Mr. Wa Chong Vang
Student during the Secret War
St. Paul, MN
File No.: 37/50
July 2024

Wa Chong Vang was born in Xieng Khouang, Laos, in 1952. His father was General Vang Pao, Hmong leader and commander of the Royal Lao Army’s Military Region 2. Vang Pao also commanded the Special Guerrilla Units, which were funded by the CIA in the Secret War. Wa Chong spent most of his teenage years studying at Vientiane, the capital of Laos. As the war escalated, Wa Chong accompanied his father several times to the battlefield. In 1974, he was selected to attend the US Military Academy at West Point, NY. He was not in Laos in 1975 when his country fell into communist control. Fearing enemy retaliation, many US-allied Hmong soldiers and their families, including General Vang Pao, were evacuated by American planes to Thailand for political refuge. Wa Chong left the academy early to assist with Hmong resettlement in the US, since they were coming as refugees from war-torn Laos and Thailand. For the next four decades, he advocated for the return of freedom and democracy to his former country of Laos. ∆ 

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