Wangyee Vang is a Hmong-American community leader, educator and elder from

Fresno Fresno () is a major city in the San Joaquin Valley of California, United States. It is the county seat of Fresno County and the largest city in the greater Central Valley region. It covers about and had a population of 542,107 in 2020, maki ...

, and the Central Valley, of

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

Veterans' assistance

Vang is the founder and National President of the

Lao Veterans of America Institute The Lao Veterans of America Institute (LVAI) is a national non-profit organization based in Fresno, and the Central Valley, of California, with chapters throughout California. It is one of the largest ethnic Lao- and Hmong-American veterans organiz ...

, a national non-profit organization headquartered in Fresno, California, which serves Hmong-American, and Lao-American, veterans and their families. In the United States, Wangyee Vang has engaged in refugee and veterans' advocacy, education and training projects as well as efforts to integrate

Indochinese Mainland Southeast Asia, also known as the Indochinese Peninsula or Indochina, is the continental portion of Southeast Asia. It lies east of the Indian subcontinent and south of Mainland China and is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the west an ...

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

into American society and provide them access to social services. During the

North Vietnamese invasion of Laos North Vietnam supported the Pathet Lao to fight against the Kingdom of Laos between 1958–1959. Control over Laos allowed for the eventual construction of the Ho Chi Minh Trail that would serve as the main supply route for enhanced NLF (the ...

and in its aftermath, Wangyee Vang served in the "U.S. Secret Army" in the Royal

Kingdom of Laos The Kingdom of Laos was a landlocked country in Southeast Asia at the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula. It was bordered by Burma and China to the northwest, North Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by #Names, other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vie ...

and was trained as an officer in

Vientiane Vientiane ( , ; lo, ວຽງຈັນ, ''Viangchan'', ) is the capital and largest city of Laos. Vientiane is divided administratively into 9 cities with a total area of only approx. 3,920 square kilometres and is located on the banks of ...

Laos Laos (, ''Lāo'' )), officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic ( Lao: ສາທາລະນະລັດ ປະຊາທິປະໄຕ ປະຊາຊົນລາວ, French: République démocratique populaire lao), is a socialist ...

in the

Royal Lao Army The Royal Lao Army (french: Armée royale du Laos – ARL), also designated by its anglicized title RLA, was the Land Component of the Royal Lao Armed Forces (FAR), the official military of the Kingdom of Laos during the North Vietnamese invasi ...

. He rose to the rank of Colonel. Colonel Wangyee Vang also received military and professional training during the Vietnam War in the Kingdom of

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. He speaks Hmong, Lao, French and English.

Citizenship for Lao and Hmong veterans

Wangyee Vang played a major role in Washington, D.C., and with the Lao- and Hmong-American community, along with his brother Cherzong Vang, in the research, development, advocacy, passage and implementation of the Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000. The legislation was introduced in the

U.S. Congress The United States Congress is the legislature of the federal government of the United States. It is Bicameralism, bicameral, composed of a lower body, the United States House of Representatives, House of Representatives, and an upper body, ...

by U.S. Representative Bruce Vento and Senator

Paul Wellstone Paul David Wellstone (July 21, 1944 – October 25, 2002) was an American academic, author, and politician who represented Minnesota in the United States Senate from 1991 until he was killed in a plane crash near Eveleth, Minnesota, in 2002. A me ...

and signed into law by President

Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and agai ...

Laos Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery

In May 1997, Wangyee Vang played a key role in establishing the

Laos Memorial The Hmong and Lao Memorial, or Lao Veterans of America Monument, is a granite monument, bronze plaque and living memorial (that includes an Atlas Cedar tree) in Arlington National Cemetery in the US. Dedicated in May 1997, it is located in Sectio ...

in Arlington National Cemetery to honor Hmong and Lao veterans, and their American advisors, who served in defense of the Kingdom of Laos and U.S. national security interests during the Vietnam War. In 2013, Wangyee Vang's brother,

Cherzong Vang Cherzong Vang (April 13, 1943 – November 10, 2012) was an American community leader from St. Paul, Minnesota. He was an elder of the Hmong people in Laos and the Lao-American community in the Twin Cities of the United States. Cherzong worked wi ...

, of St. Paul,

Minnesota Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...

, was eulogized at national veterans' memorial services at the

in Arlington by Lao and Hmong veterans and their former military and clandestine advisors.

Humanitarian and refugee assistance

As National President of the Lao Veterans of America Institute, Wangyee Vang has worked to support

refugees, including Lao and Hmong

refugees A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

, and asylum seekers, fleeing

persecution Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another individual or group. The most common forms are religious persecution, racism, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these term ...

by the

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a s ...

government in Laos after the end of the Vietnam War in 1975. He has been outspoken in opposition to the forced repatriation of Hmong and Lao refugees from the Royal Kingdom

back to the

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

government in Laos that they fled.

Veterans' burial honors

Vang supported burial honors for Lao- and Hmong-American veterans who seek to be buried in U.S. national veterans cemeteries administered by the

United States Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers a ...

. The measure is currently pending in Congress.Simon, Richard, Los Angeles Times (27 February 2014) "Hmong vets suffer setback in quest for burial at U.S. cemeteries" http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-vietnam-war-hmong-20140227-story.html

References