The Minnesota Senate passed a bill Wednesday, April 23, granting some veterans benefits to Hmong and Lao soldiers who fought with the United States military in Laos during the Vietnam War.
About 50 Hmong veterans attended the vote at the state Capitol. Many of them shook hands and hugged some of the Hmong lawmakers who helped author the bill.
“You cannot tell the story of Minnesota without the story of the Hmong,” said Sen. Aric Putnam, DFL-St. Cloud, chair of the Veterans subcommittee. “This is about us. Our Hmong neighbors and friends today live the legacy of those soldiers who we can and should respect with our decision today.”
The House passed its version of the bill on Tuesday, April 29, in a 126-6 vote. The bill now moves to conference committee to reconcile any differences.
More than an estimated 900 Hmong and Lao veterans in Minnesota would receive benefits recognizing their contributions fighting in special guerilla units in Laos, according to Sen. Foung Hawj, DFL-St. Paul, the bill’s lead author. Some of the benefits include special designations on their drivers licenses, veteran burial ceremonies and gravemarkers. Healthcare benefits would not be included.
The Senate’s version of the bill passed unanimously as part of the veterans policy and appropriations omnibus bill. There were no amendments proposed to the bill providing Hmong and Lao veterans benefits.
Shortly after the omnibus bill passed, Hawj asked for a short recess to give thanks to Hmong veterans in the audience, prompting Senate and audience members to erupt in applause.
“It’s a great legacy to leave, because it’s our history,” Hawj said after the vote. “It’s important to recognize the history.”
Many of the Hmong veterans are in their 70s and 80s, including Houa Moua, who attended Wednesday’s vote. He was recruited to fight in the Secret War when he was 13 years old and served for four years.
“I’m very happy because some of my friends are too old, and they cannot come here, but they very much need benefits,” he said.
Senator’s ties to the Secret War
Sen. Susan Pha, DFL-Brooklyn Park, said she was two years old when her father died in Laos during the Secret War, a covert CIA-military backed operation during the Vietnam War. About 35,000 Hmong soldiers died fighting in the war, according to a report published by the Special Guerrilla Units Veterans and Families of USA, Inc.
“It is very deserving for us to give it to them [Hmong and Lao veterans], so they can die with that dignity in the honor that they deserve and earned,” said Pha, who is one of the bill’s co-authors. “That’s really important to me.”
Minnesotans who are U.S. citizens and who served in the Secret War in Laos would be eligible to receive some veterans benefits under the proposed bill, Hawj said.
Big Lake resident Ya Lee said in an interview with the Sahan Journal Tuesday that he was 17 when he was recruited to join the Secret War as a T-28 fighter pilot. He said U.S. commanders casually wore plainclothes like blue jeans and T-shirts every day, while Hmong soldiers wore military uniforms.
“What I’m asking for is little, little recognition,” Lee, 72, “A little patch on my shoulder, you know: ‘Here, Mr. Lee, you have done a lot for us. And this is your reward.’”
The bill would create an advisory task force that would determine eligibility. Veterans could also access benefits by showing proof that they gained U.S. citizenship through a vetting process established by a federal law passed in 2000 that expedites naturalization for soldiers who fought in Lao-based guerrilla units supporting the U.S. military from 1961 to 1978.
Republican pushback
The original Senate version of the bill initially provided full veterans benefits to Hmong and Lao veterans, but Hawj and Pha said some Republican lawmakers disapproved of the costs. Hawj and Pha amended the bill to focus on recognition, and to include some low-cost benefits.
Sen. Jeff Howe, Republican-Rockville, one of the bill’s most vocal opponents, appeared on a conservative radio show last week and said Hmong veterans fought in the Secret War for financial motive.
“I went, wait a minute, you’re gonna let these guys, and you know, maybe they deserve it, but as far as I’m concerned, all of those folks were mercenaries.” he said on the Al Travis Show on station KDHL in Faribault.
He said that he offered to help Southeast Asians about a decade ago in their effort to receive veteran recognition, but said they couldn’t agree on a final arrangement.
“They were hired by the CIA and the U.S. government to fight our fight, and now you’re gonna put them and allow them to be buried in these cemeteries before you take guys like you — guys like other folks that wore our uniform, swore an oath to this country — and you’re gonna put them in line before you guys? Before my guys? I don’t get it,” Howe said.
Howe’s legislative assistant, Nicole Iverson, told Sahan Journal he was unavailable for comment about the bill and his radio appearance.
Howe’s comment about Hmong soldiers fighting as mercenaries was “really disrespectful” and dismissive of their contributions in the war, Pha said.
“I don’t think he can see eye-to-eye,” Hawj said, agreeing with Pha.
Lee said he was upset by Howe’s comments because many Hmong men were recruited when they were very young, and “had no choice.”
“He just made me sick to my guts that he could say something like that,” Lee said. “The way they were recruiting, it was not like the American recruiting over here. You had no choice. Many of the young men had no choice.”
Lee attended the Senate vote Wednesday in military uniform.
“I feel happy,” he said after the vote. “Too many years have passed by that we haven’t achieved this.”
CIA recruited Hmong soldiers
Lee Pao Xiong, director of the Center for Hmong Studies at Concordia University in St. Paul, said the CIA recruited and trained Hmong soldiers because American soldiers weren’t officially allowed to operate in Laos due to the Geneva Agreements.
“To say that we are mercenaries is very insulting for us, and dishonors my uncle who died in the war to protect American interests, and it dishonors my dad who lost his hearing because of constant fighting in the battle front,” he said. “These people need to go back and learn their history.”
Similar bills authored by Democratic and Republican lawmakers were proposed in the past, but were unsuccessful because of the costs of providing benefits, Xiong said. He helped craft the language in this year’s Senate and House bills, and testified in support of the legislation.
Rep. Ethan Cha, DFL-Woodbury, lead author of the House bill, said Howe’s comment was an “insult.” Cha said his father served in the Secret War, and did not receive veterans benefits.
“To not acknowledge those like my father and those soldiers who served in that war who have been displaced and removed and transplanted from their home to America, that would be a dishonorable thing to do as Americans,” he said.
UPDATE: The story has been updated with the House’s vote on its version of the bill on Tuesday, April 29.
