Laos Memorial - Historical Significance

Historical Significance

The Laos Memorial was dedicated on May 15, 1997 in an emotional Arlington Cemetery ceremony attended by thousands, including Hmong war veterans and refugees, American government officials, and U.S. supporters of the Hmong.

The day has since been viewed as an historical one, since it represents the first time that the United States government officially and publicly recognized the contributions of these soldiers who fought alongside the United States during the Vietnam War. A covert war, the contributions of the Hmong to the U.S. war effort against the North Vietnamese Army and VietCong in Laos had been officially and repeatedly denied by the U.S. government during the Vietnam War and for over two decades following its end. Despite U.S. denials, however, the Secret War was actually the largest U.S. covert operation prior to the Soviet war in Afghanistan, with areas of Laos controlled by North Vietnam subjected to years of intense American aerial bombardment, representing the heaviest U.S. bombing campaign since World War II.

Twenty-four years following the end of the Secret War, under significant political pressure from several U.S. conservatives who argued that there no longer existed any national security interest in denying the Secret War's existence and that its denial was being used by the Clinton administration to justify a forced repatriation of the Hmong to Laos, the U.S. government formally reversed its position, acknowledging both the existence of the U.S.-led Secret War and the Hmong's contribution to U.S. efforts during the conflict. This official reversal of U.S. policy has since been considered monumental and nearly without precedent in American foreign policy since, in acknowledging the Secret War's existence, the U.S. also implicitly acknowledged that it had lied for decades in denying that it had engaged in combat operations in Laos during the Vietnam War.

The reversal of policy was subsequently supported even more forcibly by the George W. Bush administration, which strongly supported the earlier demands of U.S. conservatives that Thailand-based Hmong refugees from Laos be afforded U.S. immigration rights.

The Secret War was funded, supported by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division and led by General Vang Pao, a Hmong military leader who led the Hmong in supporting tens of thousands of U.S. air combat raids, along with major ground operations, against the North Vietnamese Army and the Viet Cong in Laos during the Vietnam War. The Secret War was designed to counter North Vietnam's military supply efforts through Laos to South Vietnam, which U.S. military officials believed were core to North Vietnam's war strategy to destabilize U.S.-aligned South Vietnam. This memorial was the culmination of the efforts of leading U.S. conservatives and several U.S. special operations veterans, including Anthony Poshepny and others.