PRISONER OF WARS

A brief look at America’s secret war in Laos, the Hmong diaspora, and the refugee experience via the story of a Hmong pilot and POW.

Vang, the director of the Hmong Diaspora Studies Program at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, brings Pao Yang’s story to life in a narrative that “overwhelmingly reflects the interpretations of Pao and his generation regarding their lives.” Born to a Hmong family in Laos in 1948 (“plus or minus a year”), Pao had few opportunities, but he eventually enrolled in training to become a fighter pilot. At the time, the U.S. was already enmeshed in the Vietnam War, and Laos had become an important front. However, because it was officially neutral, American troops could not operate in an overt manner, so they trained Southeast Asians to fight for them. Pao, hoping to make a living, found himself thrust into a complex network of competing national and ethnic interests. Here, he narrates the story of his early life, training, capture, and eventual escape—first to Thailand and then to the U.S. In addition to conveying Pao’s story, Vang carried out extensive interviews with Pao’s two wives: one to whom he was married before his capture and one whom he married after his release. The story of Pao’s life unfolds through these recollections, providing a first-person perspective on events that affected entire nations. When these close-up narratives do not provide enough context, Vang inserts additional historical details. The braiding of one man’s personal story with the history of his people is executed effectively, and the text touches on aspects of U.S. foreign policy, Asian American identity, and generational trauma. While some shifts between topics and voices are stilted, Pao’s story shines through, offering a useful portrait of an ethnic group with which many American readers are unfamiliar.

A blend of oral history and historical context that sheds light on one of the many overlooked consequences of war.