peoples who migrated to the mountains of Northern Laos from Southern China in the 18th Century. Their migration was motivated by the persecution of the Manchu emperor. In the secluded Laotian mountains, and also in Vietnam, Burma and Thailand, they carried on trade with peoples who lived in the flat lands. Throughout their history, the Hmong have been a freedom loving, oppressed minority.
The relationship of the Hmong and the United States began years before the Vietnam War. Hamilton-Merritt points out that the OSS (forerunner of the CIA) approached the Hmong in 1942 to ask their help in fighting the Japanese. The resistance efforts of the Hmong continued through all the wars in Southeast Asia and Indochina as they proclaimed themselves anti-Communist, engaging in activities against Ho Chi Minh's Viet Minh and then the North Vietnamese as part of America's "secret war" in Laos.
In Laos, the Americans, with strong
Commitments to contain communism at the borders
of 'Red China' and to keep the domino from
Falling, and the Hmong, with their dislike of
the Vietnamese and their desire to be free,
came together in a common cause to stop the
North Vietnamese in their quest for hegemony
throughout Indochina. The lengthy and bloody
effort failed. The Americans lost and retreated
across the ocean; the Hmong remained behind to
Be savaged by the conquerors (p. 4).
Hamilton-Merritt indicts the role the United States played, and contends that the Hmong risked everything to defend their homeland and to rescue downed American pilots and guide them to safety, disrupt the Viet Cong's supply lines and basically save many American and South Vietnamese lives. The "Hmong did this at great loss of life. Not just soldiers, but old people, women, and children died and suffered in large numbers. Unfortunately, Westerners did not know about this alliance--nor about the Hmong sacrifices" (P. xvii). The role o...