RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS IN GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE
KIM STILSON
When I did my research on Hmong people in unit six I found their history and culture to be very interesting, that is why I choose the conflict of the Hmong people and the Vietnam War to do this project on. Before getting into the exact conflict and the harm that the war caused many Hmong people I am going to write about the Hmong culture. http://www.historyguy.com/hmong_rebellion_in_laos.html#.UYxyE6JnG8g The Hmong are ethnically different from the Vietnamese, Cambodians and Lowland Lao. They lived in the mountains between Laos and Vietnam. They were considered less “civilized” than the other ethnic groups mentioned. They were considered to be Semi-Nomadic because they practiced the slash-and-burn as their way of getting food. Before the French came and made Indochina a Colony the Hmong were persecuted for their way of life, after that they were left alone and not bothered by the other groups. During the Indochina War (1946-1954) the Hmong people supported the French because they protected them. When the French pulled out they left the Hmong people to survive on their own, little did they know that this would not be the last time this would happen to them. In the early 1960’s JFK sent in the Special Forces (Green Berets) to South Vietnam. They landed right by the Hmong villages. Right after they landed, the American soldiers started to recruit the young men in the villages to help them fight the North Vietnamese. They agreed to do this not because they had love for the South Vietnamese, but because they thought that the United States would be a good replacement for protection since the French had left them with no protection. The United States also recruited young Hmong men who lived in Laos to form a “Secret Army”. The Hmong people were dedicated to help the United States in the war and would do whatever it took to have the United States protection from the communist