The Hmong. Forgotten Heroes. Suni Lee
A CIA operation. A Secret War to stop the spread of Communism
from North Vietnam into Laos.
A Secret Army of Hmong fighters, boys and men,
based in their villages deep in the rugged terrain between countries.
The Forgotten Heroes, the Hmong fighters gathering reconnaissance
and saving American pilots shot down by the Viet Cong.
Over the course of the Vietnam War, Hmong casualties in the thousands.
April 30, 1975. The fall of Saigon.
With American forces gone, the Pathet Lao and Viet Cong
bombed Hmong villages and targeted the people for death.
What a price to pay! What a sacrifice to make! What a debt owed!
Hand-stitched story cloths record memories and trace journeys,
like that from Ban Vinai Refugee Camp, Thailand,
to the United States to St. Paul, Minnesota.
In 2021 the home of Suni Lee,
Gold-medal gymnast.
First Hmong-American Olympian.
What a triumph!
(I recommend The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir by Kao Kalia Yang to expand your understanding of the history and the culture of the Hmong people.)
