The Origin of Hmong Entanglement in the Vietnam War

Chapter 1 explores how the United States moved in to Indochina to replace the French following the latter’s defeat in 1954, which resulted in those who collaborated with Americans becoming dependent on US military and humanitarian aid from the early 1960s through the mid-1970s. The chapter illustrates calculated decisions by American policy makers to continue colonial policies to divide and conquer their subjects, which enabled decisions made at the highest level to promote the use of ethnic minorities in counterinsurgency operations. Such decisions were precisely what facilitated Hmong men’s participation in the covert Project Water Pump that trained Lao fighter pilots. The chapter further explains how CIA officers circumvented resistance from ethnic Lao military leaders and American officials to establish an air operation in the region under Hmong military leadership.