Who are the Hmong?
The Hmong came from the mountains of central China, where they cultivated their own language and tradition apart from the Chinese as long as 4,000 years ago. They were persecuted, however, and after uprisings in the 19th century, hundreds of thousands fled to Laos and elsewhere in Southeast Asia. In the 1950s, the French recruited the Hmong in Laos to help fight Communist insurgents from North Vietnam. When the United States sent military advisers and equipment to the region in 1961, the Hmong and the Lao guarded U.S. radar sites in Laos and rescued American pilots shot down on missions over neighboring North Vietnam. Known as the U.S. Secret Army in the Kingdom of Laos, the Hmong and the Lao also fought the North Vietnamese army to a stalemate in Laos for a decade, until Laos fell in 1973. After the war, the Hmong and many Laos fled to refugee camps in Thailand. Over the next 15 years, more than 100,000 Hmong were given refugee status and allowed to immigrate to the United States. Dur
