Struggles for Hope: Hmongs in Laos during the Vietnam War Essay example

Life after the vietnam war was and is still today terrible because of not only laos and vietnam but because of the americans who abandoned them. A lot of hmong people moved to minnesota, 10% of the population in saint paul is hmong. Hmong people who stayed in Laos are still being killed today for what happened almost 50 years ago. life in Thailand is no longer a safe refuge for the hmong

The Hmong were a tremendous Help to the Americans in the Vietnam war, they had shown the Americans where to go and aided them in gunfights, they helped heal some men who had injuries. Many Americans who were injured had aided by the Hmong people. The Hmong who consequently supported the American Military was called a terrorist. In return, they helped the Hmong, the bomb called the yellow rain dropped and killed a huge amount of innocent Hmong and died. The Yellow Rain was designed to kill the northern Vietnam army but had a large widespread killed radius (BOFFEY). The U.S couldn’t stop the war and brought some of the Hmong to America to help and ignited a new life trying to free them from their misery, hell, and torture. The Hmong held a parade

Hmong involvement in the Vietnam War led families like the Yangs to immigrate to the United States. Yang was born in a refugee camp in Thailand, (Yang, pg. 53). Like some Hmong families, she was relocated to the United States. Yang was considered lucky because many other Hmong families were left behind in a country that considered them traitors, (George, 2010).

Today, 18 different Hmong clan names are still passed down from generation to generation. Hmong clan names are equivalent to American last names. First names identify people and last names identify clans. The 18 clans provide life-time membership and ongoing material and spiritual support to their members from birth to death. Newborns are given the father’s clan name, which they cannot change. For that reason, Hmong women retain their clan name when they get married (Moua, 1995).

In the 1960s, to the 1970s, the U.S. entered the war with the South Vietnamese against the Vietcong (which is known as the Vietnam War), but there was also an unknown ally that backed the United States during this time. They were the Hmong. “For thousands of years, the Hmong” was a self-sustaining, remote group of people who lived in the mountains of Laos (“The Split Horn: The Journey”). The Hmong were able to stay out of conflicts with others until the Vietnam War literally reached their doorsteps, in which forcing the Hmong people out of their homeland and had them seeking refuge in the U.S.

The Hmong people claim to have helped in the Vietnam war, but no one knows who they are and how they helped. The Hmong came from southeast Asia, many fled from the war as a refuge from their country and some people were a refugee in their own country. It’s melancholy that people need to do this, but northern Vietnam had different political views. The main cause was a political view and northern Vietnam people started a war and it has dragged on for a while, the war caused many deaths in the Hmong people and for other different ethnic groups in the southeast Asian countries. When America came to preclude the war from going further, the U.S military suffered many casualties and injuries, they were aided by the Hmong army made by the General Vang

According to an article by http://classroom.synonym.com titled; The Hmong People's Involvement in the Vietnam War, this group of people were effected during the war by the loss of more than 25% of its people. After the loss of so many people in order to continue this “secret war” they began recruiting children as young as thirteen years of age. After the war that really never ended many migrated to the United States and lived in refugee camps. However, many remained and continued fighting the war as late as 2010. The reason many continued this fight is that they believed according to an article in the “"The Independent," George described them as a tiny force of desperate people clinging to the hope that the CIA would come back to rescue them.

My parents, both Hmong, came to America in 1987. A safe and prosperous environment to grow up in, full of knowledge and money. They believed in the opportunities and achievements that America held for my siblings and I, chances that they never had in their life. I come from a family, that talks very little about how we care and love one another. My parents rarely gave my siblings and I praises, whenever we accomplished things.

The following paper will discuss Vietnamese Americans and their journey to America. I will talk about how these incredible and resilient people fought to succeed it a world that seemed to hold the odds against them. The culture, beliefs, and challenges of Vietnamese people are a precise paradigm of their strength and perseverance.

Transitioning from the Democratic Republic Of Congo to the United States was a challenge that my family and I had to overcome. The main reason why we moved was because my father wanted a better life for my siblings and me. My father did not make enough money to pay for our education, food, housing, and other things. With the little money that he did make, he would give some to my mom so she could buy clothes and sell them in order to put food on the table. More often than not my mom was unable to sell anything so, we would go to my uncle's house to see if he could provide us with at least rice to eat with sugar. In my family's eyes, at least, the rice was better than not eating at all. One day, my father's friend called him and told him that there was a lottery game people were playing and if you won, you would be given the chance to go to the United States. My dad was the only one from my family who was allowed to play and after eight months had passed we were informed that we won! We were all so happy and ready to start a new life in America! The new excitement about moving to a better

Until this day, there are little to no information or recognition of the Hmong as an ally with the Americans during the war. The Hmong’s were not acknowledged during the war by the U.S. government until the 1990s. The veterans that helped the former Hmong General Vang Pao want recognition from the U.S. government (Hays). People would say that when the soldiers died, kids would replace and help fight along with the Americans and when the kids died, the elderly's would replace them. Helms said, “Vang Pao has been forced to use 13 and 14-year-old children to replace his casualties (Weiner).” Today, most Americans know nothing about the Secret War. The war was a classified operation that was meant to be like it never happened. The Hmong in the United

One of the most violent wars in history drove many of Vietnam’s citizens out of the war-torn nightmare of a country. Citizens were frightened for their lives, they didn’t know what would happen to them after the North overtook Vietnam, and furthermore, they fled. The

My family immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s, as Hmong refugees after the secret war with the Pathet Laos. My family originally settled in San Diego, California for several years before they decided to move to Fresno, California. When my parents came to Fresno they were receiving welfare and attending adult school. My father noticed that their friends and relatives were earning more money working in the fields than going to school. My parents dropped out of adult school and started farming to support themselves and my five siblings. My parents felt they couldn’t stop farming because this was now their only way of earning an income to support the family. Growing up, my parents would emphasize the importance of school and getting a bachelor degree.

My parents did not come to San Diego with a lot of money, they only had ten million dong when they came, which to me sounded like a lot but my mom laughed and told me it was a thousand dollars in the U.S. For my parents, this meant they would go homeless in two months if one of them did not find any sort of work. For the first month, it was very difficult for them to find a job because they did not know how to find one. My mother would tell me how my father was a very strong man and yet no one would hire him because he would not know what to say during the interview. My mother would tell me how there were many nights she would fall asleep crying because she would think back to Vietnam when she was with her family and friends, where she did not feel limited or restricted by anything but money, and how now that she was here in San Diego, it was not only money but also her opportunity to socialize and communicate with many of the people around her. Even with my father by her side, she felt helpless and excluded from the community, like she no longer had a voice. Fortunately, near the end of the first month, one of the Vietnamese neighbors actually noticed my parents and greeted them. This man had a family and welcomed my parents greatly. He even helped my father find a job and get access to government services such as rent assistance, Medi-Cal and Food Stamps. Many immigrants share the same experiences my parents

---Between 1955 and 1960, the North Vietnamese with the assistance of the southern communist Vietcong, tried to take over the government in South Vietnam, and in November 1963 President Diem was overthrown and executed. The following year, the North Vietnamese began a massive drive to conquer the whole country aided by China and Russia.