HMONG CIA SPECIAL FORCES-LIMASITE 85-CIA WANTED 100 HMONG AND 100 CIA COMPUTER TECHS TO STOP 50000 VIETCONG TROOPS-FINALLY CIA BOMBED OWN BASE TO STONE AGE-NOTE SMALL HMONG BOY IN BACKGROUND-CIA USED CHILD SOLDIERS TO FIGHT COMMUNISM

Congress acknowledges debt to Hmong Ventura, McCain help America's Vietnam-era allies gain U.S. citizenship LUANG PRABANG, Laos -- After decades of abandonment and betrayal, the tide is finally beginning to turn, albeit in a small way, for some of America's strongest and most loyal allies during the Vietnam war. Young Hmong girl and baby sister at Thai refugee camp. The Hmong hill tribes of Southeast Asia fought covertly in the CIA's Special Forces in Laos, on America's side, during the Vietnam war. But since the war's end, they have paid dearly for their alliance with and allegiance to the American ideals of political and religious freedom. The 250,000 Hmong who survived the subsequent death camps, patrols, landmines and jungles of Laos on their exodus from the nation when the war was lost, found refuge in camps in Thailand. Others made it safely to the U.S., Australia, France and England, where they were repatriated by America and her allies. In all, some 35 countries took in Hmong refugees. Forced back to Laos at gunpoint by U.N. soldiers and Thai anti-riot police, Hmong refugees begin their sad journey "home." These days, however, the Hmong are being forced back to Laos at gunpoint by the United Nations and Thai military at the behest of the U.S. State Department. The reasons are complex, and involve mainly the Mekong Delta development program and the leverage the IMF, World Bank, U.N. and U.S. State Department now hold over Thailand in the wake of the 1997 Asian financial meltdown. However, not all hope is lost. Thanks to a recent congressional bill, H.R. 371, ex-Hmong CIA Special Forces who fought for America will now have an easier time gaining asylum in the United States. Passed overwhelmingly without a single dissenting vote, H.R. 371 will waive the English language requirement for potential Hmong refugees. Many Hmong have found learning English to be extremely challenging as Hmong has had no written form until the last few years. The bill's main proponent is Rep. Bruce Vento, a Democrat from Minnesota -- which is home to 60,000 Hmong. A Senate version of the bill has been introduced by Paul Wellstone, D-Minn, and John McCain, R-Ariz. Another Minnesota politician, Gov. Jesse Ventura, a former Navy SEAL, has also lobbied on behalf of the Hmong in Washington, D.C. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., the House Judiciary Committee chairman, acknowledged the United States owes a debt to the Hmong. "Those Hmong veterans who survived the war faced severe persecution for fighting with the U.S.," said Hyde, who helped shepherd the bill to the House floor. Philip Smith, Washington director of the Lao Veterans of America, which had pushed for the bill, called Vento an inspiration. "When we heard that he had cancer, we were despondent as an organization," Smith said. "This was something we could not win without his leadership." But the group was emboldened when Vento, from his hospital bed, had his staff call Smith to tell him he would continue to press for the bill. "He's really our hero," Smith said. According to Smith, there are roughly 70,000 Hmong and Lao veterans in the United States, and about half are not citizens. Most are permanent residents, but are not eligible to vote or hold a passport. WND's LoBaido at the legendary and heavily landmined "Plain of Jars" near Ponsavan, in Laos. The Hmong lost over half their population during the holocaust enacted against them by the Pathet Lao government. They are hated by the communist government of Laos. The reasons are two-fold: First, they are anti-communists who sided with the United States against their Marxist revolution; and second, they are turning to Christianity in droves. The Hmong soldiers "fight, work like buffalo, run, starve and die -- and no one knows" said a Hmong tribal chief in the wake of his people's betrayal by the U.S. government. "While massive photographic evidence of the starved, stick-like bodies of the Hmong have been published in National Geographic (May 1980 edition), and the biological warfare used against the Hmong by the Soviets and Pathet Lao was documented by the U.S. Army's top medical team -- the media and U.S. government have denied the Hmong holocaust," said Dr. Michael Korpi, a Baylor University film professor and expert on the Hmong genocide. "Back in the mid 1970s, liberals like Hillary Clinton were busy impeaching President Nixon -- the man who fought the communist murderers in Cambodia and Laos -- too busy to fight the enemies of America and God. Cambodia was turned into a giant Auschwitz. And the Killing Fields there are common knowledge. The betrayal of the Hmong remains a national shame to all Americans." Operation White Star Col. Carl Bernard was the point man on the "White Star Mobile Training Team" from the Army's Special Forces at Fort Bragg. This was the U.S. Army's official operation to recruit and train the Hmong to fight on the American side, against the communists in Laos. Having headed up that successful effort, Bernard has lobbied on behalf of the Hmong ever since. In recent months, Bernard has taken WorldNetDaily's series of reports on the Hmong to Rep. Benjamin Gilman, R-N.Y., chairman of the International Relations Committee. At a press conference and a congressional forum on the plight of the Hmong and Lao veterans and their families in Laos and Thailand, Bernard, along with noted author Jane Hamilton-Merritt, tried to intercede on behalf of the Hmong. "We filled the hearing room," Bernard told WorldNetDaily. "Congressman Gilman was the important figure, and despite having no Hmong in his constituency, he learned the issues, packaged them and sponsored the concept of paying our moral debt to these people. We did the legwork he needed. The hearing put the issues into the public's consciousness, and it become a reference point for all of us." For Bernard, H.R. 371 is a step in the right direction. "Those who supported this bill, like Congressman Vento, were noble and earned the lasting gratitude of each of us," he said. Ask why he has remained loyal to the Hmong he trained so long ago, Bernard is resolute. "My loyalty to the Hmong stems from their having paid an impot du sang -- the French term for "blood tax" -- for us. Simply, they fought and many died for us. They are "blood brothers" and cannot be abandoned. They earned our loyalty and it is a disgrace that they have been abandoned. Making the sins and shames of our predecessors known and undeniable is the only thing that can be done. "These blotches on our nation need to be in the consciousness of each of our citizens, starting at about the age of joining the Boy Scouts. All of us must do what we can to reverse this shameful situation. That our betrayal of our allies, like the Hmong, Karen, Afrikaners, Rhodesians, UNITA, South Sudan and Kurds as a common behavior needs to become known, and a campaign launched to reverse that trend. If we keep betraying our allies, who is going to fight with us in the future?" "Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos, 1942-1992" by Jane Hamilton-Merritt. Speaking of the efforts of Hamilton-Merritt, who has written extensively about the Hmong, Bernard says, "She maintained a very significant interface with the Hmong and the various power echelons -- including the media -- here in Washington. She counts, and I care for her because of her providing a product that none of us others had the wit, imagination, information, awareness, knowledge that it was needed, or energy to do. And she did not stop with the book. She hawked it everywhere that counted. I have a strong feeling about that old Greek phrase: "Words fly; paper stays." Jane acted on that." As for the qualities that enabled the Hmong to succeed in taking out almost half of the Soviet supplies headed to the Viet Cong of the Ho Chi Minh trails, Bernard said this: "The Hmong are or were at least a simple, decent mountain folk, loyal to one another and to us. They became fine individual fighters, and excellent with their local tribal group. It would have been stupid to try to put them in a military unit like a squad or platoon with a bunch of strangers. Cohesion is what each collection of these people brought from their 'long house,' no greater military virtue." Bernard said the recent increase of guerilla attacks by the Hmong on the Pathet Lao was a product of "the nostalgia of the older Hmong leadership, which is understandable. However, it is not likely they will be returning soon, or ever. The muscle is here in the U.S., and where their focus must be. They will not -- and must not -- abandon their countrymen, and they won't. Laos is, however, not the battleground. Washington is, and the weapon to use is the front page of the Washington Post. Those who wish to save the Hmong must convert some journalists and their editors." "There is also the Christian dynamic to be considered," said Bernard. "At the outset of Operation White Star, the 'White Fathers' were part of my access to the Hmong. We should use the understanding of the Christians who have done so much with the Koreans as guides and muscles for the Hmong. How did these 'missionaries' succeed? Can they make the same effort for the Hmong? What Christian elements are targeting the Hmong?" Hmong children waving goodbye Korpi believes film and journalism can be valuable tools in educating and motivating Americans about the fate currently gripping the Hmong and other American allies. "As King Solomon says in Proverbs 31:8, 'Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves. Protect the rights of all who are helpless,'" he said. "By helping the Hmong, even at this late hour, we take a great leap towards restoring America's national soul."

William Colby, the Hmong and the CIA "Don't get the Hmong to do any attack against the North Vietnamese. We don't want to escalate this thing any more than possible. We would just like to dampen it down where it is ... where we don't let it get any further but we don't try to win any victories there [Laos]." -William Colby Former CIA Director In 1962, with few viable options, President John E Kennedy asked the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to find people in Laos who valued their independence enough to resist the North Vietnamese encroachment into their country. With that order, two agents contacted the Hmong, recounted former CIA chief William E. Colby to a small group of mainly Hmong students who had gathered at the Georgetown Hmong Youth Conference. The events Colby spoke of transpired some thirty years ago during the time of their parents, long before any of these students had been born. So appropriately enough, it was in this room at Georgetown University last April-surrounded by the very children of transplanted Hmong veterans the CIA recruited to fight the "secret war" in Laos-that Colby's long, distinguished life came full circle. No one knew it at the time but unfortunately, this would be Colby's last public speaking engagement. just three weeks after filling in important gaps in the formation of the CIA's relationship with these students' parents, Colby was found dead in the Potomac River, the victim of a ruptured aneurysm. As one of the less than twenty people present at his last speech, it was a true pleasure to meet the man and to have him place the Laotian war into the larger context of the worldwide conflict in Southeast Asia. The following analysis presents parts of Colby's speech along with other evidence that will help clarify the conflict in Laos and the Hmong role. As with the Hmong, the Vietnam War remains a traumatic period in history for many Americans. The aftershocks of the American effort to contain communism in Southeast Asia continue to be felt to this day. in just two decades, a whole new community with an ancient culture was transplanted from one world to another. Twenty years ago, many Americans would not have known who a "Hmong" person was. Today, the Hmong inhabit all regions of the United States - and all five continents. For the Hmong people, the drama in Laos remains at the center of attention. Fighting the secret war in Laos forced the Hmong to assume many roles and identities; from highland farmers they became guerrilla warfare specialists, then refugees fleeing genocide and finally the Hmong found themselves taking on the role of immigrants, adopting new homes around the world. It is with this understanding of Hmong history that one must have to truly know the significance of the Hmong people in Colby's speech. Colby is better known for giving away the CIA's "family jewels," top level cloak and dagger secrets which included plots to topple foreign governments and schemes of assassination. His importance to Hmong history however, lies in his revelations about the American government's policy position with respect to Laos. What was America doing in Laos, a small count of only three million people, full of mountains and as backward as any third world country? After two decades, the Hmong are still uncertain as to why the Americans turned to them for help against the communists. The origin of the relationship between the Hmong and the United States can be traced to events that began before 1962 which culminated in the signing of the Geneva Accords. Before 1962, American, Soviet, Chinese and North Vietnamese military and paramilitary forces were all present in Laos. American policy-makers became concerned with the possibility of military confrontation between the superpowers. To them, the consequences of such an encounter could have disastrous results, as three of the four countries possessed nuclear capabilities. "President Kennedy and General Secretary Kruschev the Soviet Union had a meeting in 1961," Colby explained. "They both agreed, we were going to have our confrontations. Laos [was] not the place for it. Let's recognize a neutral and independent Laos, withdraw all our military and para-military forces, just leave it alone and leave it out of the equation." General agreements from that meeting resulted in the signing of the Geneva Accords in 1962. In itself, the primary goal of the Accords was simple and symbolic: it expressed the mutual American and Soviet interest in avoiding possible confrontation in the tiny country by broadly prohibiting all nations from interfering in the affairs of Laos. Specifically, it required all nations to remove non-diplomatic personnel from Laotian soil. To ensure compliance, Canada, India and Poland were selected to the ICC or International Commission for Supervision and Control of Laos. Its duty: To monitor and report violations of the Accords to the signatory countries. In theory, the carefully chosen members of the ICC - one communist state (Poland), one American-allied state (Canada) and one supposedly neutral state (India) - was to secure fair and equal representation from the two principle governing/social theories, democracy and communism. One system was not to gain an advantage over the other. In practice however, the United States felt that India leaned favorably toward communism. This bias on India's behalf quickly presented the Americans with a major obstacle. Pursuant to the agreement, the USSR, China and the United States all withdrew their troops. But when the North Vietnamese dishonored the Accords and removed only forty soldiers from a force of 7,000, American policy-makers faced the first of a series of major dilemmas. As feared, despite obvious breech of international agreement by North Vietnam, the ICC stalled investigations and failed to rigorously enforce treaty conditions. At the same time, the United States could not reintroduce American troops into Laos to force compliance with the Geneva Accords without breaking the treaty themselves. Such a move risked drawing Chinese and Soviet military presence back into Laos. Keeping with policy, the American government didn't want to risk unnecessary military confrontation with the other two world powers. However, the United States still needed to prevent the North Vietnamese from helping the communist Pathet Lao take over Laos. It was within this global context that forged the alliance between the United States and the Hmong. The 1962 Geneva Accords proscribed the manner in which the Americans could help the Hmong and the type of war the Hmong would be required to fight. "We began to get the signals in 1962 after the agreement [Geneva Accords] that the North Vietnamese were beginning to move. The were beginning to build up their forces. They were beginning to move out of the area Nam Sam Neau and so forth, down towards the Plain de Jars. They began to push the Hmong around. . .. He [President Kennedy] said: 'CIA, can you provide a little quiet help to the people in Laos who want to fight for their own independence?' and our two officers were in contact with the Hmong," Colby recounted. "They said, 'Yes, the Hmong want to fight.' They wanted to defend their territory against these North Vietnamese who were beginning to push down into them and that was basically the origin of the [Hmong/CIA] relationship." American desire to adhere to the spirit of the Geneva Accords deemed it necessary that the Hmong serve as a clandestine force which could harass the North Vietnamese without being directly linked to the United States. The Hmong were prohibited from taking any offensive actions as that could lead to an escalation in the war on the part of the North Vietnamese. Increased fighting also had the potential to expose the American support of the Hmong and could possibly lead to a complete annulment of the Geneva Accords. Colby - then CIA Deputy Director - was instructed by Assistant Secretary W. Averell Harriman of the State Department to keep the effort in Laos purely defensive in nature. "'Okay, one hundred guns but no attacks, only for defense,' " Colby said of Harriman's orders. "Don't get the Hmong to do any attack against the North Vietnamese. We don't want to escalate this thing any more than possible, " explained Colby of the American policy in the 1960s. "We would just like to dampen it down where it is ... where we don't let it get any further but we don't try to win any victories there [Laos]." The need to conceal American involvement in Laos was also substantiated by the testimony of William Sullivan, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs. In October of 1969, Sullivan was questioned by the Counsel Roland A. Paul before a Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee on the United States's commitment to the Hmong. Paul asked of Sullivan: "So the presence of American military forces in Laos is not in itself a commitment-generating factor?" "We do not consider that it is a commitment," Sullivan replied. Paul clarified his own question: "Would this means that we could increase our military presence in stages in Laos with the ability to terminate that augmentation at any time?" "I believe that we have that ability currently. In fact, we used to use a rule of thumb our ability to make it reversible and terminate it within eight hours," Sullivan answered. "It would probably take 24 hours now, but it still could be done." From the very beginning the United States was interested in maintaining the neutrality of Laos. American diplomats negotiated the Geneva Accords in good faith not knowing beforehand that the North Vietnamese would not honor the agreement. Even in supporting Hmong, the United States tried to hold to the spirit of the Accords by discouraging the Hmong from taking the offensive. American forces in Laos were held to 24-hour rule, partly to minimize the chances of detection. What was the commitment of the United States with respect to the Hmong given the American desire for neutrality? Sullivan testified in 1969, there was no commitment to the Hmong from day to day. The relationship between the Hmong and the United States served the greater purpose of keeping Laos neutral. The Americans assumed the attitude that the Hmong had lived on this land long enough to defend it against foreign encroachment. According to Colby, from an American policy-making standpoint, the arrangement appeared mutually beneficial. The United States provided the munitions and general directions but left the decisions up to the Hmong. It was an arrangement that suited the Hmong perfectly Being intensely independent, fighting the war as they saw fit was a level of control that few Hmong leaders had ever experienced before. With American aid, the Hmong advanced rapidly beyond the limits imposed on them by Laotian society. At this basic level of analysis, the relationship served both sides well. However, given that the secret war in Laos was dictated to be a stalemate by the American interest in preserving the neutrality of Laos, what would have been the fate of the Hmong in Laos if the war had not ended? Since the Hmong were expected to fight a purely defensive war, there was no chance the North Vietnamese would ever be driven out of Laos. The war in Laos could have continued without a final resolution. But by the close of the war in Laos, the age of some of the front-line Hmong troops were starting to dip into the low teens. The estimated casualties sustained by Hmong forces by 1969 was 18,000. From such sobering facts, it is evident that the Hmong could not have sustained a defensive war indefinitely, regardless of US or Hmong desire to continue such a fight. Colby maintains that the defensive strategy devised by the CIA and employed by the United States was ultimately in the best interest of the Hmong. "I have to say that that was good for Laos, and for the Hmong. You were not subjected to the massive kind of military contest that might have developed otherwise, including the massive destruction that [a major war effort] brings," Colby said. It will never be known how a full-scale war would have affected the Hmong in Laos. Were more Hmong lives saved because the situation never escalated beyond a minor war in a backward, agrarian country? What did happen was that support from the United States ended with the commencement of the Paris peace talks with the North Vietnamese, Laos fell to communism and the Hmong had no alternatives but to flee in masses. More than two decades after the war in Laos, the Hmong continue to struggle to understand the war and their role in it. Many in the Hmong community still claim the war could have been won. However, given the limitations placed upon American support, there is little doubt that if the war could have been won by Hmong forces alone, it would have been won at a tremendous cost in Hmong lives. It is about time that the Hmong community know the complete truth about the war in Laos. Knowing the truth will finally allow the older generation to put to rest any feelings that they lost a war. Knowing the truth will give the new generations respect for their people and their origin. Colby's final remarks reflect many of the American voices who worked with, fought alongside, and died with the tens of thousands of Hmong in Laos: "As an American, I for one am delighted that our country has been strengthen by the addition of people like yourselves. You can be good Hmong and at the same time, you can be good Americans. You can be both," Colby said. "And I think you will be." Although my pages have been dedicated for the most part to the CAT and Air America crews, operations and maintenance personnel and their families, there were many other agencies that played major roles in the effort in Southeast Asia and especially within the country of Laos. . The photographs shown on this page, taken May 12th and May 13th 1975, are from a collection gathered by Les Strouse, a long time and very dear friend, whose service in Southeast Asia spanned over 40 years.  Now retired in Thailand, Les was first introduced to Southeast Asia while on active duty with the Air Force as an Air Commando.  He joined Air America as a fixed wing pilot and later went on to fly for Continental Air Services (CASI).  Les was one of the last civilian pilots to leave Laos. These photos capture a lot of the details of those final days that he and the others spent involved with refugee evacuations. The photos were taken at LS20A, also known as Long Tieng, the headquarters of the infamous General Vang Pao.  The landing strip has been described by most who know it as one of the most treacherous in Laos.  Skyline ridge on one side, mountains on the other and a large karst at the end of the runway made the valley a difficult target to navigate in and out of even under the best of conditions for anything larger than a Pilatus Porter or other STOL (short take off and landing) aircraft.  And although larger aircraft made the trips in daily for years it was routine for them to go in loaded and come out empty since a heavy load made clearing the gap on take off even more hazardous. As Les said when he sent the photos, the C-46s into LS20A were routine but when they ran the numbers in the book during the evacuations they came up with a maximum passenger load of 35 refugees and their meager belongings.  As he put it, "If an engine so much as farted there was a good possibility we would not clear the gap."  Overcast skies helped to keep the  temperatures down but they still had to contend with high humidity which seriously hampered aircraft performance. For the first couple of days the evacuation was orderly and the refugees were sorted into groups, ready for loading, before the planes landed.  After that the crowd control was lost .  On his last flight out of Long Tieng his C-46 was mobbed and the crowds attempted to throw the kicker (loadmaster) out of the plane when he attempted to stop the crowds.  The flight was carrying over 60 passengers!

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