Wednesday, May 14, 1975. Hmong evacuation.

Thousands of Hmong soldiers and officers and their families who had assisted the CIA during the Laotian Civil War, reported to the Long Chieng airbase in Laos for air evacuation.  Only two cargo planes were assigned the duty, but they managed to take out 2,500 Hmong.

This brings back up the discussion here earlier of Ma Yang, a Hmong was deported by the U.S. to Laos even though she only speaks English and has lived in the US since she was eight months old.  As far as I know, nothing has yet been done to address her plight.

Today is Hmong American Day in the United States, which is set on this day in recognition of the evacuation and ultimately that a population of the Hmong Diaspora relocated to the U.S.  The largest population of Hmong live in China, which is actually where the ethnic group originates, with Vietnam having the second largest population.

Dalton Trumbo was presented an Academy Award for his 1956 script for The Brave Ones, which had been earlier awarded under a pseudonym due to Trumbo then being blacklisted.

Dalton and Cleo Trumbo at a 1947 House Committee on UnAmerican Affairs hearing.

Trumbo actually was a Communist and pretty up front about it.  1973's Papillon was his last screenplay to be produced prior to his death in 1976.

Last edition:

Tuesday, May 13, 1975. Breakthrough at Long Tieng.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Central Intelligence Agency, Hmong People, Laotian Civil War, North Vietnamese Army, Pathet Lao, Personalities, U.S. Air Force, Vietnam War

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Ma Yang

Labels: Crime, Hmong People, Immigration, It was because of the Vietnam War, Laos, law, Marijuana, Monday at the bar

Tuesday, May 13, 1975. Breakthrough at Long Tieng.

Pathet Lao and North Vietnamese troops broke through the defense lines of the Hmong army headquartered in Long Tieng, Laos, "the most secret place on earth."   From that location, the Hmong has opposed the Pathet Lao and NVA.

Jerry Daniels of the CIA organized an air evacuation of Vang Pao and about 2,000 Hmong, mostly soldiers and their families to Thailand.

Daniels is an interesting character who stayed on in Thailand after the conclusion of the Indochinese wars.  He was claimed to to have died in 1982 due to asphyxiation from a water heater gas leak, but his casket was sealed with instructions not to open it.  After his funeral in Montana, which was widely attended by Hmong refugees, various members of the Hmong community have claimed to have seen him in Indochina or the US.

Last edition:

Monday, May 12, 1975. The Mayaguez taken.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, boats and ships, Cambodia, Khmer Rouge, The Mayaguez Incident

Friday, May 9, 1975. The Hmong Genocide.

Kaho Xane Pathet Lao, the official newspaper of the Lao People's Party, (the Communist Party) announced: that the nation's Hmong people "must be exterminated down to the root of the tribe" because their soldiers had assisted the United States in fighting the Communists. 

Two days later the genocide would begin.

Last edition:

Thursday, May 8, 1975. The last to get out.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, Cambodia, Cambodian Civil War, European Community, Islam, People's Republic of China, religion, Thailand

Monday, May 5, 1975. Dominos. And now Laos.

The Social Security Administration announced for the very first time that it's retirement and disability program was in debt; and that its $46 billion reserve would be drained by 1983.  Notably, President Nixon had extended Medicare, which originally did not apply to everyone, to everyone 62 years of age or older during his Administration.

Television broadcasting began in South Africa.

Royal Lao General Vang Pao, a Hmong highlander, was ordered by the Prime Minister of Laos to cease resistance to the Pathet Lao. 

He resigned instead.

It's almost like the Domino Theory was correct.

Before serving in in the Royal Lao Army, he has served with the French starting during World War Two.  He immigrated to the United States where he died in 2011.

101 former RVNAF aircraft at U-Tapao Royal Thai Navy Airfield were loaded aboard the USS Midway which evacuated 27 A-37s, 3 CH-47s, 25 F-5Es and 45 UH-1Hs.

A further 41 aircraft were flown to the U.S.  54 aircraft were transferred to the Thai Government, these comprised: 1 A-37, 17 C-47s, 1 F-5B, 12 O-1s, 14 U-17s and 9 UH-1Hs.

Last edition:

Sunday, May 4, 1975. 1,000,000 runs.

Labels: 1970s, 1975, baseball, Cambodia, Cambodian–Vietnamese War, Khemr Rouge, South Vietnam, Sports, Vietnam

Ma Yang

A conviction for Marijuana trafficking in 2020 has lead to one Ma Yang, a 37 year old mother of five, being deported to Laos.

It's hard not to note that while marijuana trafficking is illegal, hardly any state in the US cares about growing, selling, and using it now.

She came here from  Thailand in 1988 when she wasn't even a year old.  She's Hmong.  Raised in the US, she doesn't speak an Indochinese language.  Her arrest and conviction involved twenty-five other people (probably all Hmong, I'd guess) and she plead guilty and served thirty months in jail.

She shouldn't have done that, but then, the pressure to be involved, which doesn't excuse it, may have been pretty high.  Apparently everyone involved lived in the same building.

In jail her green card was revoked and she signed a deportation order, believing, naively that she wouldn't be deported as her folks were from Laos, which doesn't cooperate with the US on such matters.

Well, they did here.  She's been in Laos since March, where she doesn't speak the language, and can't get insulin or blood pressure medicine.  Getting a job isn't going to be easy.

What's the lesson here?

Well, some would say if you can't do the time, don't do the crime, although she did the time.  

Some might say she got bad legal advice.  Maybe.  

Some would say that this is really inhumane.  Given her condition, she's likely to suffer for her crime with death, in short order.