Until this day, there are little to no information or recognition of the Hmong as an ally with the Americans during the war. The Hmong’s were not acknowledged during the war by the U.S. government until the 1990s. The veterans that helped the former Hmong General Vang Pao want recognition from the U.S. government (Hays). People would say that when the soldiers died, kids would replace and help fight along with the Americans and when the kids died, the elderly's would replace them. Helms said, “Vang Pao has been forced to use 13 and 14-year-old children to replace his casualties (Weiner).” Today, most Americans know nothing about the Secret War. The war was a classified operation that was meant to be like it never happened. The Hmong in the United …show more content…
Lee, 73 years old, a U.S. citizen said, "I am sad that many Americans still don't know the stories of Hmong veterans and how they took part in holding back the communist Vietnamese from reaching the American soldiers in the south." During 2012, Hmong veterans wanted to be buried alongside with their American comrades as a reminder of who they are and who they served for. Chue Chou Tchang said, "We were American soldiers fighting alongside American soldiers, we fought like brothers. We died together. Coming to this country, we'd like to rest with the American soldiers that fought with us." All they wanted was just a bit of recognition as helpers in the Secret War but people still don’t know who or what the Hmong people are. More than 25,000 Hmong soldiers died while fighting with the Americans. (“The “Secret War” of Vietnam…”). "Many think they are economic refugees, They're not. They're allies. They were the hands and feet of Americans in Laos, which is part of the Vietnam War no one knew about (Iwasaki)." said Noble, who transported many of the Hmong as a pilot for Air
The Vietnam War, as many know it as the secret war, because the United States consider it an “Extended Military Engagement”. It is the thread that stitch me to Tim O’Brien’s, “The Things They Carried”. The alliance of the Hmong’s to the American troops brought about the deaths of many, including my grandfather. My grandfather help guide the American troops through the jungle and as word got to the Viet Cong’s, they came for the whole village. They came in the still of night and raid the huts. The Viet Cong were after my grandfather and our family to punish them for being traitors. My father, the oldest and at 16 years old was now in charge. My father took my mother, my older sister, his mom, seven siblings and ran. My grandfather stayed
The Hmong were a tremendous Help to the Americans in the Vietnam war, they had shown the Americans where to go and aided them in gunfights, they helped heal some men who had injuries. Many Americans who were injured had aided by the Hmong people. The Hmong who consequently supported the American Military was called a terrorist. In return, they helped the Hmong, the bomb called the yellow rain dropped and killed a huge amount of innocent Hmong and died. The Yellow Rain was designed to kill the northern Vietnam army but had a large widespread killed radius (BOFFEY). The U.S couldn’t stop the war and brought some of the Hmong to America to help and ignited a new life trying to free them from their misery, hell, and torture. The Hmong held a parade
During what is called The Secret War (1953-75), thousands of Hmong fought in the Royal Lao Army led by General Vang Pao against the communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese military, on behalf of the U.S. and France, who promised to let them come to the U.S. and receive veterans’ benefits if defeated. France and the U.S. broke their promise, and thousands of Hmong survivors and veterans were forced to evacuate their country by foot in the most agonizing and dehumanizing of conditions, many dying along the way. Many of them, despite all odds, managed to make it to refugee camps where conditions were also miserable. Finally, when the Hmong were forced to resettle, many were brought to the U.S., but not after some delays and without ever receiving veterans’ benefits. They were placed in certain cities in the U.S., including Merced.
The Hmong people do not call any one country home, but have relocated several times throughout history due to war and political oppression. An article published in the Journal of Multicultural counseling and Development finds that the Hmong primarily lived in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. They had a great impact in helping western forces during the Vietnam War, and wars in Laos in efforts to end Communism. The article continues and describes how many tried to escape from Laos; those that survived settled in refugee camps that had terrible living conditions. (Tatman, 2004). Although the Hmong are diffused around the world, their distinct cultural traditions and customs create a strong cultural identity. After discussing of the traditions and social customs of the Hmong culture learned through two different interviews, the cultural traditions and social customs will be compared and contrasted with European-American culture, and will be concluded with the impact that Hmong culture has on today’s society.
Remembering the Vietnam War Veterans The Vietnam War remains today to be one of the most memorable and long - lived wars in history. Mike Clark was one of those veterans who fought in the war and he is alive to share is share his memorable experiences in the war. In remembering the Vietnam War veterans, it is important to consider the experiences of guerilla warfare, the training the soldiers endured, and the lives of the veterans after the war.
The Hmong people are a people of diaspora and are an ethnic minority group who, have been a group of people who were basically unknown up until three decades ago. They are of unknown origin and are often misplaced from country to country and often have to assume many different hyphenated identities to fit in with the mainstream culture. As Hmong Americans they have gone from being unable to read and write to being educated; which has led to Hmong writers, congressmen and women, to scholars, and to many other respectable occupations. Though, before being able to become a writer or a scholar, a Hmong American student is often troubled and stressed about their ethnic identity and that can lead to struggles in their academics. This topic is important to me because being a Hmong American and a college student; these two aspects of life are playing a big role in my life right now. Through my paper there is one question that I am hoping to answer and the question is: How does having a hyphenated identity affect Hmong American students in their academics?
The Vietnam War was a violent and costly war that needed many men to fight for its cause. These men are now known as the Vietnam veterans. Numerous veterans who fought in the war were injured or lost a comrade during battle. These soldiers fought to protect the United States and its people while risking their own lives. A lot of these brave men were either killed or injured and did not gain the
My paternal and maternal grandfathers both enlisted during WWII, stationed off Iwo Jima and in Europe respectively. Both of them are still alive and have their memories, however, the more I learn about these wars, the more I question if that is a positive or a negative attribute.
On the other hand, the U.S. Hmong community has experienced a drastically different history, resulting in a socioeconomic status well below the Asian American averages. Hmong Americans arrived in the United States as political refugees escaping communist forces in Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand. During North Vietnam’s invasion of Laos, the U.S. CIA began recruiting and training indigenous Hmong men to fight in General Pao’s Secret Army. 60% of Hmong men in Laos received financial assistance from the CIA in exchange for their service. After the takeover of pro-U.S. governments in South Vietnam and Laos, Hmong soldiers escaped to Thailand where they were forced into refugee camps. The first wave of Hmong who arrived in the U.S. in 1975 were primarily
On the morning of March 16th the company moved in. They were instructed by Lieutenant William Calley to shoot every living thing in sight, from animals to babies, for the animals would feed the Vietcong and the babies would one day grow up to be them. From many soldiers’ accounts, non-of the people shot that day seemed to pose any threat to the American soldiers. In fact, women, children and old men made up a huge majority of the victims. Barely any weapons were found and according to most of the soldiers the Vietnamese people were trying to cooperate but there was the barrier of language. When the soldiers yelled things in Vietnamese they weren’t even sure if they were saying the right thing because Vietnamese is a language based on inflection in the voice. LT Calley ordered his soldiers to kill all of the Vietnamese in massive slaughters. They were herded into big groups, and some groups were forced into ditches and then fired upon. “The few that survived did so because the were covered by the bodies of those less fortunate.” (Linder) After the massacre was over there was an extensive cover-up, the commanders even reported My Lai as a success with 123 enemy deaths and some weapon recoveries. It wasn’t until a man named Ronald Ridenhour,
Unfortunately, Vietnamese Americans make up only a small percent of the total American Population today. There are many stereotypes associated with the Vietnamese, but the truth is, we really know very little about their culture. After the Viet Nam War, many Vietnamese citizens immigrated to the United States to escape political Prosecution and poverty. Faced with a variety of obstacles and
It was very tough for the Hmong’s that were still in Vietnam and Laos after the war. The American armed forces was these people’s only protection and after they just picked up and left for their home shores the Hmong people that were still alive faced severe hardships. They had no food and water and most of their homes were all destroyed. Most of the men and young adult boys were killed in the war and the Vietnamese and Laos soldiers were still pursing the Hmong people because they wanted to terminate the Hmong people. It was also tough for the Hmong people that were left because the American’s had stopped bringing food drops along with medical supplies.
There are figures in the Vietnam War, and maybe in all of history, that merit consideration as much as North Vietnamese pioneer Ho Chi Minh. In the same way, as other Vietnamese regular citizen that partook in the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh grew up under French royal run the show. Amid his youth, pre-adulthood, and adulthood, Ho saw the genuine harming impacts colonialism had on his nation. Disappointed with French dominion and European communism, Ho Chi Minh tried to build up a political rationality that would serve Vietnam through its autonomy. Through his adolescence, and encounters abroad, Ho Chi Minh built up a political belief system that was genuinely interesting to hostile to imperialism, and Vietnam.
It’s a known fact that that the Vietnam War was fought by young American soldiers that bled and died next to one another in the jungles of Vietnam. With many wins and loses throughout the war there were over 58,000 American casualties by wars end. The movie, “We Were Soldiers” focuses on the role of the United State’s 7th Calvary Regiment in the Battle of Ia Drang, which was the first large-unit battle of the Vietnam War. Lt. Col. Hal Moore commanded the 7th Calvary Regiment that landed a helicopter in an area named “X-Ray” located in the Ia Drang Valley of Vietnam. LT. Col. Moore found himself and his men defending an area no bigger than
The Hmong people claim to have helped in the Vietnam war, but no one knows who they are and how they helped. The Hmong came from southeast Asia. Many fled from the war as a refuge from their country and some people were a refugee in their own country ("THE SPLIT HORN (2017) "). It is melancholy that people need to do this, but northern Vietnam had different political views. The major cause was a political view and northern Vietnam people started a war and it has dragged on for a while(“Fong Yang ( 2017 )”). The Vietnam war caused an abundance of deaths in the Hmong people and for other different ethnic groups in the southeast Asian countries (Lindsay(2017)). When America came to preclude the war from going further, the U.S military suffered many casualties and injuries, they were aided by the Hmong army created by the General Vang Pao (Martin(2011)). But there were countless casualties, especially in the Hmong population, therefore one-third of the population perished in the involvement in the war(Martin(2011)). The Hmong plotted an insurgency, but it was very risky and they could not take any more casualties so they fled to other countries such as the U.S and to nearby countries of laos. When they arrived in America, they mostly settled in Minnesota and California. therefore they separated slowly into other states and, they slowly lost some of their customs as they lived in America ("Hmong Involvement in Vietnam War and the Aftermath (2012) - Historpedia"). Then The Hmong