[27] This created suspicion and distrust among many of Pao's supporters and advisers who quickly began to abandon Vang Pao and his new direction in support of the Lao government's foreign policy, economic and military agenda. The defendants face possible life prison terms for violation of the U.S. Neutrality Act and various weapons charges. Vang Pao: The general who wouldn't give up the battle CN&R The amazing life of Vang Pao For many people, especially my parents generation, its horrifying to learn that the U.S. would be willing to return them to the very country that they fled due to threats of violence, torture and death, she said. Vint Lawrence, one of the earliest of the CIA agents to know Vang Pao, said the general seemed unconcerned about his safety in battleperhaps he believed that divine spirits controlled his fate. Former CIA Chief William Colby once called Pao "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War," for the 15 years he spent heading a CIA-sponsored guerrilla army fighting against a communist takeover of the Southeast Asian peninsula. Its importance grew immensely during the Vietnam War, when most of the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the serpentine route that North Vietnam used to funnel supplies southward, ran through Laotian territory. [67][68][69][70], Traditional Hmong funeral services for Vang were scheduled to be held for six days, starting 4 February 2011, at the Fresno Convention Center. If you have questions about your account, please In the shadows of the Vietnam War, the CIA conducted a secret war in Laos that relied on Hmong soldiers to prevent the threat of communism from spreading deeper into Southeast Asia. Gen. Vang Pao, the controversial but revered Hmong leader who was a key ally to the United States during the Vietnam War, died Thursday in Clovis, Calif. The U.S. government declassified some of the documents relating to Poe and his activities in Laos, but hardly mention the operative by name.