Posted on 05/15/2007 4:24:47 PM PDT by SJackson
War hero or war criminal? Depending upon who's talking, Gen. Vang Pao is one or the other. As a Madison schoolteacher, I think the answer to that question is not as important as the debate the question has generated.
Hmong residents here revere Gen. Vang. They insist that he is a great man who helped thousands of their people escape war-torn Laos to find safety and opportunity in the United States. For that reason, they believe he deserves to have a public school named in his honor.
A University of Wisconsin-Madison professor, on the other hand, claims that Gen. Vang engaged in drug trafficking and murdered political enemies, as well as some of his own soldiers, during the Vietnam War. The professor thinks it would be a mistake to name a school after a warrior with such a dubious past. Others strongly agree.
I have left out the name of the professor, a white male, as well as the identities of Vang's vocal Hmong supporters, because I believe those facts are of lesser importance than the controversy itself. Frankly, I don't think the name of a school is such a big deal in the end.
That is not to say I would support having an Adolph Hitler Elementary, or an Idi Amin High, in my town.
Of course, Gen. Vang represents a more complicated choice than such obviously reprehensible ones. Assuming the dark reports about his war record are true, he appears to be both flawed and great, much like the United States itself.
After all, America has been a beacon of hope to downtrodden people around the world. Our country's founders, alas, also devastated the indigenous population and built their economy on the backs of slaves.
But I'm not trying to make a case for, or against, Gen. Vang. As I said, the debate itself is the news here.
Members of our Hmong community who have shown up at School Board meetings en masse to speak in support of their leader represent something powerfully American. They know that they have a right to free speech. That is the beauty of this debate, even if the free speech isn't always kind or well argued.
(Despite a petition from some Madison residents to choose a different name for the new school, the choice of Vang Pao remains.)
Are the Hmong people of Madison right to support Gen. Vang so strongly when other non-Hmong members of the community, well beyond the professor, have real misgivings about him? Perhaps not. But 25 years ago, when they were new to this country, many of those same Hmong citizens who are now lobbying the School Board, or seeking out reporters, would have been much quieter.
They are now being heard, which is a good thing indeed.
With freedom, however, comes responsibility. Exercising one's First Amendment rights is an important step toward becoming an active participant in that great experiment we call democracy.
How well one exercises those rights is the next step in one's maturity as a member of our society.
Unfortunately, it doesn't matter if one is new to the U.S., or a descendent of the first Americans. Many of us still have a lot to learn about civilized discourse.
Here's hoping that Gen. Vang's supporters and detractors alike exercise their freedom in the most productive way. We're talking about naming a school, after all. What do we want to teach our children?
But that Gen. Pao is eleminated because he killed his enemies, politial, weren't they all, during the Vietnam war, what's that about other than he was an ally of America.
Who in Madison would complain about Che Guevara Middle School, on the basis of killing his enemies (political).
IMO there's an American hero or two in Iraq that deserve a school or street naming. How about Madison compromises and name the school after one of them.
Happy Spring!
I LOVE global warming.
Guess how Chai Vang, convicted multiple times for killing Wisconsin deer hunters, was able to afford his expensive team of lawyers?
You get one guess.......
I don’t know, but from your comment I presume from the Hmong community.
“I think the answer to that question is not as important as the debate the question has generated.”
Yep. Sure. Whatever you say, Teach! *SNORT*
I have a new friend whose son attends “Che’s” school. She’s new to town, from South Carolina. We had a very serious talk about that after I got to know her a little better...he’ll be changing schools this upcoming year. :)
And my darling husband just LOVES to yank my chain. The other day he had a pix of Che in the back window of his truck. He was just waiting for me to see it and go nuts...then he took it out, LOL!
I guess you’ve got to know us. We’re sort of a ‘Dharma & Greg’ marriage, though he’s ‘Dharma,’ LOL! We’ve been married for twelve years now...he’s a Business Owner now, so I’ve nearly turned him into a Capitalist Pig, which is the end goal. ;)
“Happy Spring! I LOVE global warming.”
It’s been a wild ride this year, hasn’t it? I think you’re getting more rain than we are, but we had a nice, steady rain today...and for ONCE this Spring, I didn’t have to work outside in it! Tee-Hee!
‘June is Bustin’ Out All Over.’ (A little early, but that’s OK.)
I picture of Che under the runway I hope.
“Wisconsin Conservative Politics” Ping.
Remember: It’s not the REAL reason this school should be named after a Hmong General or not...it’s the DEBATE and the DIALOG that matters to the Left. Facts, one way or the other be d@mned, as usual. *SHRUG*
My theory has always been that the good General was VERY involved. He always wants the best face of the Hmong community to be seen. Chai Vang was a blight on the community. He needed to go away, quickly.
Remember, that the trial lasted less than a week and deliberations lasted about three hours. His lawyers made sure that he got convicted. They were paid well and did what they were hired to do.
Note, that as soon as his trial was over and he was convicted, Chai Vang’s lawyers vanished and his appeals were handled by a public defender.
Gen. Pao was more a patriate than Pelosi, Reid or mertha. He and his tribe (Hmong) were trying to keep the North Vietmase (communists) from over taking Laos from the early 1950's. The CIA along with the help of a ledgend of that era in Laos "Pop Buell" (Google Him) recuted him and his tribe to help in the war. They were very effective!
Wish we had his leadership in Iraq!
I’ve never been to Madison, but I understand its politics are fairly radical. Naming a school there after Vang Pao would be equivalent to naming one in Berkeley, Calif. after South Vietnamese president Ngo Dinh Diem, or naming one in Boulder, Colo. after Nationalist Chinese president Chiang Kai-shek.
Might even be one that is the offspring of those Hmong. Failing that, a Special Forces trooper (Green Beret), since the SF were the ones who worked with the Hmong. (although more so in Vietnam than Laos, which was a CIA operation).
But of course the same forces, and probably the same professor, who object to Pao, would also object the VC/NVA/Jihadi killing Special Forces type.
For a different read, check this letter to the editor, by a Hmong scholar. The UWM professor, who sound like the typical know nothing leftist, is Alfred McCoy, whose response to the letter is also at the link above.
Thanks, good article.
Could be.
It was a pretty straightforward case, unless they could get his confession excluded, it was over.
I don't think there was anything nefarious going on. Though I'm a supporter of the death penalty, I've often looked at how Wisconsin handles cases like Vang or Dahmer, and can't help but think that maybe life without parole, thus without the multitude of appeals, doesn't make sense.
Not much the last couple weeks till Sunday, but the warming stuff is nice. Some nice snowstorms in the winter, and an early spring.
Why did the best lawyers that money could buy allow Vang to take the stand and convict himself in record time?
I spent a great deal of time talking about this case with co-workers from SE Asia and they basically told me what was going to happen with the trial, before it happened.
They were dead on.
I'm pinging a few of the people who were running the Vang ping list, (we had one of those :>)) as i don't remember the trial that well.
I could be mistaken, but the confession having been admitted, I believe Vang pursued a strategy of self-defence.
That defence can come only from Vangs mouth. He had to take the stand.
What other options he had, I don't know. From everything I read at the time, I'd agree with your co-workers from SE Asia, no question he was going down. Not through any conspiracy, because he did the deed.
That's all I needed to know.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.