The General and The Secret War's Legacy
May 14th is Hmong American Day in Minnesota. In 1961, the CIA recruited a General Vang Pao to fight a war America would deny for thirty years. Tens of thousands of Hmong soldiers followed him. They rescued downed pilots, protected classified installations, and held the mountains of Laos while Congress was never told they existed. Approximately, thirty-five thousand of them did not survive. Tens of thousands of Hmong civilians died. On May 14, 1975, it ended in a single helicopter lifting off a runway. What followed were Mekong River crossings, refugee camps, and eventually the first family…
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