Laos, Hmong Veterans Memorial Statement of Edmund McWilliams, U.S. State Dept. Official (US-FSO-Ret)

WASHINGTON - June 5, 2015 - PRLog -- Arlington, Virginia and Washington, D.C. (May 15, 2015)

The following is the text of the statement issued by Mr. Edmund McWilliams, U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officer (U.S. FSO -Ret.), and Vietnam veteran, for the 40th anniversary wreath-laying ceremony at the Vietnam War Memorial, and Arlington National Cemetery, on May 15, 2015, hosted by the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), Arlington National Cemetery, the U.S. Department of Defense, Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and Members of Congress:

Edmund Williams, U.S. Department of State, Foreign Service Officer (U.S. FSO, Ret.)

Statement May 15, 2015

Lao Veterans of America Monument,

Arlington National Cemetery

and Vietnam War Memorial

Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentleman,

As a former U.S. Department of State Foreign Service Officer and Vietnam veteran who served during the Vietnam War and its aftermath in Southeast Asia, I am honored to provide a statement to you in respectful, and sad commemoration, of today's veterans' and 40^th anniversary commemoration events at Arlington National Cemetery and the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C..

I would like to thank the Lao Veterans of America, Inc. and Philip Smith, Executive Director, of the Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA) for inviting me to speak at, and working to organize with the U.S. Department of Defense, U.S. Army and Members of Congress, your important ceremonies today.

This Spring, we mark the 40th anniversary of fall of Indochina, that is, the collapse of local and US efforts to prevent seizure of control over Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam by the communist forces of North Vietnam and their puppets in Laos.  Cambodian forces which had been supported by the North Vietnamese would soon turn on their North Vietnamese mentors igniting a bloody war and inaugurating a particularly brutal regime under the Khmer Rouge.

But the US commemoration of this historic Spring errs in the retelling of this tragic history. While there is an understandable focus on the terrible implications of Hanoi's victory  for our South Vietnamese allies, we find little to no mention in US media or in statements by US officials regarding the
plight of our other allies, the Lao, Hmong, Montagnard and Cambodian troops and their families for whom the Communist victory was also an extraordinary tragedy.

This failure to recognize the sacrifice of our non-Vietnamese allies echoes the failure of the US government to make adequate provision for Lao, Hmong, Montagnard and Cambodian allies as they desperately sought to escape the revenge of the Communist invaders targeting these erstwhile US allies.  There was little space in the massive US refugee program for Lao, Hmong, Montagnard and Cambodians.

These courageous US allies were left largely on their own as they fled the prospect of execution or deadly re-education camps that the Communists immediately began establishing, or the ethnic cleansing perpetrated against the Hmong and Montagnard. Hmong, who struggled across the Mekong, fleeing aerial bombardment, including chemical warfare, were left to bare survival in rough camps on the Thailand shore.  Cambodians who fled the merciless Khmer Rouge found at best a crude welcome across the Thai-Cambodian border.  Montagnard allies of the US and their families, the brave fighters who risked their lives to rescue US airmen, had literally no safe border across which to flee.

Some Lao, Hmong, Cambodian and Montagnard have miraculously reached the US where they have established new lives and made real contributions to their new homeland.  Many more, however, remain trapped under authoritarian regimes which repress and pursue vengeful policies against these former US allies and their families.

US geopolitical and commercial interests have led the US government and corporations to ignore the plight of these former allies and to seek to build commercial, political and even military relations with the brutal regimes that continue repressive policies.  Meanwhile, the US government also has failed to accord former comrades in arm with the benefits it could and should extend to these former allies.

My fellow US  veterans of the wars in Indochina bear a heavy obligation to remind our Government that the US owes a debt to those men and women, and their families who fought at our side for over a decade.  That debt should be reflected in US policy toward the region, with far greater emphasis on human rights,  and also with regard to benefits that should be extended to our former allies. to honor Lao and Hmong veterans on 40^th Anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War.

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(Ends)

Contact(s):

Maria Gomez or Philip Smith

Center for Public Policy Analysis

Tele. (202)543-1444

nfo@centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org
http://www.centerforpublicpolicyanalysis.org


The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), or Centre for Public Policy Analysis, is a Washington, DC-based non-profit, non-partisan, non-governmental think tank and research organization, which focuses on international relations, national security, development, humanitarian and refugee issues. The Center is dedicated to research, analysis and education about many of the key public policy issues of our time. The CPPA brings important new ideas, information and experience to the public affairs arena in the U.S. and internationally, including the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific.