Hmong leader says conflict helps unify Americans

Last Updated: April 7, 2002 at 3:54:45 p.m.

EAU CLAIRE, Wis. (AP) - A leader of the Hmong forces that helped the U.S. military in the Vietnam War says the nation's recent battles have helped unify Hmong and other Americans.

"That's always been the strength of America, how the people can come together," former Laotian Gen. Vang Pao told an audience at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire Saturday.

"We all became one" after Sept. 11, said the 72-year-old Vang, adding that the Hmong will work with their American allies to protect the country from future attacks.

Vang, through an interpreter, said the terrorist attacks gave Americans a better understanding of the suffering the Hmong endured in America's "secret war" in Laos, which went on at the same time as the more public conflict in Vietnam.

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