Naming a Madison school after Hmong General Vang Pao
What's in a Madison school's name?
By Heidi M. Pascual
MMSD Board of Education heard testimony for and against reconsideration of the Board's decision to
name an elementary school on Madison's west side after Hmong General Vang Pao.
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It was Monday evening, the 7th of May. The auditorium of the Madison Metropolitan School
District's Doyle building was abuzz with people from the local Hmong community and supporters.
They were ready to "attack" the arguments of Alfred McCoy, a University of Wisconsin-Madison
professor of Southeast Asian history, who earlier strongly opposed the naming of a Madison
elementary school after Hmong General Vang Pao. McCoy was among the early speakers to
appeal to the MMSD Board of Education to reconsider its decision to name the school after the
Hmong general.
McCoy, according to his bio on UW-Madison's website, "spent the past 30 years writing about
Southeast Asian history and politics" and his publications on the "region have focused on two
topics -- the political history of the modern Philippines and the politics of opium in the Golden
Triangle." The first edition of his book, "The Politics of Heroin in Southeast Asia," was published in
1972. This work alleged the involvement of Vang Pao in drug trafficking and in committing
atrocities, including torture and extrajudicial summary executions of captive soldiers.
McCoy essentially reiterated these allegations at the MMSD public hearing, and urged the Board
to name the school after a more respectable Hmong leader. (In proving that he strongly favors the
naming of this new Madison elementary school after a Hmong leader to honor the Hmong
sacrifice in the Vietnam War and the many Hmong contributions to American society, McCoy had
suggested the following names in an earlier response to a Letter to the Editor-Isthmus Weekly:
Lee Lue, the heroic Hmong pilot who died in Laos in 1969; Dr. Yang Dao, the first Hmong-
American to earn a Ph.D. and a tireless advocate for Hmong education; or Shong Lue Yang, "the
Mother of Writing," that brilliant religious leader who invented a non-Romanized system for Hmong
writing.) McCoy told the MMSD Board that several press reports pointed to financial fraud affiliated
with Gen. Vang Pao, and emphasized that in St. Paul, Minn., where there is a large concentration of
Hmong people, not one school was named after the general. McCoy was supported by another
UW professor, a lawyer, and a few other community members, including Heidi Renault, who has
been collecting signatures to petition the MMSD Board of Education to change its mind. Some
members of the Veterans for Peace likewise voiced their opposition to the name "Vang Pao
Elementary School" and proposed that names of other peace-loving Hmong be considered
instead.
Several Hmong community leaders and students spoke against Prof. McCoy's position and
urged the Board of Education to stand strong in its decision to name a Madison elementary school
after General Vang Pao. Without Vang PaoÂ’s help, they said, the Hmong would not have been
alive today nor relocated to other countries like the United States. Some of them are listed below:
* Doua Vang: "General Vang Pao freed the Hmong from years of slavery, prosecution and
discrimination in Laos. It was General Vang Pao who built schools for the Hmong in remote
villages. He promoted education. So we're all here to refute Professor McCoy's allegations. They
are unfounded and not true!"
* Pahoua Thao (in an interview with Asian Wisconzine): "General Vang Pao is a great leader.
Here in the U.S., he has told the Hmong people that education is the right route. His actions speak
louder than words; he supports the Hmong who are transitioning to American life. In all of his
speeches, he focuses on the importance of education for our future." As regards the "opium lab"
that he allegedly operated during the Secret War, Thao said it was hearsay, and the professor did
not even talk to the general himself.
* Jasmine Vang (9 years old, a pupil at the Mendota Elementary School): "There are lots of
schools, but not one is named after a Hmong. Gen. Vang Pao took the Hmong people to America.
Why can't we name a school after him?"
* LoPao Vang (MMSD Guidance Counselor for 15 years): "You have made the right decision! You
must not be influenced by any opposition. Gen Vang Pao is a great leader for he united many
groups."
(From top) Doua Vang;
Cheng Xainou Vang
and daughter Jasmine;
UW-Prof. Alfred McCoy;
former MMSD Board
Member Shwaw Vang
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* Peng Her (business owner): "Are we going to reconsider the name of every school in Madison named after persons with
questionable background? There is a Madison school named after a slave owner who had an affair with one of his slaves.
There is a Madison school named after a labor leader who opposed unrestricted immigration from Europe because it
lowered wages, and opposed any immigration at all from Asia for the previous reason and also because it brought an alien
culture. There is a Madison school named after a racist and Nazi sympathizer!"
* Shwaw Vang (former MMSD Board member): "Prof. McCoy used the word "Meo," a derogatory name to describe the
Hmong people. His allegation that Gen. Vang Pao sold drugs to American soldiers was demeaning to the more than 30,000
Hmong people who died during the Secret War. How accurate was his research when he was in Laos for only two weeks?
The Hmong were the first line of defense in that war. I wished that the two professors who opposed the naming of the
school had stayed to engage in a dialogue."
* Kabzuag Vaj (Director of Freedom Inc.): "Look at the people behind me in this room. They are our history. They are the
wives, the parents, the children of the Hmong who fought with General Vang Pao. It is an insult to them. Were we that
ignorant to not know if Gen. Vang Pao did what Prof. McCoy was talking about? We know that Gen. Vang Pao hated opium
and its effects on people. I was a student of Prof. McCoy and at that time, he told us (his class) exactly what he told you
tonight. I cried the whole time because he insulted the Hmong leader who brought us here."
As of this writing, there is yet no word as to whether or not the MMSD Board of Education will reconsider its decision to
name a new elementary school on the west side of Madison "Vang Pao Elementary School." What is clear though, is that the
Hmong community of Madison is united in its efforts to support the Board's decision and to fight hard to keep it. Professor
Alfred McCoy appeared to also fight it out, with "evidence" from testimony he used in his research for his published book on
drug trafficking in Southeast Asia. The questions yet left to be answered are: What is the "standard" being used by MMSD in
selecting names for its schools? Or is there one?