Mrs. Mao X. Yang
Secret War Survivor
Oakdale, MN
File No.: 44/50
August 2024

Mao X. Yang was born in Pha Kai, Xieng Khouang province, Laos. She was one of five children, and she performed chores around the house as a teenager. She married Vang Yang, when the Secret War was starting in 1961. The North Vietnamese Army (NVA) had come to their town looking to recruit Koua Yang, one of her brothers-in-law. The NVA suspected that her father-in-law, Cherlao Yang, had hidden Koua away from them. The enemy shot and killed Cherlao. Also, they fired at her other brother-in-law, Chong Yang, wounding him in the leg. Then Mao and her family fled to join the CIA-backed Hmong soldiers, which was then led by Lt. Colonel Vang Pao, near the Plain of Jars. As the Secret War raged on, she lost her brothers-in-law Koua and Xue Yang at the frontline. Mao and her family escaped immediately to Thailand when Laos had fallen to the communist side in May of 1975. They stayed in the refugee camp in Thailand for three years. In 1978, they came to Minnesota. Later on, her family started the Long Cheng - Hmong Livestock & Meat Processing Plant business in South St. Paul. ∆

*** 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 is available upon request.