Paul E. White Collection
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This collection is from Paul E. White, who worked with the Hmong during his career with the International Voluntary Service (IVS) in Northern Laos. Here is an excerpt from Dr. Paul Hilmer’s with Paul E. White about his experience during the Secret War:

“One day I was walking down the street feeling sorry for myself when I saw a friend from the University of Hawaii - Jack Parmenter. I said, ‘Jack! What are you doing in Washington ?’ He said, ‘Oh, I’ve joined this group called IVS and I’m going to Laos.’ ‘You’ve got to be kidding me!’ [Chuckles] I went with Jack to the IVS office. Soon I was signed up to go to Laos.

“We didn’t get all the training that Tom got. We received five days of intensive Lao, 12 hours a day and we had an orientation in Coolfont, West Virginia. IVS had lots of experts, including an anthropologist, who gave us area studies briefings. Then we were off to Laos.

“IVS had promised me that I would work with the Hmong. When Iarrived in Vientiane, I found that IVS had two programs: an education program and a rural development program. None of those programs worked with the Hmong. I was assigned to Dong Dok Teacher College inVientiane, working on the education team. The IVS education chief, Bernie Wilder, was a really good guy. He knew that I desperately wanted to work with the Hmong. He first got me out of theUniversity by assigning me to the Asia Foundation. I worked there for two or three months while the bureaucratic of being assigned to Sam Thong were worked out. Eventually my assignment was approved and I went to Sam Thong to work for Pop Buell.”

— Interview with Carol Mills, Tom Ward, & Paul White
Concordia University, St. Paul
2007