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November 16, 2004
The Race Files: Long Walk demands justice for Hmong
The Race Files are brought to you by Hamline’s 2004 delegation to the National Conference on Race and Ethnicity, the NCORE Network. Our goal is to engage, inspire, enrage, and enlighten the Hamline community about racism and privilege. We hope that this series of articles will challenge the community and provide them with tools to confront the realities of our racialized world.
The Hmong are the forgotten American allies.
They were often recruited by the United States to help stop the spread of communism. Under the leadership of General Vang Pao, Hmong forces took on 70,000 communist troops and prevented them from attacking American troops in Vietnam. They rescued American pilots, disrupted the famous Ho Chi Minh Trail, and protected U.S. radar installation in Laos.
But after the United States abandoned the Vietnam War in 1975, they left their Hmong allies to fend for themselves in Laos against the new communist government and its Vietnamese counterpart.
The Laotian government soon announced that they would wipe out all Hmong who had assisted the
United States. Some Hmong fled immediately from Laos into Thailand. The Lao government then blocked all exits out of Laos, killing and torturing thousands of Hmong in re-education camps. The Hmong who couldn’t cross into Thailand fled back into the jungles of Laos, hoping that one day the U.S. forces, who returned to save Americans, would come back to save them.
No one returned.
Today, many unknown war veterans and their families, mostly women and children, still fend for their lives in the jungles of Laos. The Laotian government has employed chemical agents and committed war crimes against America’s forgotten allies. And after three generations, these unknown are still fighting and suffering from a war that ended decades ago.
Because of this, a handful of Hmong students from Hamline University, along with other Hmong
community activists, coordinated last summer the Long Walk for Freedom, a 1,200 mile trek from
Minnesota to Washington, D.C. The purpose of the walk was to bring attention to the plight of America’s secret war veterans and their families, who have faced 30 years of persecution in the jungles of Laos.
The students banded together in late May and planned the walk. It began on June 15 and ended with the students’ arrival on Aug. 18. The walkers were 15 to 65 years old. They averaged 25 miles per day, walking 14 hours each day.
Coordinators promoted the walk by informing the press, raising money, holding public forums, organizing volunteers, and handling the security and logistics. They also mobilized communities across the country to hold a tremendous rally in Washington, D.C., upon the walkers’ arrival in the city on Aug. 18.
This is not merely a Hmong or U.S. issue, but a global issue, and an urgent one; men, women, and children are dying every day. It is time for the American government to lead the diplomacy to save the Hmong people.
This affects all Hamline students, because it leads to many questions about who the Hmong are and why we are here in the United States.
30 to 40 Hmong students attend Hamline, yet often their events and activities remain unnoticed.
The Hmong students have adopted November as Hmong New Year Celebration month every year, but students on the Hamline campus still do not support or notice that there is a Hmong month to celebrate.
If the U.S. government would speak the truth and let America understand this issue, it would then be easy to see why Hamline and the St. Paul area has such a large population of Hmong immigrants. Why is it that other countries are aware of the Hmong issue and the persecution in the jungles of Laos, but not the United States?
“These people have been a secret for 27 years You will be a secret no more,” said Andrew Perring, a reporter for Time Magazine Asia.
We must strive to understand why the forgotten allies, who gave their lives, land, country, and family for the U.S. so many years ago, are still kept secret.
Posted by msveum at November 16, 2004 11:07 AM
Comments
I think that it is our responsibility as white students and especially on this campus to help the Hmong who have helped us during the Vietnam War. We can start helping by raising awareness about the Hmong's situation in Laos as stated and question our government for hiding information. I am truly embarrassed that my fellow white peers are ignoring and denying this issue. After reading this article, I have a clearer picture of who the Hmong are and willing to help.
Andrea
Posted by: Hamline Undergrad at November 17, 2004 11:43 AM
Thank you for being embarrassed for me. Why not start by being embarrassed for yourself?
Perhaps I am more of an individualist compared to your collectivist stance, but come on, you simply can't group every "white kid" on Hamline in the same category. You are perpetuating what you proclaim to hate.
Posted by: Andy at November 17, 2004 12:01 PM
Whether we are Hmong, White, Black, and or Arab, it does not matter. What matter is that humanity must make a stance against the killing, rape, and mutilation of women and children. It is a shame for humanity to sit and watch the death and torture of others. It is an insult to life and humanity for what the Communist Lao government has done not only to the Hmong but her Lao citizens.
What is life if we can not be allow to experience love, to live, and pursue our spiritual and intellectual potential? Life would be a meaningless period of de-evolution for the soul. The Communist Lao government are heartless, always suppressing the working class, the farmers, the students, and intellectuals, while stealing millions of dollars each year.
When will the youth speak up about the truth that reality is what we create from inside us. That if the world leaders put love in their hearts, love will also manifest in phyiscal reality.
Whatever race you are. We are one. We universally have soul and we universally love. We must come together now and help those who's right to live, to love, and to experience liberty has been taken from them. We must bring it back to them. So that all people can have the liberty to pursue their spiritual and intellectual potential without hinder. Therefore transforming our soul into the next phase of evolution on this phyiscal reality and into the next.
Posted by: thao dai at November 17, 2004 01:20 PM
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