![]() The House Veterans Affairs Division laid the bill over Friday. HF2206, as amended, would establish “Southeast Asian Allies Day” on May 14, honoring people like the Hmong and Lao who “served, suffered, sacrificed, or died” from 1961 to 1975 assisting U.S. Fue Lee (DFL-Mpls), a descendant of Hmong refugees, wants to etch their efforts into state history. The government still doesn’t consider them official veterans. ![]() They call it the “Secret War.”īut unlike the soldiers, sailors and pilots who came back from the war to their home country – some recognized as heroes, others painted as villains – the Hmong-Lao people who fought in the war weren’t familiar to America, even though they are credited for saving American lives. military in the South Vietnamese pursuit of democracy. The Minnesota Historical Society reports the Vietnam War took the lives of 30,000 to 40,000 Hmong men and boys – recruited by the CIA as allies to U.S. The North Vietnamese killed some who remained. The last of the officers and their families who helped American forces in the Vietnam War fled their land that day, airlifted to Thailand. ![]() On May 14, 1975, Laotian military base Long Tieng fell to the North Vietnamese, leaving the Hmong and Lao people, who had called that area their home, as refugees in their own land and subject to communist forces. For the more than 66,000 Hmong living in Minnesota, May 14 is a day of remembrance, reflection, mourning and celebration.
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