Veteran US ally Phria Khao Vang (with sun glasses) was the body guard of the leader of the Hmong secret army, General Vang Pao.
Veteran US ally Phria Khao Vang was the body guard of the leader of the Hmong secret army, General Vang Pao. For the past 30 years, the former anti-communist rebel has been living as a refugee in Thailand. Now the US has agreed to accept Phria Khao Vang and some 15,000 others like him for re-settlement, closing one of the final chapters in the ill-fated Indochina conflict. In the 1970s, as America struggled to defeat communism in Indochina, Hmong General Vang Pao and his hill tribe army helped build hundreds of airstrips across Laos, a mountainous country with few roads. They worked hand in hand with the CIA, which operated a gigantic secret network of planes to supply isolated Hmong communities with weapons and rice. The relationship between the Hmong and their paymasters was characterized by fierce loyalty on the part of the hill tribe community and a gung-ho, subversive approach to warfare by the US. The American public and Congress knew nothing about the large-scale killing taking place in Laos. Many of the CIA operatives and pilots wore no uniforms, posed as civilians and lived amongst the indigenous people they were training.
Size: 5400px × 3600px
Location: Saraburi, Thailand
Photo credit: © Aroon Thaewchatturat / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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