Remembering Vang Pao, Guerilla Fighter And Hmong Leader

Photo: Vang Pao, outside a California courthouse in 2009, was called "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War" by former CIA chief William Colby

Vang Pao, Guerilla Fighter And Hmong Leader, Dead At 81 -- Time Magazine

He was born in the Laotian jungle in 1929 and died yesterday in suburban Clovis, Calif. Along the way, General Vang Pao, son of Hmong farmers, became a key, if controversial, American ally and the symbolic father of a persecuted people.

Vang Pao, who was 81, is best known for his role in America's "secret war," a covert, CIA-backed campaign against Laos' Viet Cong–aligned leaders during the Vietnam War. In the lead-up to war, North Vietnamese forces cut tracks through the Laotian jungle, creating the supply route now known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Laos was also at war, split between the communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao forces. The Americans teamed up with the latter, working with Vang Pao and a band of guerilla fighters to disrupt the North's network of trails. For his 15-year fight against Southeast Asia's communists, former CIA chief William Colby once called Vang Pao "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War."

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More News On The Death Of Vang Pao, Guerilla Fighter And Hmong Leader

Laos general and Hmong leader Vang Pao dies in exile -- BBC
Vang Pao, Hmong guerrilla leader, dies in Calif. -- Boston.com/AP
Vietnam War 'secret army' chief dies in US hospital -- AFP
Vang Pao, Hmong Leader And General Who Led Secret War In Laos, Has Died -- NPR
Gallery: A look back at Vang Pao and his supporters -- Sacremento Bee