People's History of the Hmong

Contents

Download PDF (43.3 KB)
pp. v-

Maps

Download PDF (470.9 KB)
pp. vi-vii

Abbreviations Appearing in Text

Download PDF (50.6 KB)
pp. viii-

Introduction

Download PDF (2.1 MB)
pp. 3-9

In January 1961, Bill Lair, a quiet Texan (and a Central Intelligence Agency—CIA—officer already in Thailand for nine years), approached Hmong military leader Vang Pao with a proposition. Lair offered “VP,” a colonel in the Royal Lao Army, American-financed training, arms, and supplies, not only to defend his people and their homes but also to participate in a larger struggle against the spread of Communism in Laos, South Vietnam, and Thailand. ...

1. “This Was the Life of Our Hmong People”

Download PDF (6.7 MB)
pp. 11-46

When exactly were “the good old days”? Listening to my parents, it must have been the 1930s—no, wait, that was during the Great Depression.that can’t be it.The 1940s? Well, we spent the first half worrying about and then fighting in a world war and the second half fearing global obliteration during the Cold War. How about the 1950s? ...

2. “They Were Perfect”

Download PDF (7.8 MB)
pp. 47-86

Most Americans, it’s often said, couldn’t pass the test immigrants take to become U.S. citizens. Most people don’t study political philosophy and have trouble naming their state’s senators and representatives, to say nothing of the rules that govern their legislative proceedings. Despite all the rhetoric trotted out on the Fourth of July or during political campaigns,most people really aren’t that interested in politics. ...

3. “A Very Definite Moral Commitment”

Download PDF (8.5 MB)
pp. 87-147

On January 19, 1961, one day before he left office, President Eisenhower met with President-elect John F. Kennedy. With their respective advisors, they discussed the situation in Southeast Asia. Often seen as a watershed in the history of the war in Laos, this meeting is itself a subject of historical debate. ...

4. “You Are Going to Stay with the Pathet Lao. Just Sign.”

Download PDF (6.5 MB)
pp. 149-192

Despite the loss of U.S. military support, the signing of a toothless cease-fire, and the formation of a coalition government with an uncertain future, both CIA chief of station Hugh Tovar and General John W. Vessey, deputy chief, Joint U.S. Military Advisory Group, Thailand, who had arrived in Laos in 1972, believed they were leaving their allies—and the country of Laos—at the appropriate time. ...

5. “Helped the Least and Deserved Help the Most”

Download PDF (13.3 MB)
pp. 193-234

Being an immigrant—changing your home country—is hard enough under the best of circumstances. But refugees—forced to flee from their home countries—endure not only a major relocation but a situation so dire and need so great that circumstances are almost by definition the worst possible. ...

6. “Where Is Laos, and Who Are Hmong?”

Download PDF (7.8 MB)
pp. 235-288

The United States has always been a nation of immigrants. Even Native Americans have forebears who crossed an Aleutian ice bridge before settling in various parts of the Americas. The first Africans came to the United States in 1619, a year before the Mayflower. Though the importation of slaves directly from Africa was outlawed in 1808, many others were brought in through the Caribbean. ...

Epilogue

Download PDF (4.3 MB)
pp. 289-302

I didn’t set out to write a book. My initial goal was to encourage my Hmong students to ask their parents about the history they’d rarely been told. Many took this opportunity, but then they were understandably ready to move on to other things. I, on the other hand, was only beginning to be enthralled by the story I have partly tried to convey in these pages. ...

Thank You/Ua Tsaug

Download PDF (77.0 KB)
pp. 303-304

Notes

Download PDF (244.4 KB)
pp. 305-315

List of Interviewees

Download PDF (42.6 KB)
pp. 316-

Index

Download PDF (619.1 KB)
pp. 317-327