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From the Secret War to the Olympic Stage
The Vietnam War. It still haunts America to this day. But not many people know that it wasn’t limited to Vietnam.
In nearby Laos, there was proxy fighting between North Vietnamese recruited by the Soviets…and Hmong soldiers recruited by the CIA. (There were some Hmong on the Russian side now).
Then we lost the war. Our recruits were in very real danger and, for once in the history of the United States, we did the right thing.
We brought many of them home…along with their families and other Hmong refugees.
Hmong in the United States
Unless you live in one of the areas where they settled? Most white Americans don’t know about the Hmong, their story, or our responsibility for them.
The first refugees arrived in 1975, although many could not be joined by their families until 1980.
But by 2010, 260,073 Hmong individuals were counted in the U.S. census, and no doubt the numbers are now higher. Needless to say, a lot settled in California, where the Asian influences on culture may have made them feel more at home.
But that’s not where the largest Hmong community is.
When refugees arrive in the U.S., they are resettled with the help of domestic resettlement…