[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 148 (Friday, October 16, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2227-E2228]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING HMONG AND LAO COMBAT VETERANS

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. JIM RAMSTAD

                              of minnesota

                    in the house of representatives

                        Friday, October 16, 1998

  Mr. RAMSTAD. Mr. Speaker, during this 105th Congress, I was honored 
to join many of my colleagues, as well as other distinguished U.S. 
officials, in participating in the first national recognition ceremony 
to honor the valor and sacrifice of Hmong and Lao combat veterans in 
the Vietnam War.
  Many people from my home state of Minnesota, and from around the 
nation, organized and participated in the important events, which were 
held at the Vietnam War Memorial and the Arlington National Cemetery.
  Mr. Speaker, I would like to thank a number of people from Minnesota 
and across the United States who made the national events honoring the 
Hmong veterans possible, including Major General Vang Pao, Colonel 
Wangyee Vang, Cherzong Vang, Chong Bee Vang, Ying Vang and Philip 
Smith.
  Over a thousand Hmong veterans and their families traveled from 
Minnesota to Washington, DC, to participate in this historic ceremony.
  I am proud that two of the largest Hmong non-profit organizations 
serving their communities in Minnesota, the Lao Family Community of 
Minnesota, Inc. and the Lao Veterans of America organization, played a 
leadership role in organizing and participating in this unprecedented 
event. They have helped bring long-overdue honor and recognition to the 
Hmong and Lao veterans and their families, as well as to educate policy 
makers and the American people about the critical wartime sacrifices of 
the Hmong and Lao combat veterans.
  William Branigin from the Washington Post wrote an important article 
about the event that I would like to insert into the Record. (insert: 
Washington Post article Thursday, May 15, 1997).
  Mr. Speaker, once again, I heartily applaud these distinguished Hmong 
and Lao combat veterans for their sacrifices.

 Recognizing U.S. Allies in `Secret War'--`Long Overdue' Honors Go to 
                            Hmong, Lao Vets

       Twenty-two years ago this month, the predominantly Hmong 
     recruits of America's ``secret war'' in Laos began a 
     protracted and painful exodus from their homeland as 
     communist forces seized power.
       Yesterday, some 3,000 Hmong and Lao veterans and their 
     families gathered at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial to receive 
     congressional recognition for the first time, and then 
     marched across the Potomac to commemorate their fateful 
     crossing of the Mekong River into permanent exile.
       Clad in jungle camouflage fatigues, flight suits and other 
     uniforms, the veterans stood in formation on the Mall as 
     speakers ranging from serving members of Congress to retired 
     CIA station chiefs paid tribute to their courage and 
     sacrifice in unsung service of the United States. Among those 
     in attendance were former Special Forces officers, pilots of 
     the top-secret Ravens unit and civilian officials from the 
     Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon administrations.
       It was a day of what a congressional commendation described 
     as ``long overdue recognition'' of the CIA-funded army's role 
     in protecting sensitive U.S. installations, rescuing downed 
     American pilots and holding off tens of thousands of North 
     Vietnamese troops who might otherwise have been thrown into 
     combat against U.S. forces.
       But it was also a day of atonement for the United States. 
     For in honoring the ethnic. Hmong tribal people and Laotians 
     who made up the bulk of the 40,000-member clandestine force, 
     participants in the ceremony acknowledged that America had 
     betrayed them, breaking long-standing promises and abandoning 
     them to bloody reprisals by Lao and Vietnamese communist 
     forces in which untold thousands died.
       ``There is a real feeling among many people who served 
     there that the Hmong were betrayed,'' said Philip Smith, the 
     Washington director of Lao Veterans of America, which 
     represents about 40,000 Hmong and Lao veterans and family 
     members. ``Many commitments were made to them in the field 
     that were then forgotten in Washington.''
       Among those who received the Vietnam Veterans National 
     Medal and a congressional citation yesterday was Nor Pao Lor, 
     a disabled 61-year-old Hmong who served in the secret army 
     for 13 years and then spent four more years fighting in the 
     jungles of Laos until forced to flee across the Mekong River 
     to Thailand on a bamboo raft. He then spent eight years in a 
     Thai refugee camp before being accepted for resettlement in 
     the United States. He now lives in Wisconsin.
       ``We felt very sorry that maybe America forgot us,'' he 
     said as he stood with a crutch near dozens of his disabled 
     comrades. ``It was very painful for us.''
       As a lieutenant in the army led by Gen. Vang Pao, who was 
     also present yesterday, Nor Pao Lor was wounded three times 
     while defending Lima Site 85, a top-secret U.S. base that was 
     used to direct airstrikes against targets in North Vietnam. 
     Described by historians as perhaps the most critical 
     intelligence-gathering site in South-east Asia during the 
     Vietnam War, Lima Site 85 was linked directly to the White 
     House under President Lyndon B. Johnson until the base fell 
     to North Vietnamese troops in 1968.

[[Page E2228]]

       As Nor Pao Lor told his story, one of the event's speakers, 
     Jane Hamilton-Merritt, who wrote a book called ``Tragic 
     Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for 
     Laos,'' asked the assembled veterans how many of them had 
     helped rescue a downed American pilot. Hundreds, including 
     Nor Pao Lor, raised their hands.
       After the ceremony on the Mall, the veterans marched across 
     Memorial Bridge to Arlington National Cemetery, where they 
     placed flowers on the grave of President John F. Kennedy. 
     Nearby is a memorial that is to be dedicated today to ``the 
     U.S. Secret Army, Laos 1961-1973.'' In the Lao and Hmong 
     languages, the plaque on the granite monument concludes, 
     ``You will never be forgotten.''

     

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