Hmong Recent History

1. Hmong Recent History • At the beginning of the 19th century, half a million Hmong migrated from China to Indochina. • They settled at the highest altitudes, between 1,000 and 2,000 meters, in the region known today as Laos.

2. Indochina was a French colony until 1954, when it was forced to withdraw. • The Geneva Accords of 1954 recognized three independent states in what was formerly French Indochina: Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

3. Because the Hmong lived in such remote areas, they were able to remain undisturbed, and could resist assimilation into Laotian culture.

4. Hmong Life in Laos • Based on economic self-sufficiency: • Farming rice, corn and vegetables • Hunting animals • Fishing • Gathering fruits

5. Opium Poppy • Had been traditionally grown by Hmong and served to: • Facilitate shamanic ceremonial trances • Dull pain of headaches, toothaches, snakebites, and fever • Control diarrhea • Ease the discomforts of old age

6. Few Hmong aside from the chronically ill and the elderly were addicts. • Addiction among youth was looked down upon: Young males had trouble getting married.

7. Opium in China • Was introduced by the British in the 18th century, who were interested in making profits from local addicts. • Caused devastating social ills. • Drew the Hmong into the international opium trade: The poppy became the only cash crop grown by the Hmong in Laos.

8. Hmong Agriculture • Based on the slash-and-burn technique, which requires no fertilizing, irrigation or plowing, because the ashes enrich the soil. • When this technique is used, the soil becomes exhausted within a five-year period, forcing the population to migrate.

9. 1960s and 1970s • The Indochina peninsula became one of the many Third World scenarios where the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union was fought. • Laos became a battleground for the Vietnam War, despite the fact that world superpowers had signed treaties promising that it would remain neutral territory.

10. U.S. President Eisenhower • Considered the fate of Laos to be the most important problem facing the U.S. If it fell to communism, it would be only a matter of time before South Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Burma fell too.

11. The U.S. was anxious to support the anticommunist Royal government in Laos, which was engaged in struggle with the communist Pathet Lao, a guerrilla organization supported by North Vietnamese military forces.

12. However, the U.S. did not want to make it obvious that they were violating international treaties. Therefore, they fought the war by proxy.

13. CIA advisers • Recruited, trained and armed a secret guerrilla army of more than 30,000 Hmong soldiers. • At its peak, this clandestine army was the CIA’s biggest operation in the world, but it was virtually unknown due to its tightly-sealed secrecy. • P. 128

14. The annual cost of the Vietnam War was about US$20 billion, with soldiers’ salaries of US$200-US$300 per month. • The cost of the clandestine Hmong army was US$500 million, with salaries of US$3 per month.

15. Hmong soldiers had no vacations. They were trained to fly their planes until they died. • Hmong soldiers were forced into combat: • Because bombing in Laos forced them to abandon their fields, and because there was no other form of employment. • Because generals punished and attacked villages that didn’t fill their soldier quotas.

16. More than two million tons of bombs were dropped on Laos by American planes attacking communist troops in Hmong areas. • There was an average of one bombing excursion every eight minutes for nine years.

17. As Hmong casualties increased, younger soldiers were recruited. • It is estimated that the war killed between 10% and 50% of the Hmong population in Laos. • In Northern Laos, were most Hmong lived, 90% of the villages were affected by the war through both death and displacement.

18. The war destroyed Hmong self-sufficiency.

19. January 1973 • The U.S. pledges to withdraw forces from Vietnam. • They do nothing to protect Laos from North Vietnamese invasion. • In 1975, the last areas of Hmong resistance are attacked by the Pathet Lao. • 3,000 Hmong are airlifted to Thailand. At least 10,000 are left behind.

20. The Hmong who were left behind became prisoners of the Vietnamese in their own country. They attempted to escape several times. • The Vietnamese took away two-thirds of their produce and livestock as tribute. • They killed Hmong who disagreed with the regime, and tried to destroy Hmong culture.

21. The Hmong decided to migrate to fight oppression, famine, and dependence on American rice drops. • For 10,000 there were no crops to harvest. • An unknown number of Hmong who attempted to flee Laos died en route. When they arrived in Thailand, 80% suffered from malnutrition, malaria, anemia and infections.

22. Spring of 1979 • The Lee family together with 400 other Hmong, attempt to escape Laos. • They traveled on food for 26 days, until they crossed the border into Thailand, where they spent a year in two refugee camps, before cleared to emigrate to the United States.

23. Ban Vinai = Refugee Camp • Had serious problems of inadequate health, overcrowding, welfare dependency, unemployment, substance abused, prostitution and anomie. • Camp officials blamed Hmong for their miserable condition.

24. Refugees have three solutions to their displacement: • To integrate into local society (Thailand refused to accept the Hmong permanently). • To voluntarily return to the place of origin (the Hmong could not safely return to Laos) • To resettle in another country (for a while, the Hmong rejected the idea of going to the US because of rumors about the bad life there).

25. Ban Vinai closed in 1992 • It’s 11,500 inhabitants were forced to leave. • In the early 1990s, when the Hmong applied for refugee status to the US en masse, most were rejected due to very stringent new eligibility requirements. • The Lees had been accepted because they came earlier, in 1980.

26. In spite of the terrible life conditions the Lees endured in Laos and Thailand, nothing seems to have upset them more than what happened to Lia in the US.

27. November 25, 1986 • Lia had the worst epileptic seizure of her life. • It took a long time (20 minutes) for her to get to the hospital, because the Lees thought that she would be better looked after if she came in an ambulance. They needed to call their nephew, to get the ambulance because they didn’t speak English.

28. Lia was on the verge of death, and seized continuously. The doctors used: • A plastic airway over her tongue. • An oxygen mask over her mouth and nose. • An IV in the top of her left foot. • A hand ventilator.

29. Lia eventually received so much medicine that she stopped seizing. • She was transferred to the Valley Children’s Hospital in Fresno because the MCMC doesn’t have a children’s Intensive Care Unit.

30. Lia’s parents thought she was transferred because her doctors were going away on vacation.

31. Lia’s temperature began to rise. She also had diarrhea and a very low platelet count. Unusual symptoms that were disregarded due to the severity of her seizures at the time.

32. Lia was in septic shock, a result of a bacterial invasion of the circulatory system. • This was probably caused by the saphenous cutdown procedure executed at MCMC to insert a catheter through which Lia was able to get her anticonvulsant medication.

33. Lia continued to seize at the hospital in Fresno. • She developed disseminated intravascular coagulation, and underwent a double volume exchange transfusion.

34. Nao Kao was very upset that doctors had performed a spinal tap without his permission. • Hmong believe this procedure is crippling. • Misunderstandings between family and staff continued. The Lees did not understand Lia was comatose. Doctors continued to indicate invasive procedures.

35. Lia’s EEG was flat: She was brain dead. She would not have seizures any more. • The doctors and social worker began to prepare the family for Lia to die. • Doctors disconnected intravenous lines, which upset Foua very much.

36. Parents wanted to take Lia home to help her die in peace. • Doctors decide she sould go back to the MCMC for supportive care.

37. She is admitted with the following diagnoses: • Severe brain damage • Septicemia • Severe seizure disorder • Status post disseminated intravascular coagulation • Status post septic shock

38. Dr. Neil Ernst could handle seeing Lia, so his wife, Dr. Peggy Philip took over care of the patient. • Lia’s family called a shaman to perform a ceremony at the medical centre.

39. The family wanted all treatment to stop because they thought it was killing her. • Doctors thought they wanted to let her die with dignity.

40. Social worker Jeanine and Dr. Peggy arrange for home nursing visits and supplies, so Lia can be sent home. • Foua is given a series of instructions she doesn’t understand, but signs them nonetheless.

41. Nao Kao is told that in two hours, after paperwork, Lia would be released and he could take her home to die. • Nao Kao is seriously offended: For the Hmong, it is strongly taboo to foretell death. “It makes the dab come closer to the child.”

42. Nao Kao refuses to sign release papers which he interprets as saying that his daughter would die in two hours. • He attempts to take Lia home on his terms, and is restrained by police.

43. Eventually, Lia goes home, on doctors’ terms. • Parents boil herbs and wash her body, trying to take away the bad effects of all the medicine she received at the hospital. • Against doctors predictions, she survives.