America's Secret War: Minnesota Remembers Vietnam

(President John F. Kennedy) My fellow Americans, Laos is far away from America, but the world is small. Its 2 million people live in a country 3 times the size of Austria. The security of all Southeast Asia will be endangered if Laos loses its neutral independence.

Its own safety runs with the safety of us all, in real neutrality, observed by all. I want to make it clear to the American people and to all the world that all we want in Laos is peace, not war. (Lee Pao Xiong) My father was part of a heavy artillery unit. I actually stayed with him in the foxhole, his foxhole overlooking Long Tieng.

When the Communists infiltrated Long Tieng he was out there firing his 105 and 155 guns. So I was out there with my father, and I would be in the foxhole.

loud explosions

So all I could hear was all these constant bombardments, these cannons going off and rockets flying. During that time, at night they would fire flares and these flares, there'd be a little parachute that glided down, that's why they came down really slow. And so we as kids, we would often seek out those parachutes for toys. After the conflict calmed down, the next day I woke up really early and went out and searched for those parachutes.

And I got near the airfield and I saw all these dead Vietnamese. It was all quiet and everything, so I decided probably not safe for me to be here,

laughs

so I walked back home. (male narrator) Home was the secret military base in the mountains of Northern Laos called Long Tieng. The base was also known as headquarters for the CIA's clandestine operations in the country, commanded by General Vang Pao. To his forces, he was a George Washington-like figure.

[speaking Hmong; man interprets General Vang Pao was not a person like us. He was a courageous and powerful man. Hmong people believed that the heavens sent Vang Pao to be our leader. To this day, Hmong people still honor and believe in Vang Pao.

(narrator) General Vang Pao had a calling-- fight against the violent North Vietnamese Communist invasion of Laos. Few in the United States were aware that next door to the Vietnam War in Laos the CIA was running a full-blown military operation, minus most of the U.S. armed forces. It was the so-called "Secret War." The Communist Pathet Lao with the backing of Ho Chi Minh's North Vietnamese army were the enemy.

Hmong, Khmu, Lao, Mien, and soldiers of all ethnicities defended Laos with the help of some very powerful and secretive friends. (Lee Pao Xiong) The war was run by the CIA and the State Department, so the State Department and the CIA are not part of the Department of Defense. (narrator) The Secret War became a model for future war operations carried out by the CIA. The clandestine war in Laos killed tens of thousands of Lao citizens.

Among the hardest hit were the Hmong of Northern Laos. Tens of thousands died in the war, even more lost their lives escaping to freedom after the war. While the Vietnam War was televised nightly, the Secret War lingered in the shadows. (man) They are left at a village deep in enemy territory.

drums & orchestra play in bright rhythm & minor tones

The reason that Laos was important was during that time, there was the Red scare, so basically fear Communism, Communism is going to dominate Southeast Asia. We already have China there, and so you have North Vietnam, now it's a Communist state. And so if the country of Laos falls, then the rest of that region will fall to Communism, it would turn red, so it's the domino theory. So if one domino falls the rest of them would fall.

(narrator) U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was particularly concerned that if Laos fell, it would be a gateway to India, Communist domination of an entire hemisphere. (Lee Pao Xiong) After the Geneva Conference of 1954, no one was supposed to be in Laos.

North Vietnamese was using Laos as a staging area to resupply. And Laos was supposed to be neutral, no one is to touch the Country of Laos. In the end, neutralism was impossible. (Pres.

John F. Kennedy) The efforts of a Communist-dominated group to destroy this neutrality never ceased. In the last half of 1960, a series of sudden maneuvers occurred, and the Communists and their supporters turned to a new and greatly intensified military effort to take over. (Lee Pao Xiong) And so the United States basically said okay, so if North Vietnam's going to play this game, we can do the same thing.

And instead of using our own troops, right, we can use the indigenous people, and that's why Colonel Bill Lair was sent over to train the Hmong people to fight as surrogate soldiers of the American Armed Forces, because they couldn't be there, military forces can't be there, but they send CIA advisors.

man speaking and is subtitled

And when Bill Lair got to Laos, the first person that he saw was General Vang Pao. (narrator) In that moment, the U.S. and the Hmong became bound to one another, whether by choice or necessity. The war to keep the Communist North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao from overthrowing the Royal Lao Government.

I think for the moment, what they really would want is just forget about the war, we don't want any part of it, we just want to live free. They had to choose, either the Communists or the King and Vang Pao. Even if the Communists ruled Laos or the King ruled Laos, it's the same for them-- they're still a minority, they're still going to be discriminated against. They'd rather not pay the price if they don't have to.

The fact that they ended up paying the price in Northeastern Laos on both sides was because they were forced to choose one side or the other.

Ganghis Khang speaks Hmong; man interprets

Nobody questioned whether it was a good or bad idea. During that time, it was mandatory. If you didn't let your family members, men and sons get recruited, there were consequences. (man) The training team comes with Vang Pao.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

If we became soldiers, then we would have shoes, clothes, and hats to wear and receive monthly wages. We became soldiers so that we wouldn't be poor. During that time, I was still a young boy and only able to babysit children. I was probably 10 or 11 years old.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

After I finished high school, I wanted to go to Vientiane to learn English, to become a teacher and to teach the Hmong children in the villages. But because of this war, I had to let the dream go and became a soldier. (narrator) CIA operatives like Jerry Daniels worked hand in glove with General Vang Pao. General Vang Pao was Hmong, an ethnic group much persecuted by the dominant culture.

They were sometimes called barbarians, or "Miao" a holdover from the Chinese who chased them out of their country. The United States and General Vang Pao essentially ran the northern part of the Secret War together. They were a powerful team.

Xai Nou Vang speaks Hmong; man interprets

We Hmong people didn't know why we were in this war and for what reasons. General Vang Pao sent word to the village heads to recruit soldiers. When we got to Pha Dong for training, they taught us how to use knives and guns, and told us that we were going to fight in the war. There were two goals-- one goal was to protect the country from the Pathet Lao, the second goal was to help the Americans, but we didn't know why we were helping them.

(man) The 57 millimeter recoilless rifle is the ideal weapon. (narrator) The Hmong soldiers were trained in guerrilla tactics by Americans and Thai specialists. They were called Special Guerrilla Units, or SGUs. (Mai Na lee) Well, the SGUs are the toughest, the ones who die first, the ones who have the goal, like the Marines, like the American Marines that we always send first.

In South Vietnam, the U.S. fought conventional war tactics, and then the Communists fought guerrilla tactics against the U.S. In Laos it's completely opposite. The Communists had the conventional war tactics, and then the Hmong used guerrilla tactics against them.

(narrator) Soldiers were desperately needed, so training was a hurried affair.

man speaks Hmong; man interprets

On the third day we learned how to shoot the 60 and 81 and throw grenades. We learned the basic training for 3 days and then went to war. (narrator) On the ground, the People's Army of North Vietnam, the Communists, were known for their unrelenting fighting style. When one soldier fell, others behind him kept coming.

The SGUs responded in kind, battles were fierce, brutal injuries were common.

Xai Nou Vang speaks; man interprets

We were sent to Phuket Mountain. I still feel bad to this day. These soldiers didn't have the proper training. They were only here to try to make a living and they were sent to battle.

That day, we were on 2 helicopters. These helicopters were transporting us from Pha Dong to Phuket Mountain. The first helicopter was filled with a group of Vue Clan child soldiers. They were new, so they wanted to be in a group together.

There were about 12 of them in the helicopter. As the helicopter started to land close to Communist lines, everyone started jumping off. Before they all could get off, the Communists threw grenades, and they exploded near them. The helicopter swerved off immediately with 2 soldiers still in there.

There were 8 child soldiers that died there. I still feel bad. They must have thought that they were safe because they were fighting together, but they all died.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

The Communists patrolled the roads. One time, they shot at me, and the bullet hit me right in the rib and lodged into my lung. They threw grenades, and they exploded near me, hitting my arms. The bullet that hit me in my lung caused blood to rush up into my throat.

I started to feel the blood clogging my throat, making it hard to breathe, so I spit it out. I had some medicine in my pocket, so I took it out and ate it. I also had some morphine, so I shot one in my arm. There was so much blood that I had to take off my shirt.

I left my tank top on. I continued shooting at the Communists so that they wouldn't be able to come get me. I wrapped up my wound and slowly walked away. I took off my canteens and belt and shoved a handful of bullets into my pocket.

I held my M16 as I continued walking. A grenade then went off about 2 feet behind me, the logs behind me exploded into my back, butt, arms, hands, and legs. It was so hard to walk because of the pain, so I started crawling. The flies and leeches were everywhere.

They were getting into my eyes and my wounds as I lay to rest for a while in my large pool of blood. I came upon a group of soldiers near a small hill, and I called out to them. They were not a part of my group, they were Yao soldiers. I was sitting inside a Communist bunker, so when I called out to them, they came to help me.

There were 6 of them. They took me to their base where they put me by the campfire and told me to warm up here. My captain heard that I was at their base, so he and another soldier came to get me. My captain told me that we needed to leave because a helicopter was not able to pick me up here, and the Communists were planning to attack this base tonight.

I told them that I was in too much pain to walk. They continued to convince me that if we stayed that we would get captured, and I had already suffered this far. I was in too much pain, so they told me they would carry me. As they held me up, I felt the bullet in my lung and all the wounds on my legs.

It was so painful I thought I was going to die. They both slowly carried me and we walked back to an area overnight. The next day they attempted to airlift me, but they were unable to. So we waited for a second plane to come airlift me.

They took me to Long Tieng and then eventually to Nassou. (narrator) As in all wars, witnessing death pained the soul.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

During war, when one of your soldiers or friends died, there will be tears, but you think that it's him, and it's not me. If you get hurt, you wonder, why me? Will my family see me again? You think about this all the time.

During the time that I was in a leadership position, I sent the dead bodies back to their families, and they came and cried to me. They'd come and cry to me, and I didn't know what to do. I wiped their tears, and take them to meet with General Vang Pao. I would tell General Vang Pao that my soldier died, and that this is their crying family.

I asked if there was any financial assistance for them. They would get some money, and then I wouldn't see these families again. We had a group of widows, we would put their family name in this group and there was someone that took care of their needs. This is what makes me sad.

(narrator) While the special guerrilla unis were in the midst of unforgiving hand-to-hand combat, air support and aerial assaults piled up more damage against the North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao. The Royal Lao Army supplied pilots, while Americans supplied flight training in the T-28 planes used in battle. The CIA's Air America, a so-called charter airline, along with a secret group of officially unofficial U.S. Air Force pilots called "The Ravens," provided forward air support.

They spotted the enemy, relayed positions, and asked the T-28s to go after them. Radar and satellite tracking were crucial to air operations. Only in recent years has the U.S. acknowledged an isolated installation called Lima Site 85.

To the Hmong who called the area home, it was Phou Pha Thi. Lima Site 85 was run by the U.S. Air Force, the only place in Laos where Air Force personnel are publicly known to have served during the Secret War. More than half of all bombing operations against North Vietnam were guided by Lima Site 85.

A small group of U.S. airmen and the Hmong soldiers who guarded the site, were of tremendous importance to both the Vietnam War and the Secret War. (narrator) During the war, most Hmong women were charged with the hard physical labor of keeping their family farms up and running, raising their children, and supplementing the family income whatever way they could. (Mai Na Lee) She had a little stall where she sold vegetables and things like that, and so my mother's stall was right by the airport, so every time the planes come in you would see all this dust rising, planes landing, taking off constantly, all day long, and never stop.

(narrator) A much smaller number of Hmong women worked away from home. Choua Thao was the first Hmong nurse trained as a medic to care for the wounded. (Choua Thao) (narrator) An NBC news crew captured the head of all Hmong forces, General Vang Pao, on one of his later visits. Since 1961, the Secret War had swallowed Northern Laos.

Losses were heavy on both sides. The Paris Peace Accords were signed in 1973, ostensibly putting an end to the war in Vietnam. Next door, General Vang Pao was pushing hard to continue fighting. The Communist North Vietnamese and Pathet Lao had not let up, but a corner had been turned.

The U.S. wanted out of Southeast Asia, and that included Laos. (narrator) The 2 sides, the Communists and the Royal Lao Government were to jointly rule Laos with a third group, Neutralists providing a middle ground, all were to be equal. It was a tenuous arrangement, enemies coming together to rule.

But after decades of war, the people of Laos had hope. They created a representative Congress called the National Political Consultative Council. The leaders of the 3 parties were meeting regularly. Optimism was in the air.

(narrator) Lao citizens were officially going to be at peace for the first time since the start of the French-Indochina War in the '50s. But the North Vietnamese and the Pathet Lao were secretly making plans to forcibly take the country. General Vang Pao's headquarters at Long Tieng were a prized target. If the Communists could take it, then a march into the capital of Vientiane was almost certain.

Communist forces spent months sending thousands of soldiers to surround Long Tieng, then they waited for word to attack. It was mid-May 1975, Saigon and Cambodia had both already fallen. General Vang Pao was said to have known that they were coming. He was ready to stay and fight, but the CIA ordered him to make a clandestine escape to safety in Thailand.

No one was to know for fear of the chaos his absence could cause. His closest soldiers engineered his escape by first getting him out of his house.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

When we got to the steps, I took off my hat because it had a large brim and put it on him. I held onto his arm, and we walked side by side towards my car. I popped a smoke signal, and yellow smoke rose to the sky. The American USAID helicopter was already circling in the river valley, waiting for us.

They circled up and landed next to the fish pond. The general started to enter with one foot and he used both hands to hold onto the bars above his head and then he stepped back down. I don't know what he was thinking. He points his finger to the sky and spins it around.

He then stamped his foot twice on the ground and got on the helicopter. The door closed, and the helicopter took off. At that time, I felt like I could have died. I was sad, and to this day I still feel disappointed because he had always said, you will go with me.

When the helicopter took off, he left me behind. My hope was completely gone, and I thought he left me, and this is it. I really felt as though I died. (narrator) While General Vang Pao's escape was meant to be secret, word got out.

Those who could, made their way to Long Tieng in hopes of getting a flight to safety too. Grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles were gathered together to make the trek through the mountains to Long Tieng. It was very chaotic during that time, and when we got there several thousand people were all waiting there. And then soon the plane started to come, and then it landed, and the people were just like

makes a sucking sound

. Little did we know that those planes were only reserved for military officers. In fact, General Vang Pao said that each of those planes were designated for a colonel. When the plane landed, and they said this is Colonel Xay Dang Xiong's airplane.

So my dad said, okay, if this is Colonel Xay Dang Xiong's airplane, then let's go. And so everybody flocked and then they, these C-46, they're quite high, so you need to climb the stairs all the way to the door. And so they pushed us, and then my dad pushed us, my mom got in, my brothers got in, I got in, and then they closed the door and it was like sardines in that C-46. You could probably fit about 30 people in there, but must have been over 100 people in there.

When we arrived in Nam Phong, we got out and looked around and where's my dad, where's my brother, where's my grandma, grandpa, and aunt and uncle? I looked around and didn't see them. And I remember waiting at the airport with my mom to see when the next plane's going to land and whether my dad and my grandma and grandpa was going to step off. So we waited until 9 o'clock or so, and the C-130 came, and the C-130 landed, and my dad and my grandma and grandpa came out.

(narrator) The Communist forces took over Long Tieng on May 15th 1975, and seized power in the capital of Vientiane just 3 months later. As one war ended for the Hmong, another began. This one was a fight to get out of the country and then on to France, America, Australia, or whichever country would take the refugees. During the time that Vang Pao was still in Laos, for me life was very normal, it didn't seem like a war.

What seemed like a war was after, you know, afterwards. (narrator) Only a fraction of those who wanted to escape were able to get out. The rest had to stay and plot other ways to leave the country, for they were in danger. The Communists had declared that the Hmong were to be hunted and killed because they worked for the much-hated United States.

If they surrendered and cooperated, they would be sent to seminar, or re-education camps. (Mai Na Lee) Indoctrination, torture, deprivation, food deprivation, especially where you're given just very minimal rice and water, called in daily to be beaten, psychologically tortured where they would put the gun to your head, like Russian Roulette type of things, and you never know when the bullet is going to hit you, and if you survive it then they take you back to the barracks, and the next it day starts over. (narrator) Rather than surrender, entire multigenerational families spent years hiding where they knew best, in the dense mountain forest or in remote villages on the highest mountaintops like Phou Bia. Always on the move, alert for the next phalanx of Communist soldiers.

My father had already anticipated the attack 'cause he had military experience, so every night we would go sleep in our field houses rather than stay in the village, 'cause he knew, he knew that they were going to attack the village at any moment. At the actual time of the attack, we were actually in our fields on a mountain that overlooks the village, so I watched from the mountain, the village being bombed and attacked and all the villagers, some of them were killed, others scattered. After that we just ran from our field houses up to Phou Bia, like run further up. Ran out of food, just like eating roots and whatever we could find in the jungle.

And then the Communists just kept coming, they just kept attacking us as we were running. We went around the mountain twice, all the men left because they felt if they stayed and they were captured, they would definitely be killed. And then they told the women to go surrender. So we came back to our village and then we surrendered to the Communists.

So after that we lived with the Communists for a whole year. (narrator) Surviving in Communist villages meant wrenching choices. The Her family, Mom, Khou Yang, and Dad, Sia Ying, were perilously close to not having their daughter, Sia, make it to America.

speaking Hmong; woman interprets

During that time we were so depressed. We didn't know whether we were going to die today or tomorrow. We were poor and starving. Those of us living in the village were so poor and scared.

We were afraid of being killed by the Pathet Lao. We were also afraid that the Pathet Lao were going to find and kill my father and our husbands in the jungle. We were afraid of everything. During that time, my sister-in-law was pregnant, I was pregnant, and my cousin was pregnant.

My father and the men lived in the jungles and when we were pregnant, we were afraid that the Pathet Lao would know that my father and his men were close and that that was how we became pregnant. I was pregnant with you for about 2 months. Everyone started telling me that I should find some medicine to abort you. They said that we might have trouble with the Pathet Lao.

So I decided to find some medicine to abort you. We were all afraid that the Pathet Lao would investigate and cause trouble for us, so that's why we decided to abort. My sister-in-law and cousin changed their minds and decided not to. They decided that they were willing to take a risk regardless of what the Pathet Lao would do.

But I decided that I would still abort.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

I knew that your mom was pregnant with you but we were afraid that the Communists would go and cause problems for your mom. So I also agreed to find medicine to abort.

woman interprets for Khou Yang

I sought out people who were known to have medicine that aborts babies, they guaranteed that it would work. They gave me their best medicine, but for some reason, it didn't work. I gave birth to Sia in December. Back then we gave birth in the jungles.

When I gave birth to Sia, I knew that I drank too much of the medicine. Sia was black and blue when she was born. As I continued to care for her and raise her, she got older, the black and blue colors slowly went away and she continued to get bigger without any problems. (narrator) Whether families surrendered or hid in the jungles, the ultimate goal was escape.

Groups of people, and sometimes entire villages, crept through the forest, evading the enemy on their way out of the mountains to the lowland riverbanks of the Mekong River. (Mai Na Lee) Avoiding towns and roads going through the jungle, literally hacking the jungle with knives and the women and children following behind. And eventually we did hit the Mekong. (narrator) On the other shore, miles away, was Thailand and freedom from certain death.

(Mai Na Lee) My father said the trip to the Mekong, for me it was just like one suffering after another, I don't have memory of how many days, but my father said it actually took us 28 days, 'cause we got lost twice, we got lost twice. First we ran into a pack of elephants and some people were attacked and wounded, and then our guides left us behind. Next, we ran into a military fort, the people in front were attacked, a lot of people was killed. The next big obstacle was how do we cross it 'cause there's no boats.

We had no idea where we were along the Mekong. (narrator) The river was also patrolled by the Pathet Lao soldiers like these who were interviewed for a documentary by the French television channel TF1. (narrator) The Pathet Lao weren't the only threat. Many Hmong did not know how to swim and with the fast-moving river as wide as 2 miles, many people drowned.

(Mai Na Lee) So my father say okay, chop down as much bamboo as we can carry, come back, use that as floats. Years later, people made story cloths, or "Paj Ntaub" to process their experiences. Put 2 poles in a triangle like this, and then fit another pole, and it fits right under your armpit. Then you put another pole right behind it, then you get in there and tie in and then they strung the bamboos together so one family would be floating together.

We waited until nightfall, and then we just plunge right into the river and swim, literally swim for your life. (narrator) Even tiny things, like crying babies, were a mortal danger; silence meant survival.

man interprets for Nhiacha Vang

It was 1979 in March, we had our third child who was a little girl. We were about to escape to Thailand. As we got closer to the Mekong River, everyone in our group agreed that we would be unhappy with anyone who had a crying child, which would have given away our location and gotten us killed. We didn't give opium to the older two, we gave opium to our youngest one, who was about 16 days old.

After we gave her some liquid opium, she became unconscious as if she died. After we crossed the river to Thailand, she did wake up, so we continued to heal her and cure her with medicine. (narrator) Not everyone was lucky. Children and the elders were especially vulnerable.

When we crossed the Mekong, my dad actually put me with 2 other relatives of ours. So I was actually separated from my family, and when I got to Thailand, I was actually alone. My biggest fear was that my parents would die, right, they would be shot, especially my dad. And now they're really gone, so I was just thinking like, oh my god, I could be an orphan.

And somehow I knew that there was a Ban Vinai and my parents had told me that I had an aunt there so then I was thinking like wow, I may have to go to Ban Vinai and find my aunt. (narrator) Thai soldiers and aide workers patrolled the Mekong in order to collect those who made it across. Over 50,000 Hmong were estimated to have died trying to get into Thailand, more than were killed during the war. French television's TF1 documentary crew happened upon some Hmong refugees as they first stepped foot into Thailand.

Survivors were taken to temporary camps to wait for permanent placement in the refugee camp. (Mai Na Lee) There'd be loads and loads of buses that would keep coming, and I was just sitting there, looking at the people that disembarked from the bus, and thinking, where's my mom, where's my dad? And every bus that came, I didn't see them. And then finally I saw my mom came out and I remember the relief, and I just ran toward her and I was just crying, and my mom was crying too 'cause she thought I had died.

You know? (narrator) There were 29 refugee camps scattered across Thailand with the northern ones home to most of the Hmong refugees. Minnesota was one of the states that Hmong refugees sought out. Local TV Station WCCO, sent a crew to document Ban Vinai, the largest of the Hmong refugee camps, with around 40,000 people, the population of a small city, crammed onto 400 acres-- to say it was crowded was an understatement.

Each family was assigned a tiny living space with virtually no privacy.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

There were many people living here. There were the educated, wealthy, and poor people here. There were also the good, the bad, and enemies. We all lived here together.

We lived in poor conditions, no bathrooms and bad hygiene. If you needed to poop or pee, you would have to dig holes for yourself; water was not good to drink. These were some things that everyone struggled with heavily. Living here, there was a lot of illness and death.

Everyone was faced with death and loss. The path that we took to bury the dead, there was not one day where we didn't carry the dead to be buried. (narrator) Thai officials wielded incredible power over the Hmong in the camps.

people singing the Thai national anthem

In the mornings they would blare the Thai national anthem. And on the radio, I mean you're supposed to stand, right, stand at attention with your hand placed over your heart. And Hmong people, they don't have that kind of practice, they never saluted. They had a rule where if you moved while the national anthem is being played, whether you are a child or an adult, they would either hit you, or they could put you in jail for a period of 24 hours.

And I remember probably one time I moved, for days and nights I had this nightmare about some Thai officer coming in and carting me off. (Mai Na Lee) I did witness some beating, where the Thai police would be in there, people didn't stand, they continued doing what they want and they would pick some guy and beat him up. (narrator) Kids did a lot of growing up in the camps. (Sia Her) I remember going to the market with my father.

speaking Hmong

They would play these Thai songs. Dad remember your favorite singer Dao Pen Dana(ph)? Right, in that market was the first time I heard him sing and I was looking at some yams and the only reason why I remember that particular yam really well was because I was examining it. Only because the song was on and my father looked really sad and I didn't want to look at his face so I looked at this fruit that was in front of me.

I remember that fruit because of that scene in that market. (narrator) Some families spent more than a decade in the refugee camps. Children were born there, people married, neighborhoods were created, all the while waiting for their names to show up on the list of families approved to leave. And even then, it wasn't simple.

Our name came up twice. We didn't want to come. The family was divided in 2, it was my parents right, and there was my grandma and grandpa and my aunt and uncle. So if we were to leave, what's going to happen to them?

What if they didn't get to come? Right? And so that was the fear, here we are, we came all the way here, we're going to leave them here, and we're going to go to America, in a country we know nothing about? We don't even know where it is or what state we're going to be in.

Finally my dad decided, okay, let's go. And so we came on October 22nd 1976. (Sia Her) I remember the first time we walked to this place to look at that list, and my father didn't see our name on it. And that was when I knew that going to America was really important for my father.

(narrator) Reaching the United States after years of surviving endless war, brought one level of relief. The daily chance of dying fell dramatically, but the absence of immediate trauma released long-suppressed fears and emotions. (Mai Na Lee) My father was really depressed when we first came. I think it's hardest for the men.

Hmong men don't want to admit anything. Right? And so you may not want to say I'm suffering from, and we don't have a word for mental health in the Hmong community, in the Hmong language. And so the only word for mental health, the only comment is, the person is crazy, and so you don't want to be labeled as a crazy person, you know, I'm suffering through this.

Samao Xiong speaks Hmong; man interprets

When I sleep, I sometimes scream and yell, and my wife wakes me up and asks me what's wrong? I would tell her that I dreamt that we were still at war. Sometimes when there's a loud noise, it startles me and reminds me of the bombs that the Communists shot towards us.

loud explosions

For over 41 years, these things haven't disappeared from my head. When I think about these things, I feel my body get all warm. I've been controlling myself, so I haven't talked to any doctors. (Lee Pao Xiong) You're always on the alert, and even to this day, you know, I tell my wife, and I tell my children, in the middle of the night don't just come screaming into my room, because you put me in that mode, and this where the PTSD comes into play.

Right? I think that I may have suffered, I may have PTSD, because in the middle of the night, if people come and scream and yell, I would just stand right up, I'm just like, what's going on? If I'm experiencing that, just imagine someone in the battlefield. They are still living with a war that hasn't ended for them.

(narrator) Soldiers also have to live with old war wounds.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

My wounds still hurt. Two bullets have gone through my body, but the one that hit my rib is still lodged in my lung. All the shrapnel in my body is still painful when I work, so I can't do a lot of hard work. I wanted them to take the bullet out of my lung.

The doctor said it was 50/50. If the bullet was in my body for this long and hasn't killed me, then surgery might kill me 50/50, then I would prefer not to do it.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

In 1971, I got hit in the head by a bullet from an AK gun. It cut a piece of my brain. Right now, on this side of my head, it feels numb. My memory is not that great anymore, so if you are learning something, you don't remember it after a while.

Talking like this is fine, but when we talk about learning something, you sometimes forget. (narrator) Hmong soldiers are not considered U.S. veterans. They receive no veterans' benefits, even though they were paid by the American CIA.

One Hmong that died in Laos meant one American from South Vietnam going home because we prevented the North Vietnamese Army from going into South Vietnam to massacre the Americans down there.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

Towards the end of this war, there were more than 35,000 Hmong in Laos that died on behalf of the Americans. We didn't value our own lives; we were more than happy to die for the Americans, this is what we did. To be frank, this was a secret war. The Americans kept us a secret the whole world didn't know.

After we lost the war, the whole world knew about the sacrifices we made for the Americans. We were their soldiers, and we fought for them in secret. (Lee Pao Xiong) What's difficult is that the Hmong did not officially serve, when you look at the conditions. Right?

Did you serve officially as an American GI? No, and so it was through the CIA, which is not military, it's not a military branch. Many of the veterans have been fighting since the '80s to obtain veterans' benefits.

speaking Hmong; man interprets

We don't receive anything. Right now, what we have been lobbying and asking for is benefits. We want benefits to help with health care. Whatever the American Vietnam veterans get in benefits, we would like the same.

We also want burials for our dying soldiers. We want to be buried in a cemetery with other soldiers. We hope that one day America will recognize our efforts during the war.

Tong Vang speaks Hmong; man interprets

They say that we are Hmong soldiers, but we really are U.S. soldiers. We want the SGU soldiers to be happy when their sacrifices are recognized by America and that they are actual soldiers. We don't want to be looked at as crazy, that we just wanted to be soldiers, but we really wanted to help out the Americans.

(Lee Pao Xiong) I don't know whether we should hold our breath. Not many of these veterans are around, and they're dying off every single day. And many of the policy, witnesses are all dead.

man speaking Hmong

(Lee Pao Xiong) I don't know why it's so difficult, why we're caught up in this bureaucratic paperwork. Do the morally right thing, I think.

laughs

There's kind of this moral thing where you know what, we can look at okay fine, we know you served, we know you did this, it's no longer a secret war, the CIA declassified lots of these documents where the president say recruit more Hmong people. Even Ambassador Sullivan basically said, we funded these people, we shipped them the supplies, we fed them, we clothed them, they are our people. This is from the ambassador that ran the war. What more do you need?

We get caught up in this bureaucratic paperwork. We served the United States of America. We protected Americans' interest. We died protecting Americans' interest.

Why the feet dragging and the closed lips? This is 41 years later.

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(woman) This program is made possible by the Minnesota Arts & Cultural Heritage fund.

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