By Katrya Ly
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Hmong Men During the Secret War
Lasting from 1961 to 1975, the American Secret War in Laos greatly impacted Hmong men, women, and children. The Hmong living in the highlands of Northern Laos were primarily agricultural people. As Communist forces in Vietnam began to spread throughout Southeast Asia and into their neighboring country of Laos, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) began recruiting Hmong men to support their war efforts against the communist Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese. This alliance was particularly advantageous for the CIA, as the Hmong had an awareness of the region and could navigate the difficult terrain of the mountains. Furthermore, as familial clans, the CIA could negotiate directly with Hmong leaders as opposed to a political nation, allowing the CIA to avoid formal diplomatic obligations. Hands tied and unable to flee the conflict in their homelands, some Hmong people agreed to support the United States, as they wanted to protect their territories and way of life in Laos.
Hmong Men During the Secret War
In 1960, the United States CIA recruited a young Hmong man by the name of Vang Pao—later more prominently recognized as General Vang Pao—to support their intelligence efforts in Laos. Prior to their contact with Gen. Vang Pao, he was already fighting Laotian Communists and had military experience as a sergeant in the French colonial army and as an officer in the Royal Lao Army. Due to the signing of the 1961 Geneva Accords, an agreement to withdraw U.S. troops from Laos and keep Laos a neutral territory, the United States could not publicly have a presence in Laos. As such, the CIA recruited Gen. Vang Pao to carry out their anti-communist war efforts.
During the war, Vang Pao climbed up the ranks to become a major general—the highest rank ever achieved by a Hmong person in the Royal Lao Army. The CIA director in the mid-1970s, William Colby, called Gen. Vang Pao “the biggest hero of the Vietnam War” and many Hmong people believed that Gen. Vang Pao descended from the heavens to lead the Hmong people. Many Hmong men and boys followed under his leadership. Following his appointment from the CIA, Gen. Vang Pao was able to quickly organize 7,000 guerrilla soldiers. By January 1961, the first 1,000 rifles from the CIA were dropped off for Gen. Vang Pao and his guerrilla troops. Guerrilla soldiers–or guerrillas–are members of smaller and independent groups fighting with unconventional warfare.
Thousands of Hmong men and boys were recruited as guerilla soldiers to support the CIA. It is estimated that the CIA recruited and trained around thirty thousand soldiers—which were mostly Hmong, but also included Mien, Khmu, and Lahu—to support the war effort in Laos. Bordering Vietnam, Laos contained parts of the Ho Chi Minh trail—a route central to the movement of goods for the Communist North Vietnamese Army. The role of guerilla soldiers was to stop Communist efforts by blocking the shipment of supplies along the Ho Chi Minh trail and stopping Communist soldiers with quick and covert attacks.
In 1969, these soldiers were officially named and recognized as the Special Guerilla Units or SGU army by the CIA. By then, the CIA financially and strategically supported all of their military activities. In addition to lightning attacks—quick, strategic attacks along the Ho Chi Minh trail to ambush the Viet Cong—SGU soldiers also searched and rescued American pilots that were shot down in Laos. As shared by the Special Guerrilla Units Veterans and Families of USA, Inc., in some cases, there were “as many as 100 SGU soldiers trying to rescue one downed American pilot.”
The increased fighting became difficult for the SGU army to report on moving enemy targets on the ground. As such, Gen. Vang Pao sent two Hmong SGU soldiers, Ly Lue and Vang Toua to learn to fly the T-28 bomber aircraft. The two men proved to be successful air bombers, prompting more SGU soldiers to take to the air. While SGU pilots proved to be helpful in attacking the enemy, many SGU pilots flew until they were killed during their missions.
To learn more about the SGU army and hear firsthand accounts from SGU veterans, please see Unforgotten: An intergenerational project with Hmong Veterans, a video collection created by the Hmong Museum.
Hmong Boys
By 1971, some historians estimated that over one-third of the total Hmong population in Laos had died. Additionally, half of all Hmong males over the age of 15 were killed in combat. As a result, many Hmong families had to give up their sons who were as young as 10-years-old to participate in the war. Families who refused to allow their young sons to participate were unable to receive protection, food, and aid from Gen. Vang Pao and the CIA.
Boys between the ages of 10 to 16 served as cooks’ helpers or airplane runway helpers. These boys became known as “carbine soldiers,” as they were usually no taller than a M-1 carbine rifle. Tom Norton, an ex-CIA officer stationed in Laos once said, “I think we had sort of an informal rule. That the boy had to be as tall as an M-1 rifle to become a soldier. Maybe about 10 years old.”
Hmong Women and Girls
While many recounts of the Secret War focus heavily on Hmong men and boys, Hmong women and girls played an important role in contributing to the war effort. Hmong men were initially recruited to militarily support the war effort, but later, Hmong women and girls were also pulled in to support the CIA and SGU army. Hmong women and girls were nurses and healthcare workers who cared for wounded soldiers. While many medics were Hmong men, Hmong women and girls stepped in as hospital nurses, especially as more and more Hmong men were wounded or killed during the war.
Initially, Hmong leaders were not accepting of the idea that young Hmong women should or could become nurses and healthcare workers. Dr. Charles Weldon was an American who served as chief of the Public Health Division with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Village Health Program from 1963 to 1974. In his 1999 memoir, he recalled how there were challenges to convincing Hmong leaders that young Hmong women should take on roles as nurses. Weldon wrote:
“At Sam Thong [hospital]. . . [Vang Pao] and the other clan chieftains were strongly opposed to the training of girls. Many reasons were claimed as to why such training was impossible: married women couldn’t work in the hospital; the unmarried girls were too young; the male patients wouldn’t accept nursing care from a woman — particularly not from a young, unmarried woman; women didn’t have enough sense to be trained; women were too lazy to do such work; if the unmarried girls lived at the hospital, the boys would seduce them.”
Despite these challenges, many Hmong women and girls were recruited and trained as nurses. They proved to be essential assets in caring for wounded SGU soldiers and villagers. According to Ly Vang, a nursing student during that time, nurse training was intense. Vang described how nurses were trained in all skills; from surgery, pharmacy, and labor delivery, because they had to be rotated. Nurses often worked long hours and saw hundreds of patients.
To learn more about Hmong nurses during the Secret War, please visit Hmong Museum to view a firsthand account from Ly Vang, a Hmong nurse who was recruited at 9-years-old or TPT Originals to view a firsthand account from Chao Thao, the first Hmong nurse trained as a medic.
Choua Thao
Choua Thao was a prominent Hmong nurse during the Secret War. In 1965, Thao was recruited by the International Volunteer Services (IVS) for nurse training with the USAID Village Health Program. At the time, Thao was only 13-years-old, reflecting the young age of many Hmong girls who were recruited to become nurses. Born in 1943 in the Xieng Khouang Province of Northern Laos, Thao was one of few Hmong girls who attended school in her hometown of Ban Phoukabaht. Her love for learning and ability to speak English propelled her to excel as a nurse.
Photo Credit: “Hmong Nurse in War”, February 2019, Air America Association Inc.
By the age of 22, Thao was the Head Administrator of Sam Thong Hospital in Laos. With her counterpart, a 23-year-old American nurse by the name of Diana “Dee” Quill, Thao and Quill worked together to support Secret War efforts. Furthermore, Thao traveled across Laos to recruit other young women to become nurses. Flying into different provinces by helicopter, Thao went from village to village recruiting young women to join the nursing training. Training often lasted three months long and women would work at Sam Thong Hospital.
Conclusion
The Secret War greatly altered the lives of Hmong men, women, and children living in Laos. Their way of life was dictated by the Secret War happening in their homeland. Hmong men and boys became guerrilla soldiers to defend their territories and families, while Hmong women and girls became nurses to aid soldiers and villagers. The war impacted their lives and changed their familial and social roles. Aside from these life changes, it is important to note the immense contributions that Hmong men, women, and children made for the Secret War. Many risked their lives to protect their homelands and to aid the United States.
References
Lang-Stanton, P. (2017, December 15). My father fought the CIA’s secret war in Laos. BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-42314701?fbclid=IwAR2jbalKslrT4hYjNrhF5J9vOn5iTSrGQDaqXSauBetvFHdTTqIIzrO67yU
Martin, D. (2011, January 8). Gen. Vang Pao, Laotian Who Aided U.S., Dies at 81 (Published 2011). The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/08/world/asia/08vangpao.html
McCoy, A. W. (2002). America’s Secret War in Laos, 1955-75. In A Companion to the Vietnam War (pp. 283-313). John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
SGU Veterans and Families of USA, Inc. (2010). The Special Guerrilla Units (SGU) Service History. https://graphics.jsonline.com/jsi_news/documents/sgu_final_2.pdf
Vang, C. Y., Nibbs, F., & Vang, M. (Eds.). (2016). Claiming place: On the agency of Hmong women. University of Minnesota Press.
Vang, M. (2012). The Refugee soldier: A Critique of Recognition and Citizenship in the Hmong Veterans’ Naturalization Act of 1997. Positions: East Asia Cultures Critique, 20(3), 685–712. https://doi.org/10.1215/10679847-1593501
Xiong, P. N. (2020). The Secret War: The forgotten Hmong heroes. ProQuest Dissertations Publishing.
Contributing Editor: Yia Vue
Illustrator: Alex Yang