The Hmong

=Early History= Not unlike the Jews, throughout time the Hmong have been a displaced people. The repetitions of images of snow and ice in their folktales have caused people to speculate that they originally inhabited Siberia (Dufffy et al.). However, it is also thought that their original home is in the Huang He (Yellow River) basin of central China (Encyclopædia Britannica).

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"Chinese Campaign Against the Hmong"

The Hmong make appearances in Chinese writings as early as BCE (before the common era) 3. Caricatures of the Hmong in these works describe them as barbaric and having a negative influence on Chinese culture. This demonization became the fuel for tensions and resulted in years of conflict and the Chinese forcing the Hmong off their homeland (Duffy et al.)

=French Colonization=

Around 1800 the Hmong began migrating to Southeast Asia to flee Chinese rule. Settling in predominantly Laos and Vietnam the Hmong established small villages in the mountains (Dufffy et al.).

Fast-forwarding almost one hundred years to the 1890s, the French became interested in establishing a southern trade route into China and consequently took over control of a large portion of Indochina (Duffy et al.).

The French weren't any better to the Hmong people and subjected them to harsh taxes (Duffy et al.)

http://historywarsweapons.com/wp-content/uploads/image/French_Indochina_Map.JPG "French control over Indochina"

French rule over Indochina lasted until 1954, and upon their ousting the United States became nervous about regional stability.

=Laos and Fighting Communism=

When the wave of Communism began spreading across what had once been French Indochina - what was now Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos - the Hmong lands became contested territory. The parts of Laos bordering with Vietnam were prime areas for the construction of the Ho Chi Minh trail to provide supplies to the North Vietnamese.In response, in the early '70s the Hmong allied themselves with the United States to oppose such plans (Hamilton-Merrit 15)

Laos's function as a buffer state lead to it being deemed a domino nation in the fight against communism. According to President Eisenhower at the time, “if Laos were lost, the rest of Southeast Asia would follow and the gateway to India would be opened”(Dufffy et al.).

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"Eisenhower"

=The Secret War=

The US’s ability to address their issue directly was problematized by a Geneva agreement disallowing the US from sending troops to Laos. Deciding that they must get involved in some way they began a campaign led by the CIA known now as “The Secret War”. This offensive lasted ten years costing approximately $20 billion and was comprised of both air and ground missions (Dufffy et al.).

Aerial Assault

Between 1968 and 1973, the U.S. dropped more than 2 million tons of explosives on communist targets in Laos.

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"Destruction from Bombing Missions"

Ground Attack The CIA led the ground operations, deciding to appoint Vang Pao, “The General” in charge of recruiting the Hmong people. Together they were able to train more than 40,000 Hmong to aid with spying on the North Vietnamese in Laos, rescuing downed American pilots, flying planes, trail watching, and aerial photographing (Lloyd-George)

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Hmong fighters in training for using grenades

Casulties

As a result of their service, the Hmong population was decimated. Roughly 30,000 people, more than 10% of the Hmong in Laos were killed, and another 150,000 became refugees and have fled Laos once it fell to communist troops in 1975 (Duffy et al.)

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''Hmong woman grieving"

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Embroidered quilts in the traditional Hmong style that tell the story of the war.

=Life After the War=

Unfortunately, when the USA pulled out of the region in 1975 many of the Hmong were left behind to fend for themselves against the new Lao People's Democratic Republic. Others fled to Thailand, Australia, and the United States (McCrabb 171).

The dislocation of Hmong families had immensely detrimental cultural impacts. The Hmong were forced to live in small huts as opposed to constructing their own traditional houses in a demeanor that would honor their family spirits. Without land of their own the Hmong were no longer able to be self-sufficient farmers and relied upon U.S. food drops. Consequently, a whole generation of Hmong children never learned their farming practices (Duffy et al).

=The Hmong in the USA=

There are now more than 236,000 Hmong-Americans, whether naturalized citizens or American-born. Most are clustered in California, Minnesota, and Wisconsin, with Minnesota having the largest and most visible population (SEARAC).

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Miss Hmong Minnesota Beauty Pageant

Unlike the "model minority" stereotype, up to 60% of Hmong adults in the United States have a maximum education of a high school degree, since so many were subsistence farmers that came to the United States as adults. Hmong communities are frequently plagued with poverty, illness, drug use, and gang violence (Ngo and Lee, 415-453).

Other problems include difficulties in assimilation, sometimes with unforeseen consequences. such as the case memorialized in the best-selling book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Anne Fadiman. She is not Hmong-American herself but based her work on extensive interviews with the family and doctors involved.

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The young daughter of a Hmong-American family had her life tragically altered by a combination of epilepsy and her parents' difficulties in communicating with local medical care, due to both linguistic and cultural barriers. They were unable to coordinate the treatment the daughter needed and in fact the doctors misunderstood the parents' desperate implementation of traditional medicine as neglect and abuse, while the parents misunderstood the doctors' attitudes as harshness, discrimination, and disrespect. The incident left the daughter alive but brain-dead, and the book has been lauded as a cautionary tale for the perils of ethnocentrism (Koltyk 193-194).

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Many have found hope in the achievements of Minnesota State Senator Mee Moua, the first Hmong-American elected official. Though she has recently decided to retire from public office in order to spend more time with her family, she is seen as an inspirational role model for Hmong seeking to increase their visibility and prospects (vizulizAsian).

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Another development that has helped raise awareness of the Hmong in the popular American consciousness is the Clint Eastwood film Gran Torino, where a curmudgeonly and racist Korean War veteran reevaluates his views as he comes to mentor a Hmong-American teen he catches trying to steal the titular car due to pressure from a local gang, which they join forces against (IMDb). It has been well-received by critics.

Here is a trailer for the film:

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As Laos begins to emerge from its Communist shell, and as the new generation of Hmong-Americans come of age, the future is full of opportunities for change for this embattled people.

=WORKS CITED=

"Chinese Campaign Against Hmong" Picture.

"Destruction from Bombing Missions" Picture.

Duffy, John, Roger Harmon, Donald Ranard, Bo Thao, and Kou Yang. The Hmong An Introduction to Their History and Culture. Rep. Center for Applied Linguistics. Web. .

"Eisenhower" Picture.

"French Control Over Indochina" Picture.

Gran Torino Poster Picture. IMDb website.

Gran Torino Trailer Video. YouTube.

Hamilton-Merrit, Jane. "Tragic Mountains: The Hmong, the Americans, and the Secret Wars for Laos 1942-1992" Bloomington, Indiana University Press, 1993.

"Hmong Fighters Training to Use Grenades" Picture. iNewp: Freedom of Speech. October 29, 2012.

Koltyk, Jo Ann. The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down: Review. Journal of American Ethnic History, University of Illinois Press, 1999.

Lloyd-George, William. "The CIA’s ‘Secret War’." The Diplomat. The Diplomat, n.d. Web. 01 Nov. 2012. .

McCrabb, Maris. "Tragic Mountains: Review" Journal of Military History, 1994.

Ngo, Bic, and Stacey J. Lee. "Complicating the Image of Model Minority Success: A Review of Southeast Asian Minority Education" Review of Educational Research, 2007, Pages 415-453.

"Southeast Asian Americans At a Glance". Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (SEARAC). 2011.

"Second Quilt" Picture. http://www.wpt.org/hmong/language.html October 29, 2012

"The Jungle Hmong: A Forgotten Ally on the Run" Picture. Time Magazine Online. October 29, 2012

"...they were the most vulnerable..." Picture. Hmong Missoula. October 29, 2012.

"US Airforce Bombing Laos in 1965 HD" Video. YouTube.