WASHINGTON — The 2007 U.S. arrest of the late Hmong leader Vang Pao hurt him, but it did wonders for U.S.-Lao relations, classified State Department cables show.
Vang Pao’s arrest prompted dismay among Hmong-Americans; at one point, an estimated 3,000 demonstrated outside a federal courthouse in Sacramento, Calif.
Lao officials were “pleased” by the arrest of the man who had long denounced their regime, a U.S. diplomat reported. Suddenly, Lao military officers began talking. Bureaucratic barriers shrank. Cross-cultural exchanges became feasible.
“Since the arrests, we have made a surprising amount of progress in areas of our relationship with the Lao government where we had previously experienced difficulty,” Mary Grace McGeehan, who was then the U.S. charge d’affaires in Laos, wrote in a June 22, 2007, memo.
The turnaround was such that some Western expatriates in the Laotian capital of Vientiane “speculated to us that the arrests were a positive gesture toward the Lao government by the U.S.,” McGeehan reported.
Two years later, federal prosecutors dropped criminal conspiracy charges against Vang Pao. In time, the other men arrested with Vang Pao likewise saw all charges dropped.
Vang Pao died in January in Fresno, Calif.
U.S.-Lao relations remain a work in progress, though some Hmong-Americans see gradual improvement.
“It seems the government has opened up more; they’re reaching out more, to encourage tourism and to encourage business opportunities,” said Fresno City Council member Blong Xiong, who visited his native Laos several months ago.
The 2007 memo, classified “confidential,” was obtained by WikiLeaks and passed to McClatchy Newspapers. It’s one of many memos that shed light on the complicated relationship between the United States and Laos, a global odd couple with a war-torn past and many domestic offspring.
Lao Embassy officials in Washington didn’t respond to requests for comment. State Department officials denounce the WikiLeaks release of documents.
The Hmong first began coming to the U.S. after the 1975 communist victory in Laos, concentrating in cities that include Fresno and St. Paul. More than 140,000 U.S. residents claimed full Hmong ancestry as of the 2000 census, the most recent for which such data are available.
Isolated by language and culture, the Hmong have struggled to assimilate while their leaders have clashed over strategies and tactics.
“The politics of the Hmong communities in both Laos and the United States are extremely complex,” a secret June 11, 2007, memo noted.
Last July, in a sign of warming ties, the Laotian foreign minister visited Washington for the first time since 1975.
Vang Pao had worked closely with the CIA during the Vietnam War. Once living in the United States, he vocally opposed the Lao government.
In June 2007, federal prosecutors charged Vang Pao and his allies with conspiring to overthrow the socialist Lao government. Before the arrests, U.S. diplomats in Laos were complaining of “bureaucratic obstructionism and veiled hostility” from Laotian authorities. Afterward, diplomats noted improvement, even though some Lao officials suspected that the CIA was still in league with Vang Pao.
“The more forthcoming we can be with the (government of Laos) … the longer the positive climate is likely to last,” McGeehan concluded.
