on conspiracy charges after authorities allegedly "interrupted a plot to overthrow the communist government of Laos by force and violence," according to the justice department. The charges were dropped in 2009. "Vang Pao is a controversial figure," said Martin Stuart-Fox, professor emeritus at The University of Queensland. "Some will see him as a great patriot and others will see him as someone who, by allying himself with the US, caused his people untold suffering which they were subjected to during these wars." Vang Pao acknowledged the devastating impact the war had on his fellow Hmong, a mountain people who practiced slash-and-burn farming and grew opium. "I was able to kill many North Vietnamese troops and destroy equipment worth a billion dollars," Vang Pao said at the Heritage Foundation think tank in 1987. "I lost 17,000 men, almost 10 percent of the total Hmong population," he said. "The Hmong sacrificed the most in the war and were the ones who suffered the most." Vang Pao was born in 1929 in central Xieng Khouang province. A teenage soldier against World War II Japanese troops, he underwent French-run army officer training from age 20 and later fought against communist rebels. In 1964 he was the first Lao Hmong to become general in the Royal Laotian Army. The United States was then stepping up its undeclared war against the communists in landlocked Laos which borders Vietnam, training a proxy army and flying missions in unmarked aircraft of the CIA-run Air America. CIA operatives were looking for a courageous, motivating leader to help orchestrate the secret war. They found him in Vang Pao, a relentless warrior whose guerrilla skills were so legendary, and who could supply medical supplies to villagers and even control US air power, that followers began to see him as "a minor deity," according to historian Christopher Robbins. "VP, when I first met him, I think he was probably the greatest guerrilla leader in the world," CIA operative Bill Lair, who helped recruit Vang Pao in 1961, told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in 2005. Vang Pao commanded Hmong, other Lao fighters and Thai troops from his mountain headquarters in a campaign that some historians contend was part-financed by the opium trade. "But mostly his leadership rested on the force of his own personality, which was energetic, volatile, direct and fearless," Robbins wrote in The Ravens -- Pilots of the Secret War in Laos. Vang Pao did not represent all of the Hmong, said Stuart-Fox. The community was deeply divided, with some fighting for the communist Pathet Lao forces. After 1975, the new communist government in Laos jailed thousands and sentenced Vang Pao in absentia to death. Some fighters continued a low-level insurgency for years but a foreign diplomat in Laos said recently that there had been only "scattered" incidents since 2004, and no reports for 18 months. On Friday Vientiane was unmoved by Vang Pao's death. "He is an ordinary person, so we do not have any reaction," said Khenthong Nuanthasing, the PDR Lao government spokesman. Close friend Charlie Waters said Vang Pao died after being hospitalised in Clovis, California with pneumonia, complicated by heart problems. He said the former general had been active until the last for the local Hmong community, which numbers some 30,000 to 40,000 in California. "He's been pushing for so many things for his people," Waters said. "He'll be remembered as a great general, a great warrior, a great Hmong soldier." Thousands of ethnic Hmong and others are expected to attend his funeral, which Waters said will be held in Fresno, California. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangkoktraveler Posted January 8, 2011 Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 Interesting life. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Old Hippie Posted January 8, 2011 Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 Anyone interested in "V.P." as he was known, can/should read "Shooting the moon" or "Shadow War." Both very interesting books about Laos and the War. An interesting and often over looked note, President JFK thought Lao was the bigger game than Vietnam, given it's more central location, and thus began the mess... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 8, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 Read "Code Name: Mule" too, written by an ex-CIA advisor with the Hmong against the North Vietnamese invaders. Interesting look from the inside at something I only saw from the outer edges. The author tells how amazed Hanoi was that the US really kept the agreement to withdraw its support the Lao government, when the commies had no intention whatsoever of keeping their end. Lots of good info on Tony Po in the book. (I think I saw him at Lucy's Tiger Den, but one didn't go asking names in that place.) Tony Po had a Hmong wife, and when Tony was drunk and on a tear she'd send their daughter over to fetch him. He'd meekly take the little girl by the hand and walk home with her. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LizardKing Posted January 8, 2011 Report Share Posted January 8, 2011 VP was da man, one cannot really say any more than that. What a great "career" he had. RIP Met him once in a Las Vegas Lao wat. He was very humble and quite the nice guy. An honor to meet him. Tony Po ( ) was just unreal. Had quite a few cocktails with him & Jack at Madrid when LK was a wee lad in LoS. And Tony was not supposed to even be in LoS, having been thrown out PNG years before LOL! For not the least of reasons wandering around with sidearms and bandoleers, so I am told; wouldn't be surprised if actually true given Tony's rep (ya know the saying "I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley"? Ya, even in his late 60s, that was Tony). But somehow that never stopped him from showing up. I also feel very honored to have met him & Jack. Genuine heroes all, and the history books will ever state their full/true exploits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flashermac Posted January 9, 2011 Author Report Share Posted January 9, 2011 http://www.hmongihrw.org/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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