Struggles for Hope: Hmongs in Laos during the Vietnam War Essay example

My family immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s, as Hmong refugees after the secret war with the Pathet Laos. My family originally settled in San Diego, California for several years before they decided to move to Fresno, California. When my parents came to Fresno they were receiving welfare and attending adult school. My father noticed that their friends and relatives were earning more money working in the fields than going to school. My parents dropped out of adult school and started farming to support themselves and my five siblings. My parents felt they couldn’t stop farming because this was now their only way of earning an income to support the family. Growing up, my parents would emphasize the importance of school and getting a bachelor degree.

The following paper will discuss Vietnamese Americans and their journey to America. I will talk about how these incredible and resilient people fought to succeed it a world that seemed to hold the odds against them. The culture, beliefs, and challenges of Vietnamese people are a precise paradigm of their strength and perseverance.

In the middle 1960s, every male in America had to register for Selective Service Draft at age 18. He would then be eligible for the draft and could be inducted into the Army for a period of two years. If you were a college student, you could receive a deferment and would be able to finish college without the fear of being drafted. However, once finished with college, a students name would be put to the very top of the draft list and could be deployed at anytime. The anti-war movement was about young men being drafted and then sent into war that most Americans did not believe threatened the security of the US. The Vietnam War was America’s rebellious war, a war without popular support

I was told, at the age of thirteen, that the U.S. was the land of opportunities. My parents came here from Peru, so we could pursue the American dream. Despite the challenges encountered, while incorporating into a new society, my parents constantly encouraged me to overcome any difficulties. They taught me the value of hard work, which is necessary to achieve my goals. Watching my parents work long hours in menial labor jobs for the past 11 years, has inspired me to strive for a professional education.

"Education is our passport to the future, for tomorrow belongs to the people who prepare for it today" (Richardson 382). One of the most amazing things people have dreamt to obtain is the “American Dream”. It is so profound in all the things it can symbolize. It is freedom, justice, but most of all, it is a hope for a better way of life. The immigrants who made the long and dangerous voyage to America wanted their children to have experiences that they never got to experience, one of those things being to have an education. Education has been so important and cherished for many years now. Without it, usually meant a mediocre job was imminent. Without it, people will not be using their full potential. Without it, the American Dream is not

My parents grew up in China as illiterates. My mother worked in the rice paddies and barley fields to keep her and her six siblings alive. My father sold himself into slavery at the age of 12 to ensure that his grandfather would have a coffin to be buried in. Together, they came to the United States where

Today, 18 different Hmong clan names are still passed down from generation to generation. Hmong clan names are equivalent to American last names. First names identify people and last names identify clans. The 18 clans provide life-time membership and ongoing material and spiritual support to their members from birth to death. Newborns are given the father’s clan name, which they cannot change. For that reason, Hmong women retain their clan name when they get married (Moua, 1995).

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

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

Hmong involvement in the Vietnam War led families like the Yangs to immigrate to the United States. Yang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, (Yang, pg. 53). Like some Hmong families, she was relocated to the United States. Yang was considered lucky because many other Hmong families were left behind in a country that considered them traitors, (George, 2010).

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. It’s melancholy that people need to do this, but northern Vietnam had different political views. The main cause was a political view and northern Vietnam people started a war and it has dragged on for a while, the war caused many deaths in the Hmong people and for other different ethnic groups in the southeast Asian countries. 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 made by the General Vang

My parents, both Hmong, came to America in 1987. A safe and prosperous environment to grow up in, full of knowledge and money. They believed in the opportunities and achievements that America held for my siblings and I, chances that they never had in their life. I come from a family, that talks very little about how we care and love one another. My parents rarely gave my siblings and I praises, whenever we accomplished things.

According to an article by http://classroom.synonym.com titled; The Hmong People's Involvement in the Vietnam War, this group of people were effected during the war by the loss of more than 25% of its people. After the loss of so many people in order to continue this “secret war” they began recruiting children as young as thirteen years of age. After the war that really never ended many migrated to the United States and lived in refugee camps. However, many remained and continued fighting the war as late as 2010. The reason many continued this fight is that they believed according to an article in the “"The Independent," George described them as a tiny force of desperate people clinging to the hope that the CIA would come back to rescue them.

After you fled your war-shredded country and left your beloved belongings behind, this was the case for the immigrants. Most likely, recovering from that would be a difficulty, so the refugees would need some therapy, preferably offered by American support groups. War can be emotionally scarring to the person so therapy would be helpful. There were studies on their behavior as the author said, “The purpose of this study was to examine the pre- and post-migration variables that predict the psychological distress and self-destructive behavior for Vietnamese-Amerasians” the immigrants were quite distressed (Bernak and Chung 1). Many immigrants were still haunted by the war as in this quote, “Still haunted by the horrors of war and overwhelmed by the imminent collapse of South Vietnam, they were also wracked over uncertainty over their future in a new land” many of them were emotionally scarred (Tran 7). Many churches over the nation encouraged immigrants to join Vietnamese communities so they could be with more of their kind for comfort. Many of those communities are still here today like Little Saigon in Orange County, California. Some refugees were still having flashbacks about the war so the U.S. government recommended that they should do volunteer hours or part-time jobs so they can keep their mind off of it and so they can get some profit. For example, some of them worked as lawn-mowers and cashiers and doing so would give them a decent amount of money to start to partially support

My parents did not come to San Diego with a lot of money, they only had ten million dong when they came, which to me sounded like a lot but my mom laughed and told me it was a thousand dollars in the U.S. For my parents, this meant they would go homeless in two months if one of them did not find any sort of work. For the first month, it was very difficult for them to find a job because they did not know how to find one. My mother would tell me how my father was a very strong man and yet no one would hire him because he would not know what to say during the interview. My mother would tell me how there were many nights she would fall asleep crying because she would think back to Vietnam when she was with her family and friends, where she did not feel limited or restricted by anything but money, and how now that she was here in San Diego, it was not only money but also her opportunity to socialize and communicate with many of the people around her. Even with my father by her side, she felt helpless and excluded from the community, like she no longer had a voice. Fortunately, near the end of the first month, one of the Vietnamese neighbors actually noticed my parents and greeted them. This man had a family and welcomed my parents greatly. He even helped my father find a job and get access to government services such as rent assistance, Medi-Cal and Food Stamps. Many immigrants share the same experiences my parents