Revered Hmong general urges better options through education
10:34 PM 12/07/02
Andy Hall Wisconsin State Journal

Thousands of miles and two decades from their homeland, some troops of Hmong Gen. Vang Pao wore their olive uniforms Saturday to celebrate his 73rd birthday.

Pao, revered by many as a latter-day George Washington, spoke forcefully as he recounted for more than 500 Madison listeners the struggles his soldiers endured while fighting on behalf of U.S. troops in the Vietnam War. He joined the military at age 13 and says he survived eight aircraft crashes.

"I was so proud to have all of you survive with me," Pao told his audience of former troops, now banded together as Lao Veterans of America members, their relatives and Hmong residents. They came from Wisconsin, Minnesota, California and France to the all-day gathering at the Exhibition Hall of the Alliant Center.

Hmong were persecuted and fled their native Laos in the late 1970s and 1980s, resettling primarily in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin, which has the nation's third-largest Hmong population. The state's headcount doubled during the 1990s to 33,791.

The tribute to Pao - and a separate Hmong event at Madison's Memorial High School - underscored the difficulties facing the Hmong as they shift from subsistence farming in their mountain homeland to a new language, culture and work in their adopted land.

Pao urged his audience to focus on education as a means of earning more money and opening more options. Those who are succeeding, he said, have an obligation to help Hmong in the United States as well as those continuing to suffer in Vietnam and Laos at the hands of Communist leaders.

Since 1975, an "ethnic cleansing war" has killed an estimated 300,000 Hmong, Vang Pobzeb, executive director of the Eau Claire-based Lao Human Rights Council, Inc., U.S.A., said in an interview.

Pao helped lead the Hmong resettlement effort and remains popular among his compatriots despite allegations in a 1972 book by UW-Madison history professor Alfred McCoy that the CIA supported Pao's role in a heroin-trafficking operation in partial payment for supplying troops who fought the North Vietnamese in Laos.

Pao and his followers deny the allegations but McCoy stands by his book.

Pao is "the best leader ever in Hmong history," Pobzeb said, calling the charges "nonsense." Pobzeb said he personally was in a position to know because he worked for the CIA under the direction of an American leader and Pao from 1971 to 1975.

Pao also won praise from 10 Hmong high school students interviewed Saturday at an event at Memorial High School.

"He is kind of a magical person," said Fong Her from Milwaukee. He praised Pao for helping bring Hmong to America and for instilling in them a sense of pride in their identity.

But that identity, the students and social-services officials said, is threatened.

The Hmong language is fading, replaced by English. Many older parents know little English, so they and their children have trouble communicating.

Hmong traditions, too, are slipping. Parents accustomed to wielding authority over their children are losing control as negative peer influences take hold. Absenteeism and low achievement remain serious problems.

At the high school event Saturday, 300 Hmong high school students, parents, educators and leaders met at a first-of-its-kind "youth workshop."

The chasm between youths and their parents became evident when some parents walked out of an early session, frustrated that they couldn't understand the English conversation.

The original plan called for the students to speak "Hmonglish" - a blend of the two languages, so that parents could keep up. Future events will rely on more training of students and, possibly, the use of interpreters, said CherKhua Yang, a leader for United Refugee Services, a non-profit agency that sponsored the event.

Students said that adults often don't realize how confused they become. At home, their parents criticize them for faulty use of the Hmong language, said Charlie Vang of Milwaukee. At school, they get low grades for using imperfect English.

Lee Yang, youth services coordinator for Hmong Educational Advancement, a Milwaukee non-profit agency, said the Hmong are going through the same painful transitions that earlier immigrant groups experienced. "We're all going to be assimilated into America," said Yang, who predicted that Hmong culture will largely be consigned to museums and books, where it'll be studied.

"We've adapted to the U.S.," said Xeng Cha, a Milwaukee resident who was born in Laos but has lived in this country for 14 of his 19 years. "This is our culture."

At the end of the day, Peng Vang, a Sun Prairie High School student, declared it a success because he gained insights into how hard parents work - sometimes two or three jobs at late hours - to provide for their children.

"Coming here," he said, "I understand my parents a little more. They really love us. We may not know it, but they do."