1. Vang Pao was a Major general in the Royal Lao Army and later a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States.
21 Facts About Vang Pao
1. 2.
Vang Pao began his early life as a farmer until Japanese forces invaded and occupied French Indochina in World War II.
3.
Vang Pao's father sent him away to school from the age of 10 to 15 before he launched his military career, joining the French military to protect fellow Hmong during the Japanese invasion.
4.
Anne Fadiman, author of The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, said Vang Pao did not express any embarrassment over this cheating.
5.
Vang Pao was the only ethnic Hmong to attain the rank of General officer in the Royal Lao Army, and he was loyal to the King of Laos while remaining a champion of the Hmong people.
6.
Vang Pao emigrated to the United States after the communists seized power in Laos in 1975.
7.
Vang Pao remained widely respected by his fellow Hmong and was an esteemed elder of the American Hmong people, many of whom experienced the war or the reprisals that followed.
8.
Vang Pao was one of the eight founders of the organization in 1981, along with Prince Sisouk na Champassak, General Phoumi Nosavan and General Kouprasith Abhay.
9.
Vang Pao was invited to speak at the US Congressional Forum on Laos, with Members of Congress, about the persecution of the Laotian and Hmong people on several occasions in the US Congress from 1999 to 2003.
10.
From 1993 to 2003, Vang Pao relied on Philip Smith for much of his efforts with policymakers in Washington, DC and the US Congress.
11.
Over time, Smith was instrumental in helping Vang Pao to meet with key Members of Congress and senior Administration officials as well as helping to organize Congressional hearings, briefings and research missions to South East Asia.
12.
In late November 2003 and early 2004, Vang Pao shocked many of his closest advisers and supporters, and began to mysteriously, and abruptly, reverse his previous position in opposition to US economic sanctions against the communist government of Laos.
13.
The Vang Pao Foundation was forced to close following investigation by authorities and a lawsuit by the attorney general of Minnesota.
14.
On 9 March 2009, Vang Pao's lawyers filed a motion seeking to dismiss the charges against him.
15.
Vang Pao's lawyers claimed that the charges were fabricated and had no bearing in court.
16.
That following month, on 11 May 2009, Vang Pao returned to federal court in Sacramento, California with his lawyers to argue the motion.
17.
Vang Pao reportedly had at least 25 children by several wives, and spoke English, French, and Hmong besides his native Lao, although in later years in interviews he did not seem to use the language as much anymore.
18.
Vang Pao, who battled diabetes and heart disease, died at age 81 from pneumonia with cardiac complications on 6 January 2011, at Clovis Community Medical Center, in Clovis, California.
19.
Vang Pao was admitted to the hospital on 26 December 2010, after attending Hmong New Year celebrations in Fresno.
20.
Traditional Hmong funeral services for Vang Pao were scheduled to be held for six days, starting 4 February 2011, at the Fresno Convention Center.
21.
Vang Pao's likeness is memorialized by numerous monuments across the United States, including statues at the San Joaquin County Fairground in Stockton, California and outside the City Council Chamber in Chico, California.