historians like to divide america into eras. revolutionary war era, roaring 20s era, the 90s championship chicago bulls era. and i grew up during an era. the vietnam war movie. every third movie was about the vietnam war because america wanted to figure out how to best frame a war we had lost. but as usually happens with history, the dominant culture goes with the perspective that serves it best. for example, to earth superman is a hero but to krypton he's a dude that moved out of the

neighborhood when things got rough. so this week we're going to talk about the vietnam war but we're doing it from the perspective of the people and if you don't know who they are, there's a reason for that. >> at the time the u.s. government did not acknowledge america's role. it was a secret war. >> but tonight the secret's out. >> my name is w.kamal bell. as a comedian, i made a living finding humor in the parts of america i don't understand and now i'm challenging myself to dig deeper. i'm on a mission to reach out and experience all the cultures and believes that add color to this crazy country. this is the united shades of america. >> the story is incredibly complicated and nuisanced and challenges the way we talk about immigrants, refugees and patriots. they were the people recruited

to fight the north vietnamese military to fight the secret war. that tells you the people in charge didn't want nobody talking about it. this is recent u.s. history. many of the people that fought and lived through the secret war are still alive. we'll talk to a few of them and their stories, culture and trauma live on through their children that we'll also talk to and i'm heading to the twin cities of minnesota, home to one of the largest communities in america and it's not just any old day. inside of this convention center is the last day of the hmong new year's celebration. see if you can spot me. and he is the founding director of the center for hmong studies in st. paul. in 2000 he was appointed to serve on president clinton's advisory commission on asian americans and pacific islanders. that put him in the history books. it made him the first mhmong

appointee in history. >> i always tell people if you buy flowers from seattle you're buying hmong flowers. if you eat strawberries, you're eating hmong strawberries because they dominate 70% of the market. people just don't know. >> today is the celebration. usually it's after harvesting and it's an opportunity for people to come together, for young people to also find mates, right? >> really. >> so you see people ball tossing which is a courtship game. >> speed dating. >> this is part of our story. we didn't come here for ball toss and all that stuff too. >> there's no tinder for ball

toss. >> while it may look like a cultural heritage festival, food, clothes, some white people, this takes on much significance for the hmong so they have to keep it going. they have no home country to return to. >> wearing the old traditional clothing. all the new ones from thailand and china. >> it's all mixed up. >> about 5,000 years ago there were only three kingdoms in what we call now china. there was a lot of persecution. one third of the hmong population migrated to laos and vietnam and burman. >> by 1947 the hmong were recognized as sids of laos. by the time the french lost their war in 1956, they were

split between those inside of i that sided with laos and those that sided with the communists. >> then the americans came, right? >> eventually the americans. is there fighting here? we should probably go. >> if you look at the vietnam war, there's no coverage about the hmong because the whole war in laos was the secret war. it was the key to the whole war in southeast asia. the country of laos fall then the region would fall to communism. >> if you recall students this is the point in u.s. history where communism that was a dirty word that made us want to fight. the good old days. >> if the communist aggression there succeeded the entire region of southeast asia would be in mortal danger. >> u.s. governments fear of the communist threat to take over the world prompted the cia to start recruiting the hmong in laos. they started with the respected

leader. the general was tasked with engaging guerrilla warfare. why would he do this? he saw this as an easy decision as he said in 2006. i aligned with the u.s. because they were the most powerful country in the world at the time. the united states won world war i and world war ii and i assumed that winning the vietnam war would be no problem. >> so they served as soldiers of the american armed forces. >> not officially. >> not officially because that would violate the geneva compact. >> they had the same battle lines they had in 1962. in doing so they fought for our country before they even set foot in it and kept more than 70,000 northvietnamese soldiers

from joining the war. >> sabotaging the supply route and engaging in combat. so they were credited with saving over 50,000 american lives in south vietnam because we fought against the north vietnamese battalions. he lost 30 of his men trying to rescue one american pilot. >> the united states pulled out of the war leaving thousands of hmong behind to quite literally fend for themselves because naturally the government wasn't happy with what the soldiers had done. it vowed to hunt down all the hmongs that fought with the americans and for many that meant getting out of laos and

figuring out a way to get to the united states. a country that many of their people died for. >> he fought for the americans but his troops and his people were abandoned. >> they were left behind and only three planes came to evacuate us and my family was among those that flew in the plane. so there were only three days of evacuation. only 2,000 or so families got out. the rest of them had to find their way into the refugee camps. so we lost 30,000 people during the war. another 50,000 people lost their lives trying to escape the communist after 1975 into thailand. so the united states of america created a program for many to come to america and from there on its history. >> absolutely. >> has be ever been an acknowledgment by the american government? >> there's been some acknowledgment. congress passed a resolution.

but deep down many people feel we need a country to call our own. we have 70,000 here. we have over 10 million hmong people. some countries have fewer than 10 million people. we could have a country. >> how is it that the hmong end up in minneapolis? >> the first hmong settle in minnesota in 1975. >> was there any experience of racism or -- >> back then when we came here people were accusing us of eating their dogs and eating their cats. i have been pushed down the stairs and called all kinds of names, been spit of and told to go back home and all of that. i don't know whether that's racism or just lack of understanding about who we are. >> yeah it's a lack of understanding, but there's different ways to have a lack of understanding. there's i don't know who you are. i should find out. i don't know who you are, get

him. >> yeah. >> i think america just because we set it up in such a way that like whoever the dominant group is gets to define who an american is. >> we all came from somewhere else, right? we want the same quality of life. you want the same opportunities that you've had and so we just need to break down those barriers, break down the ster stereotypes. we are americans. >> you nightunited shades of am brought to you by the all new rugged honda passport. (paul) great.

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fight was done, a fight to survive. they set to the task of fighting down the hmong. they went to refugee camps in thailand. many with the u.s. in their sights. many ended up in the most unlikely place they could have imagined, minnesota. if you think i made that sound way too easy, i certainly did. >> you're kamau. >> i'm going to sit down and eat at the hmong town marketplace in st. paul. this is the owner of the marketplace. boy he has a story to tell. >> i'll be more like a regular human size. >> we all are going to be eating some hmong food. >> there's an unbelievable amount of food here. >> to pulled pork with vegetables to something called egg rolls and much more including papaya salad. remember that for later.

>> it's pig intestines. >> this is the stomach. >> okay. >> and this is the intestines. >> a little juice came out when you squeezed it. >> all right. >> this is chicken. >> bird. quail. >> okay. when i was 7 americans with drew from south vietnam. they with drew from laos and left us behind and took us in the jungle. >> with your family. >> oh, yeah. >> thousands of people are in the jungle. >> you don't waste nothing including the bone.

>> i learn how to cure yourself with snakebites. >> surviving by your wits. >> four years in the jungle we escaped. we could not stand. we decided to. we walked for 45 days. >> 45 days. >> i carry my youngest brother on my back. we poisoned my youngest brother. quite a few times. >> poison him? how? >> because in the jungle you could pass through military camp. they would shoot you. so you give them some opium and you put them to sleep. you don't kill them but you put them to sleep because they may cry. if they get hungry they may cry. >> so like anesthesia. put them under so they wouldn't cry. >> yeah. we made the family learn how to swim. one whole day.

>> they're being nonchalant about this. maybe because his story is not different from lots of hmong families. or shoot to kill any hmong trying to cross. many had to leave behind dead or dying family members along the way and for some once they crossed they were captured by thai soldiers and returned to laos even though they just wanted to enter the refugee camps. camps themselves that were not always welcoming and safe. it would be unimaginable if our government wasn't doing something similar now. >> a couple of thousand acres, bob wired all around the camp. sometimes we shed tears. thai kids are free. how come we hmong kids are in

the camp and then i was about 16. my girlfriend was about 15 or 14. i married her. >> wow. >> after 7 years in the camp, he and his wife and their two children were resettled in the u.s. in 1986. that same year the united states began to publicly acknowledge it's role in what happened to the hmong people that lead to more than 90% of hmong refugees being accepted into the u.s. that year because of all they had done for our country and all they endured because of it. >> did you feel the people of st. paul have been very accepting? >> back then. >> what happened back then? >> some people told me go back to your country. >> that's not an option. >> i don't have a country. but you hadn't relationship lay graduated from thai high school, right? >> no. >> i won't tell anybody. i won't tell anybody. >> i got two years and ten months later i got my bachelor's

degree. >> so you got a four year degree in 2 years and 10 months? >> yeah my dream is to work, get money, buy a conversion van. they were super beautiful. >> right. >> and i went to look for side jobs and found a seminar and he teaches people to buy properties with no money down. >> it's the best way to make money in real estate. two years later i own a total of 45 units and i work full time at the bank and my wife and i fix up properties. we were so young. we were in our 20s. so we just learned. >> same way you learned how to kill those birds. >> that's correct. i had a dream of making hmong people stop migrating from place to place, place to place. >> and hmong town marketplace is a fulfillment of that dream. built in 2005 it employees over

600 hmong americans including his kids. >> it's nice to meet you. >> as well as his wife. >> so when i met her in college she said i'm hmong. i was like what is that? i'm never heard of hmong people and i text my brother who is back home in hawaii and i was like can you look up hmong people for me? >> but at some point he realized he wasn't that excited about raising a bunch of soft american kids. >> how do i make my american raised kids to be as motivated as i am? >> yeah. >> the only way is to take them to the jungle. there's no more jungle to take them too so i bought airfare ticket one day to thailand. so i said you guys are staying, i'm going home. >> what? >> we entered this school. dad goes hey, this is your school from now on and then all of a sudden everything silenced and you can hear the bells going ding, ding, ding.

>> so you were enrolled in college without your knowledge. >> yeah. >> what was your reaction? >> like, what is happening? >> what did you think your plan was going to be? >> i was just going to fool around. >> i see what happened. he didn't have a plan and you're like well let me create a plan for you. >> after i graduated college i came here because we're creating jobs for hmong people. we accomplished our mission by creating a place for the hmong people to live together. >> see i got what i want. >> how much sleep do you get at night? >> we go to bed at 12:00 and get up at 4:00 and take employees to work. >> do you take naps? >> all the time? >> he's in his chair working. is that what it is? d lexus ux and ux f sport. also available in hybrid all-wheel-drive. lease the 2019 ux 200 for $329 a month for 36 months.

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while they're building a real estate empire to create more space for the hmong community, other members of the community are using it to carve out more space. remember earlier when we talked about papaya salad, that's about to pay off? >> it's like anal sex, should i be looking somewhere? >> you don't have to make eye

contact. you don't have to go all the way there. >> if it's like making out without fondeling it's like nasty raunchy sex because it's not for the casual foodie that wants to experience southeast asian food. it requires preparation. >> there's a lot more there. make sure to go watch it online. >> you will need tolerance. lots of it. >> thank you. >> she is a hmong american and award winning playwright. she and her friend/colab ray to are creating theater pieces and films to reexamine their history and culture. >> the first hmong american theater somebody has created, right? we don't historically have a practice of theater in laos or thailand. so in 1994 a bunch of college students put on a show. let's keep doing this. >> children of parents of refugees are expected to achieve

a lot of academic and professional success. i'm wondering if your families are like oh, great, the arts. >> we're former refugees and our parents lost so much during the war. we came here empty handed so it's just important to just exist. you can exist. >> as somebody that's worked in a lot of theaters like this and came to theaters like this to start my career. >> it's a catch phrase. >> it does. >> it does. >> i loved it. >> every single time you saw an asian woman on the screen she was either a prostitute, she was killed, she didn't speak english. i think art making has been an opportunity to try to live in my own skin unapologetically.

>> but also we just like talking about ourselves a lot and wanted people to pay to come see us. >> yeah. >> we think we're funny. >> i'm right there with you. i have a similar life. i understand. >> if you recall how earlier we learned that the hmong and the lao had a lot of conflict you'll learn why their work is so revolutionary. because even years later the divide is still real. >> our communities don't talk to each other. we have so many things in common. we have a shared history. >> we wrote a whole play called hmong-lao friendship play. >> it makes a difference. >> we wanted people to come into the room together and be able to laugh at the same things and understand that and to see us an example of something that went right. >> right. honestly being a child of refugees it's been incredibly

empowering platform to have to be honest. it feels good when people come up to you and say wow i've never seen my story reflected. thank you. >> when people say thank you for talking about your father being in labor camp because my father doesn't talk about that and it's been hurting me and i want to know. >> it's been over 40 years, but this war story is such a huge part of our narratives. it totally changed the trajectories of our histories. my dad passed away now but always had a dream of going back to die in laos. but they can't go. >> some authorities continue to see the hmong as co-conspirators for fighting with the americans and for the hmong people born in laos and fought in the war, going home to laos means risking your freedom and your life. >> people died and they can't tell their story and there's a certain sense of responsibility to make sure that it doesn't get

silenced. >> yeah. >> it doesn't get forgotten and so we just started claiming that. >> just like people sometimes will say hmong people are nomadic. >> we are not nomadic. we got kicked out of every country we've been in. >> we were evicted. >> black people, we were nomadic from africa. yeah. >> that's right. this is the couple who wanted to get away who used expedia to book the hotel that led to the ride ♪ which took them to the place

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i'm not the only black person in the twin cities taking notes on how the hmong do it. time for spontaneous black people meeting. >> the refugees that come here, they have that collective mind set already. especially the second or third generation. so they don't have to depend on these white folks for anything. they get it. they understand that. without progress for one and there's no progress for nobody. >> that's today's edition of black talk with w. kamau bell. >> now on to a hmong meeting, this was more efficient because it was the city officials. >> congratulations on your re-election and both elections part of the hmong wave it sounds like. >> november 2018, a record 5, that's right, 5 is a record state representative seats were won by the hmong candidates.

i'm sitting down with the first ever hmong city council member and two newly elected reps. >> i heard a lot about this clan system. is that between clan politics? politics outside of the clan? >> your relationship with each clan is different. that prepares you well. if you want to do well in politics join the clan system. >> the hmong approach to politics is the clan system. they're divided into 18 different groups called clans. each clan elects a representative that works with other representatives to solve issues in the hmong community. >> the first thing i learned when i told my uncles i was going to run for office is speak hmong to us. your hmong has to be perfect for us to consider you as a

candidate. you have to win the support within your own clan and i want support of my own clan first before i reach out to the other 17. >> his hmong is good. it must be pretty good. he won. >> yeah. i'm a good politician. >> is it an app you can download to your phone? >> the hmong community is a core component in the state of minnesota where business owners were lawyers, doctors, and i think where we lacked right now is that representation in mainstream politics. when i was first approached with the idea to run for office i said no a few times actually. you have to tell a woman 7 times to run for office to convince her to run. >> you need to be 7 times to run for office. where as a man, you should run. you're right. i should run. >> i'm proud to be the first hmong woman to be elected but i hope we don't have to keep saying first anymore. >> what made you decide to run? >> to be included and to be part of the conversation, that means a lot. >> that's what pushes all of us to not just be involved in

politics but to actually really be at the forefront in trying to make our voices heard. >> also you should have also represented different generations. >> i'm 28. >> 24. >> all right. >> i'm going to let you guess. >> 29. >> all right. >> i'm probably closer to your generation. i'm like 30. >> close enough. >> if there was one thing that you think that people could learn from the hmong example or that you would like them to know, what is that one thing? >> the secret war is the root of our identity. whether or not you fought in the war, all of us have been impacted by the war in one way or another. >> as a black american in america, i think it's important to have a relationship with the south because that's where so many of our stories, it's like that's our secret war. >> yeah. i like that. >> that's where a lot of the secrets come from and a lot of we don't really know what

happened before that. >> the big bang. started from the south. >> everything before that sort of almost -- it's important to know but it almost doesn't exist because that's where it really started. so yeah. >> my entrance into american politics was i wanted to learn about the underground railroad because i live in the projects and i thought that it would be about the longest tunnel from the south to the north. but when i looked for train it turned out it was about harriet t tubman and her story about her people being displaced and murdered. it was the same story of the hmong people and right away i resinated with her and then i started learning about dr. king, frederick douglas and those helped shape my politics. >> we tell as many folks that are like antsy about refugees, no our grandparents they shed blood for america before they got to america.

and we need to be more open to allow other refugees and immigrants to come in because when we were here no one really stood up for us and it's being repeated. what's happening in the middle east, when trump says that he wanted to ban muslims. what i did here is did i pass a resolution to ban trump -- so far it's worked. >> good job. >> it was important because there was a lot of muslim american kids in this community. it was important that we stand up for them. everybody is worthy and when i think about why i work so hard and i think all of us work so hard for this community is love one another. that's something that you not only apply within your community but community is bigger than self. >> yeah. i'm just a normal person who got an awful skin condition.

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at all. in fact, they make up more than 50% of all farmers in those markets. >> farming is like in our dna. when you meet a hmong person that doesn't have a green thumb it's like what is wrong with you. >> she moved back to minnesota to work on her family's farm and since it's winter she has grabbed canned fruit and is going to teach me how to make jam. >> i was told the apples and bananas are your favorite. >> somebody is like he only eats apples and bananas. >> i'm a big fan of those fruits, yeah. >> do you want to open this for me. >> happy new year. it is hmong new year, right? >> yes. >> so we'll just add apples in there. gives you that gel effect. two cups of sugar. the same amount of sugar i put into a coffee in the morning. >> where did you grow up in california. >> it's the other moreland in

the state. >> they're one of the hardest trees to kill. >> really. >> i only know that because i think it was taylor swift. >> i was going to believe you. now i'm going to google this later. i thought because you were a farmer. i didn't think because you were a swiftie. >> growing up talking about the secret war and what that meant. >> personal family story is yes but the politics behind it is no. there's a lot of ptsd that's undiagnosed and unspoken of. >> i'd imagine, yeah. >> my dad was recruited as a soldier at 12. imagine his entire teenage years he was in the jungles, you know? my sisters can remember him like jerking up awake in the middle of the night and falling out of bed. and that's ptsd. >> ptsd or post-traumatic stress

disorder can effect a person in a wide variety of ways. the symptoms can stick around for a few months or over the course of a lifetime. according to the va it's estimated that around 30% of american vietnam war vets dealt with ptsd but there's a big difference between the american born vietnam war veterans and the hmong that fought for america. >> the v.a. benefits and everything, hmong people don't get it. >> you're not apart of that. >> no. >> not apart of the va system. >> no. >> that's horrible and not surprising. >> it's just recently that legislature was passed that hmong soldiers can be buried in military cemeteries. >> really? >> with the exception of the one big important one, arlington. and the thing is we were such a huge part of vietnam, right? >> yeah. >> our issues and our culture is just as as important as everybo else's. >> where do you fit in? >> my generation which is the

first generation here is deciding which traditions to keep and which ones to put away and also what can we instill from our culture that will make american culture better. >> right. how is my jam doing? >> we're just about done here. all right. >> that's good. i like it. undertone of a raspberry and overtone of the raspberry is coming through. >> now it's so amazing that it makes the run that my golden state warriors are on cute. this is the johnson high school bad mitten team and i didn't purposefully wear the same color as them. it's just wednesday is my maroon day. they're among the top players in the state. they have won, wait for it, nine state championships and they're going for their tenth and even though practice looks intense a

couple of the star players took a break from beating that birdie to talk to me. >> how long have you played badminton for? what do you like about it? >> smashing. >> when you kill a birdie it's straight down. >> it's a scary violent sounding word. it's like a spike in volleyball. yeah. like a spike in volleyball. >> are you both hmong? why are there so many hmong girls on the team? >> they're willing to work together more. before we came here they were already state champions so it gave that reputation so we wanted to do it. >> what are your hopes for the future? >> the repeat and the three pete you're going for the tenth-peat. is there a lot of pressure? >> yes, a lot. >> since i'm wearing the team colors i might as well try out.

she's going to put me through my paces. >> trying to hit it that way. >> yeah. >> all right. >> here you go. what if i find out this is my calling. >> so i'm doing the right thing. i'm actually great at this. >> yeah. okay. all right. >> maybe not the only one. is that bad? okay so i didn't make the team. but they're kind enough to let

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i'm looking forward to this meal. >> yeah. hmong food is not really about the food, it's about the community. that's what happens when you have a group of people that don't have a country of their own or a land of their own. regardless where we are, we have each other. >> i'm the guest at his home for dinner. chef is the co-owner of union kitchen, a catering and popup restaurant that specializes in hmong cuisine. his parents must have had some idea of his future because his name literally translates to "iron skillet." >> food is the most essential thing for survival, right? so our food actually tells the history of our people, and if you really want to know our food, you come in and eat with us. now you're part of the family, you know? my dad's going to pray real quick before we eat. is that okay? >> of course. [ speaking foreign language ]

>> you first. >> start first. just start serving yourself. so we have rice. grab le grab some lettuce, some duck. >> how do you eat it? >> i call it dealer's choice. any way you want it. >> it might be a two-plate situation. >> my mom wants you to eat everything. >> okay. challenge accepted. >> these are his mom and dad. they met in a refugee camp in thailand where he and his brother were born. while he honors his family by celebrating the food of his people, his father peter celebrated his father's military history by being a u.s. army sergeant with a couple of tours in iraq. that's a lot to take on when your dad is an actual war hero. [ speaking foreign language ] >> my dad wants to show you a few of his pictures real quick. >> sure. >> my dad had to use those

pictures to prove that he fought for the u.s. in order to come here because there were a lot of young farmers who didn't fight and say, hey, i can just say that i was in the army, you know, and fought for the americans. >> it's way harder than your average citizenship test. >> right. who was the first president? >> right, exactly. yeah, yeah, what was the tree that george washington chopped down? [ speaking foreign language ] >> he was about 12 when he joined. >> 12? >> yeah. and then he was 14 when they took that photo of him. >> 14? you look like a man. >> war will do that to you. >> yeah, yeah. >> so, like, the irony is that's, like, your identification to show -- prove to others, hey, i served in the military, but it was also your death warrant, too. if you were caught with it by the enemy, you could be killed. the communists, they don't see you as a hmong anymore. they identify you as an

american. they're going to kill some americans, you know? [ speaking foreign language ] >> 16. [ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ] [ speaking foreign language ] >> so my mom, she lost her husband during the war, so she was a widow. when she met my dad, all his former soldiers were like, hey,

as an officer he treated us really well, you know? there were a lot of sticky situations that they were in and he somehow always got them out. that's why my mom was attracted to my dad. officers were left behind. men wouldn't take their families. my dad made sure that all his guys got out with him. >> what's interesting is when we grew up, we would go to parties and i would bump into one of my dad's old friends. hey, we're here in america because your dad saved us. and because of that sacrifice, i have the ability then to dream. and so for me it's always been like how do we -- how do i honor their legacy? >> mmm-hmm. >> and i'm not good at math. i'm not good at science, but, like, i knew how to cook. >> yeah. >> and if somehow through cooking the foods that we grew up eating intrigued people enough to follow the trail back to, like, what is behind why you cook what you cook, if all that

comes back to their legacy, then that's what motivates me. >> connect through the stories. >> yeah, it comes back to the story. as you can tell, like, i don't know, my dad's so proud of tell you this, you know? he really wants you to know, like, get this message out, you know? it's do a greater good and i think that's the way my parents have embodied their life. >> yeah. >> get the message out. i'll do my best because one thing i know for sure is that this country has not done a good job of listening to the story of the hmong or learning the lessons from the story of the hmong. and these are important stories not just because they're compelling or relatable or sometimes filthy, it's because we can learn a lot from them. we can learn that immigrant, refugee and patriot don't necessarily mean what you think. hmong-americans embody all three in a different ways. and when the united states intervenes around the world, there are people that get caught

up and there are real consequences. they deserve our respect. all over the world the united states is in some country repeating the mistakes we made with the secret war over and over and over again. bracing for backlash. china gets ready to strike back after the u.s. hikes tariffs on $200 billion worth of chinese goods. plus, breakfast, lunch and dinner are hard to come by in venezuela. see how the economic crisis there is making it difficult to provide -- and shedding light on injustice. t the muslims that have face -- i'm george howell from cnn world headquarters. "newsroom" starts now.