Risk Only One

NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol was injured in a plane crash in Colorado along with two others. His son and the pilot passed away and my prayers are with all the families. Ebersol’s wife is actress Susan Saint James and she was not onboard the plane.

Even if the Ebersol and wife traveled separately by accident, they reminded me about my parents pledge.

We lived in Vientiane Laos from 1968 to 1969 during the Vietnam War. We flew on Air America (AA) all over Laos and Thailand. Several times my parents traveled together and left me and my brother at home with a babysitter. Since flying slow and low over enemy territory is very hazardous, they suddenly came to a decision. That my parents would never travel together in the war zones, so that if they were shot down and killed, at least my brother and I would have one parent.

A very sensible pledge in the mad world of Laos.

I had a school friend in Laos lose his Dad and I still remember the feeling that I had for my friend to this day. The “Secret War” in Laos was crazy enough without having to worry about one of my parents getting killed or captured by the Pathet Lao (PL). The PL were not very nice to Americans that they captured and had a tendency to cut off ears of their prisoners. Making a statement, don’t you see. Article

The PL were the Viet Cong of Laos, a puppet for the Communist governments of Russia and China. The CIA mission in Laos was to harass the PL, be forward observers (FO) for bombing missions of the Ho Chi Minh Trail (HCMT), and assist the war effort any way they could. That included feeding the local tribes, arming them, training them, providing medicine and doctors.

Speaking of doctors, a good friend of mine’s father from Laos was a famous doctor there. His name was Dr. Charles Weldon, and he did God’s work over in that nasty place. Here is a link to his autobiography.

The main hill tribe in Laos was the Hmong. A fierce and loyal group of tribes that lived in the mountains, using stone age technologies to survive. Many western people called them “Meo” but that turned out to be an ethnic slur that the lowlands Lao came up with to insult the mountain people. Despite the Hmong being “backwards” they bonded with the CIA CAS (Covert Action Staff) officers and mercenary trainers. The Hmong became more reliable than the conventional army that we trained in the lowlands. The Hmong were also awesome warriors and they seemed to have no fear in battle. They traditionally used cross bows and knives as weapons. We gave them light rifles like the M-1 carbine and they became even more deadly.

Up until 1975, the Hmong kept the PL at bay and won many of the engagements that they conducted. But the White House (WH) and CIA in 1975 betrayed that trust and left them for the wolves. We withdrew our troops, CIA agents, mercenaries, and equipment. The poor Hmong were then subjected to death, long prison terms, and “re-education camps”. More than half of their population was destroyed. Some made it to Thailand but then got stuck in interment camps. Those camps make it on TV once in a while and they are slums, to put it nicely.

Other Hmong tried to escape by sea and they were raped, robbed, and killed by sea pirates near the Gulf of Siam.

It is a disgrace that a great ally like the Hmong were basically given the death sentence. And many Vietnamese that were friendly to us suffered the same fate.

You can read a great book on the subject, “Decent Interval” by Frank Snepp.

This entry was posted on July 31, 2006 at 2:06 am and is filed under Laos. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.