Biggest Asian Hero of the Vietnam War Dies in Exile

BBC:

Vang Pao, the former general and leader of his Hmong ethnic group in Laos, has died in exile in the US, aged 81.

He had been in hospital for about 10 days before his death late on Thursday.

As a young man, he had fought against the Japanese during World War II, and with the French against the North Vietnamese in the 1950s.

He led a 15-year CIA-sponsored secret war in Laos during the Vietnam War and, when it was lost, led tens of thousands of his people into exile.

Thousands of ethnic Hmong are expected to attend his funeral in Fresno, California.

"He'll be remembered as a great general, a great warrior, a great Hmong soldier," his friend Charlie Waters told AFP news agency.

However the response from the Laos government was muted. "He was an ordinary person, so we do not have any reaction," a government spokesman was quoted by AFP as saying.

'Last of his kind'

Gen Pao was a controversial figure, deeply loved by many Hmong - an ethnic minority in Lao that complains of persecution - for his insistence on freedom from foreign domination.

Former Central Intelligence Agency chief William Colby once called Gen Pao "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War".

RIP.

WE WON THE VIETNAM WAR ON THE BATTLEFIELD.

IT WAS LOST IN CONGRESS.

FACTS:

• THE LAST US GROUND TROOP LEFT VIETNAM 3/73.

• SAIGON DIDN'T FALL UNTIL 4/75 - AFTER THE DEMOCRATS PULLED THE PLUG ON CONTINUED FUNDING OF THE SVG.

• THAT'S WHAT LED THE NORTH TO VIOLATE THE TERMS OF THE PEACE TREATY AND ILLEGALLY INVADE THE SOUTH - LEADING TO MILLIONS OF EXILES, HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS DEAD OR IN "RE-EDUCATION" CAMPS
  

IF OUR ENEMIES DIDN'T HAVE THE LEFT HELPING THEM HERE AT HOME AND IN ONE OF OUR 2 MAJOR PARTIES AND IN CONGRESS, THEN THEY'D NEVER WIN.

WHICH IS WHY I HAVE LONG MAINTAINED THAT IF WE WANT TO MAKE OUR ENEMIES ABROAD HISTORY, WE NEED TO FIRST MAKE THE LEFT HERE AT HOME HISTORY.