America's Secret War: Minnesota Remembers Vietnam

In the shadows of the Vietnam War, the CIA organized a secret war in neighboring Laos to prevent communism from spreading deeper into Southeast Asia. The Hmong fought for the U.S. — and for themselves— to keep Ho Chi Minh’s regime from destroying their way of life. Distributed nationally by American Public Television.

Hmong General Vang Pao, a courageous and powerful leader, worked in tandem with the CIA to conduct covert operations in Laos. Among the hardest hit by this “Secret War” were the Hmong of northern Laos. Tens of thousands were killed during the war, and even more lost their lives while attempting to escape to freedom after the war ended.

At the end of the Secret War, Hmong women and children often surrendered to the Pathet Lao—but trying to survive in Communist villages meant living in constant fear and being faced with difficult choices. Khou Yang was newly pregnant, a sure sign that her husband was hiding in the nearby jungle. She feared that the Pathet Lao would hunt down and kill her husband if her pregnancy was discovered.

Xai Nou Vang, former Special Guerilla Unit Captain and bodyguard to General Vang Pao, joined General Vang Pao's troops to escape poverty—the same choice that many Hmong men and boys made. In 1975, the CIA ordered General Vang Pao to make a clandestine escape from his headquarters in Long Tieng to Thailand, leaving behind Xai Nou and thousands of his Special Guerilla Unit soldiers.

As the Secret War ended, Hmong who fought on the side of the United States were hunted by Communist Pathet Lao soldiers in their native Laos. Dr. Mai Na Lee and her family were among the many people who fled the , eventually swimming across the wide and fast-flowing Mekong River into Thailand’s refugee camps.

CIA operatives like Jerry Daniels worked hand in glove with General Vang Pao and the Hmong to conduct the Secret War in Laos. Hmong men and boys were recruited as soldiers for Special Guerrilla Units (SGU)—unofficial surrogates of the US armed forces. Many SGUs lost their lives defending US interests in Laos. The US radar facility Lima Site 85, also known as Phou Pha Thi, was one such loss.

Former Special Guerilla Unit Captain Ganghis Khang talks about the poor living conditions at Ban Vinai, the largest of the Thai refugee camps. "Everyone was faced with death and loss,” Mr. Khang explains, "there was not one day where we didn't carry the dead to be buried."

The Red Scare played a huge role in the Vietnam War and the lesser known Secret War, waged concurrently in neighboring Laos. President Dwight D. Eisenhower feared that if Laos fell to Communism, the entire Eastern Hemisphere would become a threat to democracy. To secure the Vietnamese border, the CIA recruited Hmong people to fight as surrogate soldiers of the U.S. armed forces.

Having grown up on the CIA military base Long Tieng, Lee Pao Xiong, Founding Director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University - St. Paul, was no stranger to war even as a child. After evacuating Laos, Xiong's family was sent to a Thai refugee camp; in 1976 his father made the decision to move the family to the United States.

Former Special Guerilla Unit First Lieutenant Nhiacha Vang relives a punishing hand-to-hand battle and the life-threatening injuries doled out by the Communist military. Decades later, the bullets and shrapnel lodged in Mr. Vang’s body continue to threaten his health.