> I have revised my letter to include sources and sent it to Mr. Eisner of
> the Daily Page. If He does not print it perhaps the Hmong Time or Hmong
> Today will. This should they them to start thinking.
>
> Chong
>
> Forty years ago, anyone could write anything about the Hmong and we would
> just sit there silently because we could not read or write. For some time
> now the Hmong community had sat silently as McCoy wagged his hypercritical
> finger. Mr. McCoy has accused VP of running a heroin factory to
> committing unspeakable war acts. All of these accusations come from a man
> who never sat foot in Laos until the war was nearly over and who probably
> hadn't a clue whom the five Hmong decision makers where during the war.
> McCoy should look beyond his nose to find the real truth. McCoy has been
> so busy condemning VP that he has failed to realize that VP was no more
> than a puppet whose master was none other than the good old USA. VP's
> only crime is that he danced to the tune of the CIA and to McCoy's
> chagrin, he danced it very well.
>
> Let us take a look at who is the real culprit behind this atrocity. It is
> fact that the US signed the Geneva Accord declaring Laos a neutral country.
> By signing this Accord, the US agreed to keep its hands off of Laos. It
> is fact the US violated the Geneva Accord when Bill Lair, a US CIA agent
> met with VP at Padong in 1961 to request VP's assistance to stop the
> spread of communism. Realize that the US sought VP, not the other way
> around. It is fact that the US used sheep-dipped military personnel to
> fight a war in Laos. It is fact that the US constructed over 500 Lima
> sites in Laos from 1961 to 1972 for its war effort. It is fact that the
> US dropped more bombs in Laos than during any other war in the history of
> mankind and this includes the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. It is fact
> that when the US left SE Asia, they abandoned their allies, the Hmong, to
> suffer the consequence of the Communist. It is fact that the US sat by
> silently knowing that their once staunch allies where being murdered by
> the thousands and targeted for genocide. It is fact that 100,000 Hmong
> died as a direct result of being abandoned by the US. If anyone should be
> pointing fingers, it should be at the US. If the US was any other nation
> and not the bully it is, there would be a tribunal assembled against its
> leaders for war crimes. (Sources: Tragic Mountain, Jane Hamilton-Merritt,
> Shooting at the Moon, Roger Warner.)
>
> VP is not a perfect man. No one is, but VP was the right man for the job
> at the time. VP like any war time general on all sides made tough
> decisions, decisions that none of us would dare touch. It is easy for
> someone like McCoy who's toughest decisions did not include life or death
> calls in time of war. The difference between being named a hero or branded
> a war criminal is whether you win or lose. So please Mr. McCoy, please
> refrain from your holier than thou attitude when condemning VP for the
> decisions he made in time of war when the illegal actions of the
> government of this Nation resulted in the death of hundreds of thousands
> of people. You'll do good to keep silent at this time.
>
> Now back to the Opium topic. Speaking ONLY from my memories of a child
> roaming the streets of Long Tieng, I can attest to the fact that I never
> saw a heroin factory. Raw opium was openly sold in the markets as it has
> been done for thousands of years. Most Hmong where not drug addicts as it
> was looked down upon in our society. We grew the opium because it was a
> cash crop. At first, it was to sell to the Chinese, and later to the
> French who controlled the drug market. Don't get me wrong, I am not
> disputing that there weren't some low-level and perhaps even mid-level
> drug dealing activities during this "we all need to eat" time period.
> What is at issue is McCoy's accusation that VP was running some sort of
> drug cartel with a heroin factory based out of Long Tieng. An operation
> of this magnitude needs a complex operational system. This alone would
> trigger a "buzz" in the community. I personally have not heard of any
> "buzz" from the Hmong even after 40 years.
>
> The streets of Long Tieng were my playground. I was too young to fight a
> war, but old enough to know what I saw. As a young boy I was nickname,
> "Simmien" or the "witty one" I knew every crack and cranny on the CIA
> compound. I played in the T-28 hangers, on the ammunition dump, at the
> fuel depot, and climbed the power station. I even roamed the grounds of
> the Zoo. How many of you knew there was a zoo at one time in Long Tieng?
> I sliced my butt open playing on the medical waste pile at the hospital.
> Occasionally, I stopped at the whore house on the west side of the runway,
> built by the Thai to service t heir mercenary soldiers, to spy on the naked
> girls. I was there when the first ice machine was brought to Long Tieng,
> ate at the first restaurant, and watched the first loaf of baguette come
> out of the oven when the short lived bakery was built. I was the child
> who broke the King's bed at the King's Palace by jumping up and down on it
> once too many times. All this time, I never saw anything resembling a
> factory.
>
> In order to have a factory of any magnitude, several things need to be
> considered. One of which is electric power. Long Tieng had a very
> limited power supply. A small sub-station was built halfway down the
> runway to service the CIA compound and airfield. Only a handful of homes
> had electricity. The majority of Long Tieng existed under candle power. I
> remember, in our house, we had one light bulb, if the light switch was not
> flipped on by 5 PM, at 7 PM there was not be enough energy left to turn it
> on. In short, Long Tieng had no factories. The ice factory everyone
> speculated on was no more than a two sided freezer, no larger than 22
> cubic inches. It was eventually shut down because of the lack of a power
> supply. I was there when this happened, it belonged to my mother.
>
> Another factor one needs to consider is time. VP had no time for
> extracurricular activities, like running a drug operation. War was his
> full time job. He and his cabinet worked 14 to 16 hour days around the
> clock for most of ten years. He was too busy saving American lives,
> carrying out CIA orders, and defending the principles of what this nation
> stands for, so that people, like McCoy, can express their opinions.
> (Source: Former Hmong Chief of Staff MRII.)
>
> In addition, when there is drug involved, all you have to do is follow the
> money trail. Where the money stops is where the story begins. I have
> personally interviewed the person in charge of all the finances on the
> Hmong side during the US covert operations. I can tell you that there are
> no secret Swiss accounts or villa tucked away in some exotic place. I am
> certain of this fact. VP didn't need money, with one wag of his finger,
> CIA agent, code name "Money man Mike", appeared with it. (Source: Former
> Hmong Chief of Staff MRII.)
>
> Dr. Charles Weldon, unlike McCoy, spent over a decade working side by side
> with the Hmong during the war years. According to Dr. Weldon, he indicated
> that aerial survey in the sixties showed that Laos was producing about 35
> tons of opium per year. Weldon continues to report that price at that
> time was around 12-15 dollars per kilogram. This would then mean that the
> whole opium crop would yield around $250,000 to $300,000 ANNUALLY.
> (Source: Tragedy in Paradise, Charles Weldon, MD.)
>
> Now consider that VP's army was bankrolled by the CIA. Even at the
> pittance amount of 12,000 kips for fresh recruits to 25,000 kips for
> seasoned soldiers, this would average to around $10 to $20 per soldier per
> month. Given that VP's force was maintained at 30,000 strong, that would
> put the payroll at a conservative half a million per MONTH. Throw into
> that the expenditure for the war and we can just imagine the amount of
> money that was being spent. This was a bargain for the Americans, as
> compared to the bankroll for the war in Vietnam, but a hell of a lot of
> money for the mountain soldiers. (Source: Former Hmong chief of Staff
> MRII.)
>
> Let us just assume, for a fleeting moment, that what McCoy say is true and
> that VP somehow controlled the drug market. Let us again assume that VP
> controlled 50%% of the Laos opium market. This would mean that VP could
> gross approximately $150,000 annually or $12,500 per month. After cost of
> operation in opium, he would net around $6,250 per month. Get the point?
> VP didn't need the chump change from the opium market when he was
> receiving over half a million from the CIA per month just in payroll.
> Everyone got it now?
>
> Furthermore, I get a kick out of "farang" writers who lack understanding
> of the Hmong and their part in the war that leads them to speculate and
> sensationalize in the true Hollywood style. I can't help but smile and at
> the same time grimace at their naivety and myopic view of the world.
>
> For example, as stated in your editorial in the Daily Page, Keith Quincy,
> the author of Harvesting Pachay's Wheat, in one of his paragraph paints VP
> in the true western sense with a mix of Al Capone, Boss Tweed and Thomas
> Pendergast ... yeah right!
>
> Quincy, as does other chroniclers of the secret war, credits the Hmong
> army for being a ferocious fighting force and Vang Pao for being an
> inspired political and military leader. The CIA was appreciative, and its
> subsidy was so bountiful, Quincy notes, that Vang Pao was able to pay his
> soldiers ten times more than soldiers in the Royal Laotian Army received.
> "For thousands of poor Hmong peasants earning less than lowland rice
> farmers, soldiering for Vang Pao was a way to abandon a life of grinding
> poverty for one of relative affluence," he writes. "Eldest sons had the
> right to take the place of wounded or killed fathers to keep the family on
> the military dole." (Source: Marc Eisen, Isthmus, The Daily Page
> 5/07/2007.)
>
> Did Quincy know that a fresh recruit Hmong soldier fighting for the United
> States of America received a monthly payment from the CIA of $10 per month?
> The price was set by the CIA, so don't blame VP; he is not the one with
> the deep pockets. Did Quincy realize that a single Air America Pilot's
> salary was $3,000 per month? If Quincy thinks that $10 a month was
> lucrative for the Hmong to die for, boy do I have a job for him. This is
> a case of trying to rewrite history by shifting blame from the USA to that
> of a third grade educated mountain soldier. The CIA could have pulled the
> plug on VP at any time they wanted to, which they eventually did. The
> fact of the matter is that Long Tieng fell not once but three times. Each
> time it was propped up by the CIA until their mission in Vietnam was
> completed and they no longer needed the Hmong. (Sources: Former Hmong
> Chief of Staff MRII and Former Hmong Chief of Personnel MRII.)
>
> Quincy also wrote," Vang Pao, in other words, was using child soldiers to
> fight the communists." (Source: Marc Eisen, Isthmus, The Daily Page
> 5/07/2007.)
>
> A statement such as this is a perfect example of someone who is blind to
> the truth. A more correct sentence should have read, "The CIA of the US
> Government was using Vang Pao to recruit children to fight an illegal war
> that they themselves initiated and didn't want the world community to know
> that they were violating international laws."
>
> Finally, I often wondered why McCoy harbored such ill feelings toward the
> Hmong and VP. A recent interview with Amy Goodman may help shed some
> light on this topic.
>
> http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/02/17/1522228
>
> It seems that McCoy alleged that some thirty years ago he was ambushed by
> a group of clandestine soldiers backed by the CIA in the jungle of Laos.
> When asked by Ms. Goodman how did he know it was the CIA? His reply was,
> "Oh, look, in the mountains of Laos, there aren't that many white guys,
> okay? ...." Was he inferring that there were CIA agents with this group
> that was shooting at him? Then he goes on to say they were Laotian
> Mercenaries. From there his response to questioning by Ms. Goodman is
> unclear as he, the supposed expert, couldn't distinguish between the
> proper terminologies for naming the different ethnic groups in Laos.
> Without any empirical evidence he came to the conclusion that those who
> ambushed him were clandestine, "Laotian mercenaries. That, everybody was
> clear about that. Nobody denied that". Please provide the sources Mr.
> McCoy, "who were everybody and who was nobody?
>
> If McCoy had been ambushed by a Hmong SGU unit, I can guarantee one thing;
> he would be pushing daisies by now. Even the most seasoned NVA officers
> knew better than to wonder off the main road when in Hmong country. The
> NVA never fought the Hmong with just a platoon, they brought whole
> battalions. McCoy and his five village militia men would have been cut
> down to ribbons. How's that for some western drama!? It is difficult to
> take a man seriously when his research is clouded by his own personal
> prejudice which appears to be retribution.
>
> Enough for now Mr. McCoy, I can tell you so much more, but you don't
> deserve it. Your work is only speculation. Up until now, your work has
> been, as stated by Mr. Marc Eisen, "stood the test of time". This is
> mainly because no one has challenged your claims. If you really wanted to
> know the truth, why not talk with the people that were actually there in
> Long Tieng?
>
> Chong