General Vang Pao Dies While In Exile In The US
Vang Pao was born on December 8, 1929 in Nonghet, a Hmong village. It is located in Central Xiangkhuang Province, in the northeast Laos. He came from a farmer family. Before he began his career in the military by joining French Military, he was just an ordinary farmer. He joined the army in order to protect his fellow Hmong because Japanese troops invaded Laos at that time.
His life couldn’t be saved though he had been hospitalized for ten days, said a spokesman for Clovis Community Medical Center, Michelle Von Tersch. The Fresno Bee has reported that he was suffering from pneumonia.
Vang Pao was appointed as the leader of Hmong immigrants in United States. He often appeared at Hmong religious and cultural festivals in U.S., and the Hmong people frequently asked him to solve problem happened among the Hmong community.
Lar Yang of Fresno, who featured an interview with Vang Pao last month in the Hmong business directory he publishes annually, said “He’s always been kind of the glue that held everyone together”. “He’s the one that always resolved everything … I don’t think it can be filled by one person at this point. There will probably be a search for identity. There will be a lot of chaos for a little while, until things get settled.”