A splendid old soldier
by Ronault "Polo" Catalani
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On June 4, 2007 officers from a muscular mix of federal, California, and local Sacramento law enforcement agencies arrested
former Royal Lao Army Major General Vang Pao. The esteemed Hmong freedom fighter, along with eight others, was charged
with several federal felonies including plotting to overthrow rulers of the Democratic People's Republic of Laos.
To be clear, communist leaders of Laos are among our world's most inept and corrupt. The precious children of Laos are
among the least healthy, the least educated. But that aside, it is still a crime for U.S. citizens to forcibly remove foreign leaders
not at war with the United States. Unless we're talking Cuba or North Korea or Iran -- then it's called regime change.
Gen. Vang Pao is also known as "VP" to his former highland farmer-soldiers, to veteran members of the U.S. Congress, and to
old hands in America's national intelligence and military establishments. Those who fought under VP always recall his devotion
to his soldiers. The General led by furious example, hill to hill, year after desperate year, shoulder to shoulder with his miserably
under-fed, woefully under-armed, but fiercely loyal highlander freedom fighters. Every one of them, in covert common-cause with
the United States.
What we seldom hear from this old soldier or his silent exiled families is talk about their inability to absorb the bitter truth of
U.S. abandonment: Betrayal -- back then, back in their beloved Laos highlands, and now again. Right here. The audacity of a
criminal indictment issued by America. By the big brother of little people, our dreamy people everywhere, wanting so badly to
believe in the American Promise.
I began working with Hmong families in frontier Thailand, assisting their escape then easing their resettlement during our
dark 1980s. In our optimistic '90s, we mobilized vigorous Hmong enclaves into American voting blocks. Since 2001, we warily
note how mean our anxious nation's warring, overseas and between our shores, has made America. Our America.
I have learned a lot from articulate elder uncles just like the Old General. I have felt my way around their elegant universe, as
ancient as ours. So much alike we are in our stubborn commitments to how human beings must be. Here are three:
On how sincere allies don't separate and solemn oaths are never denied, we are in complete accord;
On how we will send without second thought, our teenage boys into angry enemy fire to save our sworn ally's helpless son,
tangled in his parachute, dangling from my jungle canopy -- we will always agree;
On how my brother-in-arms must take my family into his home after mine is rubble; on how my lost grandpas and exhausted
aunties shall be soothed, our sorrows revered -- we stand together. Forever.
In the days after the Hon. Vang Pao's arrest and hospitalization for his racing, aching heart, Hmong Americans demonstrated
on the steps of that federal court trying him, around state capital buildings from one end of our chaotic continent to the other.
They asked for him back. For justice. To make justified their unimaginable losses.
I want to tell them: never stop your stubborn dreaming. American dreaming.
We need to assure them that their esteemed general does them proud. He is a soldier true. A good soldier does not always
win, he needs only try and try and try. He must only stay true to his ancestors' and elders' and children's trust. That is winning.
And if the big heart of this tiger bursts for thus trying, for this truth, for those families -- then al'hamdulillah. Thank God for that.
For that's how we are. What we must be.
Let us honor VP then let's remake America. The shame of this ugly episode is not on the Old General or on his simply solid
soldiers.