Historical Hmong oppresion of drug lord Vang Pao
The below article is an excerpt from the article “Laos: war against an impovered state” by Willy Van Damme translated from Dutch to English by yours truly.
In short: general Vang Pao is a drug lord and CIA agent who held many Hmong hostage in his firm grip of violence and opium trades. Vang Pao’s key goal always was: opium trade and power.
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[]… The French intervention in this internal Hmong clan battle implicated the beginning of a very violent conflict within these groups. Before, conflicts were resolved without too much turbulence, however, this battle escalated.
In the old day, the losing clan simply retreated to different turfs. However, escalation now occurred because the French attempted to retake control back over Laos and Vietnam in 1946 by supplying Touby Ly Foung (a Hmong clan leader) with arms. With these new weapons, Touby Ly Foung tried to eliminate his rival Lo Faydang but his actions failed.
The consequence of this was that Ly Foung and his allie prins Phetsarath of Vietnam contacted Ho Chi Minh. With this, the civil war of Laos was created and Hmong were forced to choose sides for one of both parties. The consequence was a mass slaughter amongst the Hmong which cost tens of thousands of Hmong lives until the war gradually stopped in 1975.
When the French left the Laos area in 1954 and Americans started the battle against Indo-Chinese nationalism, the Americans started searching for a new suitable Hmong leader. Touby Ly Foung, who was born in 1919, was not willing to fight anymore and choose the side of neutrality in Laos.
The new fighter was found. Vang Pao, born in 1929, son in law of Touby Ly Foung, and interpreter for the French special forces “bérets rouges” was America’s new middle man. With all means available to him, Vang Pao started to build a Hmong army that would be at service to the US.
Every village in Hmong area got the “compelling” message delivered to them that they should co-operate with Vang Pao and the Americans. If they did co-operate, they got free food, other aid and a good price for their opium. In return, they had to deliver soldiers to the army of Vang Pao.
If they did not co-operate with Vang Pao they were considered as enemies, which to Vang Pao were the Pathet Lao and the Hmong restance league of Lo Faydang. The choice was easily made. If you were an enemy to Vang Pao and the Americans, mass bombardments on your village was usually the next step …
Opium Trade
Of course, Vang Pao got something in return for his services. He got control of the lucrative opium trade and even build a laboratory in Long Cheng to modify the opium to the highly addictive drug heroine. Long Cheng was also the headquarters of the CIA that directed all American military operations in Laos. Everywhere in the region, small air strips were made as bases to collect opium.
The Corsican airplanes that transported the opium in the French days disappeared and they were substituted by planes of Air America, an air line raised by the American former general Claire Lee Chenault and his wife Anna in Taiwan. In fact, Air America was controlled by the CIA. Anna Chenault also co-operated with Henry Kissinger and former presidency candidate Richard Nixon in sabotaging the peace negotiations in Paris between president Lyndon B. Johnson and North Vietnam at the end of the sixties. These actions helped Nixon into the presidency.
In 1967, Vang Pao raised a foundation called USAID, financed by the CIA, which offically had the goal of delivering aid but actually was mostly a cover up for opium transport. Xieng Khouang Air Transport took over the air deliverances from Air America which implicated that the American government paid to supply the United Nations with heroine, a product that damaged the well-being of many people in the US also.
Under supervision of Vang Pao the heroine trade grew and in 1968, when Vang Pao was at the apex of his powers, the opium trade grew to a total production between 100 en 150 million tons…. []
Sources:
Uitpers, nr. 46, 5de jg., oktober 2003.
The politics of heroin in Southeast Asia – Alfred W. Mc Coy (Harper Torchbooks)
Chine-Birmanie: Histoire d’ une guerre secrète – 1949-1954 – Richard Sola (Sudestasie)
The Yellow Rainmakers – Grant Evans (Verso Editions)
Le Laos: Strategie d’un Etat tampon – Christian Taillard (Territoires Reclus)
Quand l’opium finançait la colonisation en indochine – Chantal Descours-Gatin (l’Harmattan)
You may download this movie, burn...
I asked my mother about General Van Pao and what she remembers about him and she said he made millions from the Opium trade. He is a wealthy man because of that. It's disappointing for some people that he was involve in this business, but what can they do.
Have you been to that part of the country during the french indochina imperialism..? you must have been pulling rabbit out off your ass for accussing Gengeral Vang for trading opium. Let me tell you, the lower land Laos are the one who trade the opium and telling lies to the world. You must get paid a lot of money from today Laos Cummy to write this story. What ever you said, it’s all lies. Shame on you.
You ask: Have you been to that part of the country during the French Indochina imperialism?
Are you simple? Does a cancer doctor need to have cancer himself to be able to operate on it? Do you have to be 100 years old to know there was a World War II? These are documented facts, scientific even. But you will probably dismiss that with your hearsay stories and pride pep talk.
Vang Pao is a well documented drug lord and despote:
Vang Pao was named as "a despotic warlord" in Alfred McCoy’s authoritative book, The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia, for smuggling opium on the CIA’s Air America flights and operating a heroin factory in Long Tieng, Laos in the 1960s and 1970s - while commanding the CIA’s Hmong during a widened US-Vietnam war.
Or Wikipedia?
Shame? Shame on your parents for raising such an ignorant man who confuses Hmong pride with supporting a drug lord and war criminal. And don’t talk about body parts where you obviously have stuck your own head, "someone"
And what on earth is a “cummy”? Are you pron surfing or trying to debate seriously. Go back to high school chump…
Why woulde you want to wrtie something about someone when you don’t even know the real history of that person? They must have paid you tons for writing such lies on the net. Please Mister DO YOUR RESEARCH before you say such things. Everything you said is NOT true. Laos is a low land crounty. People there don’t get good educaation. Everyone there is as dum as a pig. What???? Since they can’t do anything to make their country improve, they want to star crap about Gerneal Vang Pao being a Drug Lord. HUH? Think again..does it even sound true? You must not have any sense. Is this what Laos do to get back at the Hmong People for getting good education and living a happy life?
Before you star talking shite about a Hmong leader, spend time doing your research becuase I bet for this one you didn’t EVEN DO IT!!!
You just called everyone in Laos "as dumb as a pig" and you accuse me of generalizing about someone I don’t know? Apologies of you to Lao people would be in plce here, my potty mouthed friend.
It is this perpetuous and silly understanding that you have to know someone personally to be able to qualify their actions. Non sense. Contrary, if you know someone personally you’ll be more subjective about them.
Also, look at those little orange underlined words on top of the article. That is called a link to a source (a scientific one, if the concept of science means anything to someone so obviously “educated” as yourself). So what part of that source did you not understand? Most of the article is a translation of scientific work. All sources are there as they should be.
You know what, here is the transcript for a May 17, 1988, investigative report by PBS’s Frontline — "Guns, Drugs, and the CIA" that names Vang Pao as a key player in the drug trade during the Vietnam War.
Or what about Wikipedia? Any simple search comes up with loads of sources?
Why do you even bother to deny it with so much evidence tying Vang Pao to drugs? What is your agenda apart from empty words wrapped in strong language?
Ma Noi Tammada! Man Bak Kao! Mee there ma voa sai khone Lao Website tho nee mee there pit gun bab deal gub khone lao elee. Boh teuk gan juck theu. Jung va thak gun pai you toa lork. Some Khone Lao. Mee there do took gun. Mee mou khone kao ga ma do touk khone lao.
Anonymous, must have hung around us too long but I think it’s like that in all people and race, I do have to say the insult is not as bad here at Laovoices, the readers and commenters are not as mean. We have to accept the fact that there are no two people that are exactly alike, just like the saying ‘tongue and teeth’ they’re together but once in a while, you still bite your own tongue…must be the itch inside all of us, but I think you are enjoying this.
It’s already been proven that the allegations tying Vang Pao and the CIA to the opium trade are all false.
Alfred McCoy has a chip on his shoulder against Vang Pao and the Hmong. He even admitted he has not proof to back up his assertions.
The real truth is that McCoy was shunned by Vang Pao (ie. the Hmong) because when he was a correspondent and researcher during the Vietnam/Laos wars, Vang Pao did did not give him the time of day. McCoy was trying to make a name for himself and Vang Pao told him to get lost.
McCoy is also upset that research projects relating to the Hmong get more funding while his area of research, is over looked. He is a jealous man. He’s jealous of the Hmong.
The Hmong are a noble and great people. That is why Chinese, Viets, and Laos could not exterminate them no matter how hard they tried.
These are your words but the evidence is piling of material connecting Vang Pao to drug trafficing. This is also the reason for his current personal wealth living in the US.
Yes, the Hmong are great people but this doesn’t mean you turn your back on such clear evidence. Stay with the facts, true facts that is…
By reading this article, I have found some incorrect statements that made the whole article not truthful:
01. The article said, “Vang Pao’s key goal always was: opium trade and power. “ General Vang Pao and the Hmong start this war when the Neutral forces imprisoned the King, took over the Capital of Vientiane and the plains of jars. Our fighting was to free the King and free the country from the Communists and Neutralists which got the United States interested to help and to supply the Hmong with arms. No opium was collected and no opium trade was available to trade when most Hmong were fleeing, not trading.
02. Second incorrect statement said, “The consequence of this was that Ly Foung and his allie prins Phetsarath of Vietnam contacted Ho Chi Minh.” Prince Phesarath was not a Vietnamese, but a Laotian who was a nationalist. He fought the French for collecting high taxes on Laotians.
03. Third incorrect statements said, “Touby Ly Foung, who was born in 1919, was not willing to fight anymore and choose the side of neutrality in Laos.” Touby Lyfoung was elected as a civilian representative to the Royal Lao Parliament that removed him from his army association. Vang Pao was never mean to replace him, but his brave and capable only made him the next Hmong leader.
04. The fourth incorrect statements said, “Every village in Hmong area got the “compelling” message delivered to them that they should co-operate with Vang Pao and the Americans. If they did co-operate, they got free food, other aid and a good price for their opium. In return, they had to deliver soldiers to the army of Vang Pao.” I was old enough to remember everything by that time. There was never any message such as the writer claimed being given to the Hmong people. When there is a recuiter in town, they said, “We shall join this fight to free us from being colonized by other countries; such as the French and Japanese had done to us.” “Our fight is to determine our independence and our sovereignty,” said the recuiter. We were never being threatened in any way or any how as the writer had misstated. There was never any promise about free food. The first year our village joined the fight, we were starving due to the lack of peaceful time to farm. No food was delivered to us until many died of starvation. The program ran by a civilian American, Edgar Buell who was an Indiana farmer who worked for International Voluntary Services under contract with USAID. It was never ran by Vang Pao as the writer incorrectly stated.
05. The fifth incorrect statement said, “Of course, Vang Pao got something in return for his services. He got control of the lucrative opium trade and even build a laboratory in Long Cheng to modify the opium to the highly addictive drug heroine.” During this time, the Hmong were so busy fighting the war and most of us were being chased or pushed by the Communists from place to place with no time to farm; including, opium crops. There was never anyone in our area that would buy, sell, or collect any opium for sales. This statement is highly alleging, or accusing, or incorrect.
06. The sixth incorrect statement said, “In 1967, Vang Pao raised a foundation called USAID, financed by the CIA, which offically had the goal of delivering aid but actually was mostly a cover up for opium transport. Xieng Khouang Air Transport took over the air deliverances from Air America which implicated that the American government paid to supply the United Nations with heroine, a product that damaged the well-being of many people in the US also.” The fact was that the Air American was used to transport the Hmong from one place to the others. Many opium smokers may have brought along their drug which was for personal uses, but not for sales. Secondly, Vang Pao didn’t raise the USAID foundation. Third, the Xiengkhouang Air Transport was intend for commecial transportation of goods from Vientiane or Thailand to Longcheng due to the fact that there was no road connection Longcheng to most part of Laos at that time. This statement is also false and incorrect.
07. The seventh incorrect statement said, “Under supervision of Vang Pao the heroine trade grew and in 1968, when Vang Pao was at the apex of his powers, the opium trade grew to a total production between 100 en 150 million tons.” During these years, the opium production in Laos was the lowest due to warring. The Hmong, Laotian, and Vietnamese opium smokers had to buy opium from Burma. This statement is also highly alleging and incorrect to the upmost.
My conclusion is that whoever wrote these statement has a intention to hurt Vang Pao and the Hmong verbally, politically, and racially. If this is what you believe and your opinion about Vang Pao and the Hmong, you are 180 degree wrong and you are stupid enough to wrongly stated your words. I have no respect for you who are the enemy of the Hmong people and our leader, Gen. Vang Pao.
Kevin Xiong
Hi Kevin, thanks for replying in such a long post. I see you had a lot to say but so incredible little to add. You can only cry about any valid point I made but where are your sources. Do you think you have enough authority that any word you say is taken as the truth. Scientific sources, Kev, where are they?
You want to come across as intelligent but yet you blindly follow a leader who is a drug dealer and a cowboy, who thinks he can dominate Laos through a barrel of a gun. Days of megalomaniacs such as him are over. They add nothing but violence to the world and lack any diplomatic or political skills to even begin to run a country.
The link to Vang Pao’s opium trade is hard. The (scientific) evidence is piling up more and more and he was never financed heavily by the CIA. So where, Kev, do you think he could buy all those weapons? Do you suspect he had a bakery on the side selling warm buns?
And the evidence linking opium trade to Vang Pao is only piling up. In the LA times of January 18 the drug trafficking of Vang Pao was brought up again. How many proof do you need? Wait, nothing is going to convince you anyway because 1) you are blinded by your “leader” or 2) you are directly involved.
Furthermore, you keep relating Vang Pao to all Hmong people. Wrong! Vang Pao is not equivalent to all Hmong people. Stop relating the Hmong to Vang Pao in order to keep his name up. It won’t fly. He discredited himself too much and cannot be called a leader of all Hmong, just a rogue leader of a small but aggressive militant faction of Hmong. Hmong people are smarter than that.
Here is a statement of professor Chia Youyee Vang of the Wisconsin Uni in the NY times who protests against people like you saying all Hmong are behind Vang Pao:
And, further proof that all Hmong are not behind Vang Pao is the renaming of the elementary school in Madison, Wisconsin. People -like you- pressured the school board to name the school after Vang Pao. But even then, there were murmurs of discontent over naming the school after Vang Pao, who was accused of running drugs and permitting executions during the Vietnam War. When Vang Pao was indicted on federal charges of plotting to overthrow the communist government of Laos, board members unanimously reversed their decision to name the school after him.
So again, stop linking the Hmong people to Vang Pao. It is you and your militant buddies who adore him blindly, not the Hmong people.
And kindly refer where I made a racial statement because I certainly did not. Is that another one of your tricks to discredit writers?
1st. it was in the 60s
2nd. it was in LAOS
My question are:
- What kind of law (LAO’S LAW) said that opium is illegal at that time?????
- Now in laos there is no Vang Pao, but why laos still one of the most drug producer???
-ANSWER ME AS A MAN, did your lao soldiers ever killed our Hmong people in the jungle of LAOS???
Well, as a man, I tell you to cut down on the not-so-impressive all caps posting.
Then your rebuttal that it was the sixties in Laos, therefore, drug trades were legal, or at least, not illegal.
Unfortunately, your street smart logic doesn’t work here. All heroine/opiates were mostly imported to the US (Euro heroine came from Turkey/Afghanistan). Exporting hard drug to the US was already highly illegal irregardless of the fact that Laos would or would not enforce drug cleansing. As I pointed out in my previous post, during the 60s Laos was very divided and did not have a central law implemented. Lawlessness in a country of origin does not legalize illegal exports of heroine.
Allow me to give you an example. In the Netherlands it is not illegal to posses a few grams of marijuana. So do you think I would take a few grams and travel to Thailand with the arguement that it is legal in my home country? The Thai will throw me in jail for a long time without a second thought. Illegal export is illegal export. It is criminal behavior and usually its proceeds are used for more criminal behavior like terrorism. It is no coincidence that the Taliban in Afghanistan are substantially financed by drug trade.
And yes, there is still drug trafficking in Laos. What is your point? Vang Pao is innocent? Eh, no, Vang Pao was (and perhaps still has connections to) one of the drug King Pins in Laos. The fact that some other big dog of dope took over in Laos does not exempt him.
And yes, violence was/is going on from Lao army to Hmong, from Hmong to Lao army and in between Hmong themselves. Don’t pretend every Hmong is a Vang Pao supporter because they are certainly not. Hmong are divided and some support the Lao government.
Vang Pao is planning a violent takeover of Laos. A bad idea that will never work. Apart from the fact that this would imply a minority (Hmong) would take over Laos should ring a bell that this is a bad idea. Such a situation is not acceptable, it is not right. Violent plans like this blow up in your own face, as you might have noticed. There is no international support for it. Also, the Vietnamese will never agree to some violent faction taking over Laos. Vang Pao wants to start another bloody Indochina war? Then deal with Vang Pao as a potential war criminal, as is done now.
All this takeover scheming is not helping the Hmong currently living in Laos. There is always this image of trojan horse subversives around them because violent schemers like Vang Pao are hungry for power. And this, when many Hmong people in Laos simply want to live in peace with the government. They don’t want to be pulled into subversive actions by a man that is clearly out of touch with reality.
Peace is still the best way. Change the government by intelligence, not from the barrel of a gun.
Gen. Vang Pao is not trying to take over Laos. He just want the world to know what the lao government is killing the hmong in laos that’s all… there are many of ways to to kill laotion people if he wanted to do so, no need to buy weapons… you are as slow as your lao government, this is call politic man. I call you man, because your the first person that admit that your lao army is killing our hmong people in laos…
(look poo xai, ka tum ka hup) thank you, ill sent this link to other people so they know that you are admit it…
oh, one more thing…
even if Gen. Vang Pao very did what you are saying, it still better than LAO KILL LAO OWN KING… your lao people are the world record of assassinate own king… and that is why to day lao is a beggar country…