Bill Text: MN SF1412 | 2013-2014 | 88th Legislature | Introduced
Bill Title: Resolution memorializing Congress and the President for federal veterans cemetery law expansion for allied Hmong-American and Lao-American veterans
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Republican 2-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-03-14 - Referred to State and Local Government [SF1412 Detail]
Download: Minnesota-2013-SF1412-Introduced.html
1.1A resolution
1.2memorializing Congress and the President of the United States to amend federal
1.3veterans cemetery law to expand eligibility for burial in state veterans cemeteries
1.4developed with federal funding to include allied Hmong-American and Lao-American
1.5veterans of America's Secret War in Laos.
1.6WHEREAS, early in the Vietnam War the United States government discovered that
1.7most enemy war materiel and many enemy combatants were being supplied by the Communist
1.8government of North Vietnam and their allied Communist governments of the People's Republic
1.9of China and the Soviet Union; and
1.10WHEREAS, the United States government discovered that those enemy combatants and
1.11war materiel were being routed from North Vietnam to the battlefields of South Vietnam via an
1.12ever-more-expansive primitive road system through the mountains of Laos, which came to be
1.13known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail System; and
1.14WHEREAS, the United States government determined that it was of utmost urgency to
1.15interrupt that enemy supply route through the use of targeted military action; and
1.16WHEREAS, the United States government determined that it would be politically
1.17inadvisable to widen the allied war effort through overt military intervention against the enemy
1.18Ho Chi Minh Trail System, and concluded that any allied military action to that effect would need
1.19to be implemented in great secrecy and stealth; and
1.20WHEREAS, the United States government, beginning in 1961 and lasting through 1978,
1.21recruited, trained, equipped, directed, resupplied, and paid Hmong and Lao people indigenous
1.22to the mountain highlands of Laos to conduct, under the direction of the Special Activities
2.1Division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a Secret War in Laos against the
2.2Communist invaders of South Vietnam; and
2.3WHEREAS, the allied Hmong and Lao fighters were formally organized by the CIA into a
2.4Special Guerrilla Unit (SGU) led by the principal allied Hmong leader, General Vang Pao; and
2.5WHEREAS, the members of the CIA's allied Hmong SGU fought valiantly and persistently
2.6in the American Secret War in Laos to interdict enemy supply lines on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
2.7System, to rescue downed United States military pilots from within enemy territories, and to
2.8defend key allied military outposts in Laos, such as the clandestine and vital U.S. emergency
2.9military airport at Luang Prabang among others, and to draw away from the main war thousands
2.10of enemy combatants to protect against allied Hmong SGU attacks against their own supply
2.11lines in Laos; and
2.12WHEREAS, by their valiant fighting and the monumental sacrifice of over 100,000 of their
2.13own lives in the American Secret War in Laos, these allied Hmong and Lao SGU fighters were
2.14able to directly and indirectly save the lives of many thousands of American service members
2.15during the Vietnam War; and
2.16WHEREAS, because of their friendship with and heroic efforts on behalf of the United
2.17States military, the majority of our nation's allied Hmong and Lao SGU fighters in the American
2.18Secret War in Laos and their family and community members were eventually ruthlessly
2.19exterminated or driven from their homelands in Laos; and
2.20WHEREAS, over 250,000 of those Hmong and Lao refugees have sought refugee status in
2.21the United States and other nations, including nearly 80,000 who have resettled in Minnesota,
2.22with most of those refugees having by now earned United States citizenship; and
2.23WHEREAS, accurate records exist to validate the identities of that subset of refugees who
2.24are veterans of the CIA's SGU of the American Secret War in Laos; and
2.25WHEREAS, along with the majority of America's Vietnam War veterans, many of the
2.26allied Hmong-American and Lao-American veterans of the American Secret War in Laos are now
2.27nearing the end of their natural lives, with many others having already passed into eternity; and
2.28WHEREAS, the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery at Little Falls, and the state veterans
2.29cemeteries of most other states, have been developed with federal subsidies and must therefore
2.30comply with federal rules, such as rules governing eligibility for burial; NOW, THEREFORE,
2.31BE IT RESOLVED by the Governor and the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that
2.32it urges the President and the Congress of the United States to amend federal law and policy to
3.1allow the allied Hmong-American and Lao-American veterans of the American Secret War in
3.2Laos, and their spouses and any dependents, to have the final, eternal honor of perpetual interment
3.3alongside their fellow American veterans within state veterans cemeteries throughout the nation,
3.4including the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery at Little Falls, Minnesota.
3.5BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota shall
3.6transmit copies of this memorial to the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the
3.7Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the United States Secretary
3.8of State, the presiding officers of both houses of the legislatures of each of the other states of the
3.9union, and to Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.
1.2memorializing Congress and the President of the United States to amend federal
1.3veterans cemetery law to expand eligibility for burial in state veterans cemeteries
1.4developed with federal funding to include allied Hmong-American and Lao-American
1.5veterans of America's Secret War in Laos.
1.6WHEREAS, early in the Vietnam War the United States government discovered that
1.7most enemy war materiel and many enemy combatants were being supplied by the Communist
1.8government of North Vietnam and their allied Communist governments of the People's Republic
1.9of China and the Soviet Union; and
1.10WHEREAS, the United States government discovered that those enemy combatants and
1.11war materiel were being routed from North Vietnam to the battlefields of South Vietnam via an
1.12ever-more-expansive primitive road system through the mountains of Laos, which came to be
1.13known as the Ho Chi Minh Trail System; and
1.14WHEREAS, the United States government determined that it was of utmost urgency to
1.15interrupt that enemy supply route through the use of targeted military action; and
1.16WHEREAS, the United States government determined that it would be politically
1.17inadvisable to widen the allied war effort through overt military intervention against the enemy
1.18Ho Chi Minh Trail System, and concluded that any allied military action to that effect would need
1.19to be implemented in great secrecy and stealth; and
1.20WHEREAS, the United States government, beginning in 1961 and lasting through 1978,
1.21recruited, trained, equipped, directed, resupplied, and paid Hmong and Lao people indigenous
1.22to the mountain highlands of Laos to conduct, under the direction of the Special Activities
2.1Division of the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), a Secret War in Laos against the
2.2Communist invaders of South Vietnam; and
2.3WHEREAS, the allied Hmong and Lao fighters were formally organized by the CIA into a
2.4Special Guerrilla Unit (SGU) led by the principal allied Hmong leader, General Vang Pao; and
2.5WHEREAS, the members of the CIA's allied Hmong SGU fought valiantly and persistently
2.6in the American Secret War in Laos to interdict enemy supply lines on the Ho Chi Minh Trail
2.7System, to rescue downed United States military pilots from within enemy territories, and to
2.8defend key allied military outposts in Laos, such as the clandestine and vital U.S. emergency
2.9military airport at Luang Prabang among others, and to draw away from the main war thousands
2.10of enemy combatants to protect against allied Hmong SGU attacks against their own supply
2.11lines in Laos; and
2.12WHEREAS, by their valiant fighting and the monumental sacrifice of over 100,000 of their
2.13own lives in the American Secret War in Laos, these allied Hmong and Lao SGU fighters were
2.14able to directly and indirectly save the lives of many thousands of American service members
2.15during the Vietnam War; and
2.16WHEREAS, because of their friendship with and heroic efforts on behalf of the United
2.17States military, the majority of our nation's allied Hmong and Lao SGU fighters in the American
2.18Secret War in Laos and their family and community members were eventually ruthlessly
2.19exterminated or driven from their homelands in Laos; and
2.20WHEREAS, over 250,000 of those Hmong and Lao refugees have sought refugee status in
2.21the United States and other nations, including nearly 80,000 who have resettled in Minnesota,
2.22with most of those refugees having by now earned United States citizenship; and
2.23WHEREAS, accurate records exist to validate the identities of that subset of refugees who
2.24are veterans of the CIA's SGU of the American Secret War in Laos; and
2.25WHEREAS, along with the majority of America's Vietnam War veterans, many of the
2.26allied Hmong-American and Lao-American veterans of the American Secret War in Laos are now
2.27nearing the end of their natural lives, with many others having already passed into eternity; and
2.28WHEREAS, the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery at Little Falls, and the state veterans
2.29cemeteries of most other states, have been developed with federal subsidies and must therefore
2.30comply with federal rules, such as rules governing eligibility for burial; NOW, THEREFORE,
2.31BE IT RESOLVED by the Governor and the Legislature of the State of Minnesota that
2.32it urges the President and the Congress of the United States to amend federal law and policy to
3.1allow the allied Hmong-American and Lao-American veterans of the American Secret War in
3.2Laos, and their spouses and any dependents, to have the final, eternal honor of perpetual interment
3.3alongside their fellow American veterans within state veterans cemeteries throughout the nation,
3.4including the Minnesota State Veterans Cemetery at Little Falls, Minnesota.
3.5BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Secretary of State of the State of Minnesota shall
3.6transmit copies of this memorial to the President and the Secretary of the United States Senate, the
3.7Speaker and the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives, the United States Secretary
3.8of State, the presiding officers of both houses of the legislatures of each of the other states of the
3.9union, and to Minnesota's Senators and Representatives in Congress.
