Lt. Nhia Tou Pha
SGU Veteran
St. Paul, Minnesota
File No.: 26/50
May 2024

Born in 1945 in Laos, Nhia Tou Pha came from a family with a military and public service background. He began his career as a soldier in 1962, a year after the start of the Secret War. In 1963, his brother Nai was killed in action. From then until the war ended in 1975, Nhia Tou devoted his life to serving and protecting his country’s democracy and freedom against the communist aggression of the North Vietnamese Army. With the communist forces taken over Laos in 1975, they began to round up Hmong soldiers who sided with the US. Nhia Tou along with his family left to hide in the jungle and joined the anti-communist resistance movement called Chao Fa until 1979. The movement sought opportunities to take back Laos, but their resources were depleted. In the following year, he and his family fled to Thailand and joined thousands of other Hmong refugees at the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp. In 1991, Nhia Tou and his family immigrated to the US for a better life. ∆

*** Video has been edited and modified, which the correspondence from the video may different from the transcription. Please review the transcription as needed to reflect video flow. English transcription for this interview is available upon request.