Commentary; Posted: 6/2/04

Show Hmong people respect, not discrimination

As Social Studies teachers at Forest Lake Senior High, we are often amazed at stereotypes and prejudicial policies of the past. Many students also see almost comical (though sometimes tragic) behavior maintaining those stereotypes, whether it be Irish, Blacks, Jews, Germans, or any other ìminority.î

Unfortunately many students often dissociate current stereotyping behavior from the past--often citing the rationale that todayí's stereotyping or prejudice is somehow warranted. At the senior high this has become increasingly apparent with the influx of Hmong students. Though they comprise an extremely small percent of the student body, there is no doubt some students are reacting negatively to this minority--often revealing an ignorance of the historical background to the presence of the Hmong in America in the first place.

From 1863 to 1954, the area we call Vietnam today, was controlled by the French and was known as French Indochina. During World War II, the French were pretty much displaced by the Japanese. During World War II, the French who also controlled Laos, recruited Hmong and Lao people to fight against the Japanese. The Hmong are an indigenous ethnic group living between Laos and Vietnam, but do not have a separate homeland.

The French fought the Vietminh (followers of Ho Chi Minh, a nationalist with Marxist ties) to retain control over their empire and defend the free world against Communist expansion. Unfortunately for Western democracies, they were defeated at Dien Bien Phu and after the Geneva Conference on Indochina in 1954 the French withdrew. At this point the Americans were paying for 80 percent of the war.

The period of 1955 to 1975 is known as the Second Indochina War or The Vietnam War. This time, the U.S. recruited Hmong and Lao people to assist. This time the U.S. was fighting to protect our interests and the world from an expanding Communist World. The U.S. foreign policy of ìcontainmentî' would coax us to keep the Communists out of new areas of the world like Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Thailand.

While serving in special guerrilla units, between 10,000 and 20,000 Hmong men, women and children were killed and more than 100,000 fled to Thai refugee camps. There are some 27,000 Hmong in Minnesota with about 5000-7000 of them who fought in the CIA special forces.

ìThe Hmong who fought in General Vang Paoís army understood they were fighting for the Americans and that they were in some sense an American army. They often mention the promise that was made. It's not clear who made it and when, but some promise was made that if the war went badly, the Hmong would be taken care of,î said Bob Anderson, a veteran of the Vietnam War, as quoted in the St. Paul Pioneer Press on May 1, 1994. ìThe Hmong were used.î

In 1973 we signed the Paris Peace Agreement on Indochina and began to withdraw troops and advisors. The North Vietnamese government took over South Vietnam by invasion and the Khmer Rouge regime took over Cambodia. The Communist Pathet Lao movement, financed and supported by the North Vietnamese and Russian governments, took over Laos by invasion with armed forces and formed the Lao Peopleís Democratic Republic.

These actions were a violation of the Paris Peace Agreement on Indochina and the Vientiane Peace Agreement on Laos of 1973. Between 1975 and 1995 the communist Pathet Lao government killed over 300,000 people in Laos in what has come the be called the ìKilling Fieldsî of Laos (similar to the ìKilling Fieldsî of Cambodia, where nearly 2 million were executed).

When their American allies left in 1974 the people were abandoned and their hopes for a free Laos were destroyed. Since Vietnam itself was also Communist at that time, the Hmong were obviously targets of the governments of both countries, since the Hmong had worked for decades helping, many times heroically, the anti-communist efforts of the U.S. Many Vietnam vets who have been speakers at the school attest to the military prowess and expertise of the Hmong.

There are roughly 150,000 Hmong people in the U.S., with about 27,000 in Minnesota. They believe that they fought for the U.S. in a largely U.S. Army and they need now what they did not get in 1974-protection. As a result, they actually deserve respect and honor for what they did for the U.S. and for themselves, not racial discrimination. They fought side by side with U.S. soldiers, to live in a world free of persecution and prejudice.

Whether they live thousands of miles away or are oneís next door neighbor should not make a difference. Although recently there has been increasing violence in St. Paul regarding the Hmong population there, it is still connected to our military presence in their ìhomeland.î They would not be here if not for us.

The column is a collaboration of social studies teachers at Forest Lake Senior High School.

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