can help all aspects of our lives. maybe it's a question of healing the mind to best heal the body. we've been doing it for thousands of years and we're likely to keep doing it for thousands more. xxx the '90s championship chicago bulls era. and i grew up during an era. the vietnam war movie era. 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, the earth, superman's a hero. to krypton, he is a dude who

moved out of the neighborhood when things got rough. this week we're going to talk about the vietnam war. we're doing it from the perspective of the hmong people. if you don't know who the hmong people are, there's a reason for that. >> at the time the u.s. government did not acknowledge america's role. there was a secret war. >> but tonight, the secret's out. the story of the hmong people is incredibly complicated and nuanced and challenges the ways we typically talk about immigrants, refugees, and patriots. the hmong were the people recruited to fight the laotian

and north vietnamese military in the c.i.a. backed secret war. the fact it's called the secret war tells you that the people in charge didn't want nobody talking about it. and remember, this is recent u.s. history. many of the people who fought and lived through the secret war are still alive. we're going to talk to a few of them. their stories, culture, and trauma, live on through their children. for a one stop shop for all of this i'm heading to the twin cities of minnesota, home to one of the largest hmong communities in america. it's not just any old day. inside of this convention center is the last day of the hmong new year celebration. see if you can spot me. and this is professor lee, founding director of the center for hmong studies at concordia university in st. paul. in 2000 he was appointed to serve on president clinton's advisory commission and that put him in the history books because it made him the first hmong presidential appointee in the nation's history.

>> i have to up front openly admit my ignorance to the entire hmong culture. you know what i mean? >> i always tell people if you buy flowers from seattle you're buying hmong flowers because they're grown by hmong growers. if you eat strawberries from california during the winter months you are eating hmong strawberries because they dominate 70% of the market. so whatever -- people just don't know. today is the hmong new year celebration. usually back in laos it's after harvesting. and it's an opportunity for people to come together. for young people to also find mates. >> oh, really. is that what that is? >> yeah. you will see people ball tossing and a game. >> a new year celebration and also speed dating. >> absolutely speed dating. >> yes. >> this is part. we did come here to ball toss and all that stuff too. >> a ball toss app? >> and while on the surface this may look like any old cultural

heritage festival -- food, clothes, smattering of white people, i quickly realized this takes on much more significance for the hmong because they have to keep it going. see, the hmong have no home country to return to, so this festival is kind of a tribute to the mother land. >> you know, they're still wearing the old, traditional clothing. all the new ones are from thailand and china and laos, the country we left. it's all mixed now. >> i know a lot of that is like an eraseur of your history. >> there was a lot of prosecution. one-third of the hmong population migrated to the northern part of vietnam, laos, burma. >> in 1853 the kingdom became a colony and they were recognized as citizens of laos in part because of helping fight the chinese. by the time they lost the war in

1954 the laotion were split between those who sided with laos and those who sided with the communists. >> then the americans came, right? >> eventually. eventually the americans. is there fighting here? we should probably go. >> if you look at the vietnam war there is no coverage of 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 falls, the region will fall to communism. >> if you recall students, this is the point in u.s. history where communism was a dirty word that made us want to fight. ah, the good ole days. >> if the communist aggression there succeeded, the entire region of southeast asia would be in mortal danger. >> the u.s. government's fear of the so-called communist threat to take over the world prompted the c.i.a. to start recruiting the hmong in laos. the c.i.a. started with the respected hmong leader.

the general was tasked with engaging in guerrilla warfare. why would he agree to do this you ask? he saw this as an easy decision as he said in an interview 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 winning the vietnam war would be no problem. uh-oh. >> not in an official capacity. >> that would violate the geneva conference, basically to say no american troops should be in laos. >> for over a dericade the hmon soldiers fought and held the growing north vietnamese army to the same battle lines they had in 1962. in doing so the hmong soldiers fought for our country before they even set foot in it. they kept more than 70,000 north vietnamese soldiers from going to war against the americans in

the south. >> the southern part of laos. we were there and would rescue american pilots shot down, sabotaging the supply route, engaging enemies in combat so they wouldn't go to south vietnam to fight against the americans. so the hmong were credited with saving over 50,000 american lives in south vietnam because we fought against the north vietnamese battalions. so my grandpa is a colonel. he lost 30 of his men trying to rescue one american pilot. >> 30,000 to 40,000 hmong soldiers were killed during the war. the communists took hold of laos and the united states began to accept defeat versus the north vietnamese. the u.s. pulled out of the war leaving thousands of hmong behind to quite literally fend for themselves because naturally the laotian government wasn't happy with what the soldiers had done and vowed to hunt down all the hmong who fought with the americans. for many hmong people that meant getting out of laos and figuring

out a way to get to the united states a country many of their people had died for. >> the general fought for the americans but his troops and his people were abandoned after 1975. right? >> they were left behind. >> they were left behind and only three planes came to evacuate us. my family was among those that flew on that plane. 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. we lost 30,000 people during the war. another 50,000 people lost their lives trying to escape the communists after 1975 into thailand. and so the united states of america created a program for many hmong to come to america and from there on it was just history. >> about 5,000 years of history in about five minutes. >> absolutely. i think there's been some acknowledgment. congress passed a resolution. >> happy new year.

>> congress passed resolutions to basically acknowledge the contribution of the hmong people but deep down many people still feel like 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 had a country. >> how is it that the hmong ended up in minneapolis? >> the first hmongs to settle in minnesota were in 1975. it was the lutherans that basically told them, bring more. >> was there any experience of, you know, racism? >> back then when we came here people were accusing us of eating their dogs, eating their cats. i've been pushed down the stairs, called all kinds of names, been spit on, been told to go back home and all that. but i don't know whether that's racism or whether it is just lack of understanding about who we are. >> i think, yeah. a lack of understanding but there's different ways to have a lack of understanding. like i don't know who you are. i should find out. or i don't know who you are.

get him. you know what i mean? >> that's true. >> 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. >> you know, we all came from somewhere else. right? we want the same quality of life that you experience. we want the same opportunities that you've had. and so we just need to, you know, break down those barriers, break down the stereotypes. we are americans. >> yes. >> this building right here is the one place a woman in the state of mississippi can get an abortion. >> what does reproductive justice mean to women? it means access to health care. >> if you want healthy babies you have to take care of the woman and make sure she is healthy. >> the only class in my school was our p.e. teacher yelling about sex is bad. >> and across the country it's under attack. >> whatever they are experimenting with here is coming to you soon. >> an all new "united shades of america" tomorrow night at 10:00 on cnn.

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>> once the american military pulled out of vietnam for the united states the war was effectively over, but for the hmong, a people who had turned on their own government, a new fight has begun -- a fight to survive. the laotian government set to the task of hunting down the hmong. many escaped into the jungle. many went to refugee camps in thailand many with the u.s. in their sites. some ended up in what could be the most unlikely place to imagine, minnesota. if you think i made that sound easy i certainly did. i'm going to sit down and eat and eat at the hmong town marketplace in st. paul. this is the owner of the marketplace. and, boy, he's got a story to tell. that's why we'll sit down. i'll be more like a regular human size. >> so we are going to be eating some hmong food. >> okay. there is an unbelievable amount of food here.

from purple sticky rice to new crop sticky rice to hmong style pulled pork with vegetables to something called egg rolls and much, much more. including papaya salad. remember that for later. what is this? >> pig intestines. >> okay. first time. >> not bad. >> some people eat chitlins but i've never had them. >> two kinds. this is the stomach and the intestine itself. >> all right. a little juice came out when you squeezed it. which one should i start with? >> any one. >> all right. >> there you go. this is chicken? >> bird. >> bird. >> quail. >> okay. >> the bird i used to kill in the jungle. >> oh, wow. >> when i was 7. america withdrew from south vietnam. they withdrew from laos. they left us behind. and our fathers took us in the jungle.

>> with your family? >> oh, yeah. thousands of people were in the jungle. >> thousands. >> that was the only thing i can shoot with a sling shot. i eat that kind of bird for four years. >> four years. >> you don't waste nothing including the bone. >> this is the bone? >> that's a bone. >> i'm going for it. >> chew hard. i learned how to cure myself of snake bites. >> surviving by your wits and skills. >> correct. four years in the jungle. we escaped. we could not stay anymore. it was too tough. we decided to escape from the jungle to thailand. we walked for 45 days. >> 45 days. >> 45 days. i carried my youngest brother on my back. quite a few times we poisoned my younger brother. >> poisoned him? >> yeah. >> how? >> because of the jungle. you could pass through a military camp. they would shoot you. so you give them some opium and put them to sleep. you don't kill them. you just put them to sleep.

because they may cry. if they get hungry they may cry and they hear and they shoot you. >> so like anesthesia. put them under so they wouldn't cry. >> something like that. at the river we made the family learn how to swim. one whole day. >> in one day. >> i think it took us about four hours. >> four hours. >> to get to the other side. >> so he's being pretty none cha lant about this maybe because his family story isn't that different from lots of hmong families including the opium part. not only was the makong river hard to cross it was heavily guarded by soldiers ordered to shoot to kill any hmong trying to cross. many people had to leave behind dead or dying family members along the way. for some, once they crossed they were captured by thai soldiers and returned to laos even though they wanted to enter refugee camps that were often not welcoming or safe. it would be unimaginable if our government wasn't doing something similar right now. >> 450,000, 50,000 people in the

refugee camp. couple thousand acres. barbed wire all around the camp. sometimes we shared tears in the refugee camp. 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 seven years in the camp he and his wife and two children resettled in the u.s. in 1986. that same year the united states began to publicly acknowledge its role in what happened to the hmong people which led to more than 90% of hmong refugees being accepted into the u.s. that year because of all they'd done for our country and all that they had endured because of it. did you feel like the people of st. paul have been very accepting? >> way 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.

so i put myself in college. >> oh, good. >> i finished high school in thailand. >> you hadn't really graduated from thai high school, right? >> no, no. >> i won't tell anybody. >> so i got two years and ten months later i got my bachelor's degree. >> you got a four-year degree in two years and ten months? >> oh, yeah. finishing college really quick to work, get money, my gosh. super beautiful. and i went to look for side jobs and i found a seminar. he teaches people how to buy properties with no money down. it's the best way to make money in real estate. two years later i owned a total of 45 units. >> wow. >> and i worked full-time at the bank and my wife and i fix up properties. we were so young. we were in our 20s. we quickly learned how to do plumbing and painting even though we never knew.

>> just learned. the same way you learned to kill the birds. >> exactly. i had a dream of making hmong people stop migrating place to place, place to place. >> hmong town marketplace is a fulfillment of that dream. built in 2005 it employs over 600 hmong americans including his kids. >> nice to meet you. as well as his wife and his son-in-law who helped me not feel so bad about not knowing much about the hmong. >> i'm hearing in college, she said i'm hmong. i'm like, what is that? i've never heard of hmong people. i texted my brother back home in hawaii. hey, can you look up hmong people for me? >> at some point he realized he wasn't 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 is no more jungle to take them to. so i bought air fare tickets one way to thailand. the last day i said you guys are

staying. i'm going home. >> what? >> we entered the school. dad goes, hey, this is your school from now on. all of a sudden everything is silent and you can hear the bells going ding, ding, ding. >> so you were enrolled in college without your knowledge. >> yes. >> what was your reaction? >> like, wait. what's happening? >> what did you think your plan was going to be? >> i thought i was just going to fool around. >> i see what happened. he didn't have a plan and you're like, let me step in here and create a plan for you. >> after i graduated college i came here because we're creating jobs for hmong people. we have accomplished our mission by creating a place for the hmong people to come together. >> i got what i want. >> how much sleep do you get a night? >> we go to bed at 12:00. we get up at 4:00. we take them to work. >> do you take naps during the day? >> oh, yes. right in the chair sometimes.

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remember earlier we talked about the papaya salad? it is about to pay off. >> papaya salad is like anal sex. should i be looking -- >> i mean you don't have to make eye contact or go all the way there. >> it's like nasty, raunchy sex complete with spit and sweat because it is not for the casual foodie who wants to experience southeast asian food. it requires preparation. >> there is a lot more there so make sure to go watch it online. >> you will need tolerance. lots of it. >> thank you. she is an award-winning play wright. she and her collaborator are creating theater pieces and films to re-examine their history and culture. >> right here in minnesota the first hmong american theater company was created. we don't historically have a

practice of theater in laos or thailand. in 1994 a bunch of college students put on a show and they liked it. they were like, let's keep doing this. and hmong american theater was born. >> children of parents who were immigrants or refugees are expected to, like, achieve a lot of academic and professional success and so i'm wondering if your families were like, oh, great. the arts. >> i think it was just different because we are former refugees and our parents lost so much during the war. we came here empty handed. and so it was just important to just exist however you can exist. >> as somebody who has worked in a lot of theaters like this and came through theaters like this to start my career, what is the goal? >> representation does matter. i don't want to say that like ooh a cool catch phrase. >> but it does. >> yeah. when i was growing up, i grew up on pop culture. i loved it. but basically every single time you saw an asian woman on the

screen, she was either a prostitute, she was killed, she didn't speak english. >> wow. >> by the time i was 18 i was like, oh, man this sucks. i'm over it. i think art making has been an opportunity to try to live in my own skin unapologetically. >> yes. >> we also just like talking about ourselves a lot and wanted people to pay to come see us. we think we're funny. >> i'm right there with you. i had a similar life. i understand. >> yes, yes. >> you recall earlier we learned the hmong had a lot of conflict then you know why their working together is so revolutionary. even years later the divide is still real. >> the thing is our communities don't often talk to each other. we have so many things in common. we have a shared history. >> we actually wrote a whole play called hmong-lao friendship play. >> it makes a difference. >> my people will click on hmong-lao and your people click on lao-hmong. >> we wanted paem to come into the room together and be able to

laugh at the same things and understand and to see us, an example of something that went right. >> right, right. >> i mean, honestly being a child of refugees has been incredibly empowering and a plijd platform to have to be perfectly honest. it feels good when people come up to you and say, wow. i never have seen my story reflected. thank you. >> for sure. >> 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. 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 trajectory of all of our histories. my dad has passed away now but he always had a dream of going back to die in laos. and so, you know, people like him who fought in the war. they can't go. >> some laotian authorities continue to see the hmong as coconspirators for fighting with the americans. for the hmong people who are

born in laos, and also fought in the war, going home to laos means risking your freedom and possibly your life. >> people died. and they can't tell their story. >> right. >> i feel like there is a certain sense of responsibility to make sure it doesn't get silenced. it doesn't get forgotten. and so we just started claiming that. >> i mean, just like people sometimes will say hmong people are nomadic. we're not nomadic. we got kicked out of every country we were in. >> we were evicted. black people. we were nomadic. yeah. >> that's right. i find out i'm 19% native american, specifically from the chihuahua people. what?! that's... i find that crazy. it traces their journey in the mid-1800s from central mexico to texas. learning about the risks they took for a better life... ...it gives me so much respect and gratitude. it just shed so much light in my past that i never even would've known was there. 20 million members

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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 a spontaneous black people meeting. >> the refugees that come here, they have that collective mindset already especially the second or third generation so they don't have to depend on these white folks for anything. they depend on themselves. i would say specifically in the hmong community they get it. they understand that without progress for one, there is no progress for nobody. >> the daily edition of black talk. sunday mornings on local networks before football starts. >> there you go. >> now to a hmong meeting. this was more official because it's with city officials.

bad joke. congratulations everybody on your re-election. part of the hmong wave it sounds like. in november, 2018 a record five, that's right, five is a record, state representative seats were won by the hmong candidates. i'm at golden time coffee sitting down with the first ever hmong city council member and two newly elected reps. so i've heard a lot about this clan system. is there a difference between clan politics and politics outside of the clan? >> your relationship with each clan is a little bit different and that prepares you well in the main stream politics because everybody is diverse. right? so if you want to do well in politics come learn the hmong clan system. >> the hmong approach to politics is informed bite clan system. hmong families are divided into 18 separate groups called clans.

each clan elects a representative to work with other representatives to solve issues in the hmong community. >> the very first thing i learned when i told my uncles i'm going to run for office, they're like, speak hmong first. is your hmong good enough? and so your hmong has to be perfect for us to even consider you as a candidate. you have to win the support within your own clan and i want to earn this for my uncle and before i reach out to the other 17. >> his hmong is good. [ laughter ] >> must be pretty good. he won. >> yeah. >> is it an app, a down load next to your phone? >> the hmong community has become a core component in the twin cities in the state of minnesota. we're business owners, lawyers, doctors, and i think where we lacked right now is that representation in main stream 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 seven times to run for office to convince her to run, right? >> you've been told seven times to run for office. you should run. you're right.

i should run. >> yes. i'm proud to be the first hmong woman to be elected in the state house. i hope we don't have to keep saying first anymore. >> what made you decide to run? >> to be included in the conversation means a lot. >> i think that is what pushes all of us to not just be involved with politics but really be at the forefront in trying to make our voices heard. >> and also you're sort of also representing different generations, right? >> yes. i'm 28. >> 24. >> 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 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 one way or the other. >> as a black person in america, i think it's important to have relations with the south because that is where so many of our stories -- it's kind of our secret war. >> yes, yes. i like that. >> you know, that's where a lot of the secrets come from and a lot of the, we don't really know what happened before that. >> that's like the big bang. >> exactly. like everything before that sort of almost, it's important to know but 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 had lived in the projects and i thought it would be about the longest tunnel from the south to the north. but when i looked for a train it turned out it was about harriet tubman and her story about her people being displaced, murdered. it was the same story of the hmong people. right away, i resonated with her and i started learning about dr. king, fredrick douglass, and those helped shape my politics.

>> we tell as many folks that are antsy about refugees, no, our grandparents shed blood for america before they even got to america. our allegiance to each other is for liberty and justice. if we can be successful in america, then any refugee of the modern 21st century would be very successful. i think we need to be more open to allow other refugees and other immigrants to come in because when we were here no one really stood up for us. it's being repeated what's happened in the middle east. like when trump says that he wanted to ban muslims. so what i did here is that i passed a resolution to ban trump from coming to st. paul. so far, it has worked. >> good job. good job. >> but it was important because there were a lot of muslim american kids in this community. it was important that we stand up for them. everybody is worthy. when i think about why i worked so hard and i think all of us worked so hard for this

community, like love one another. that is something you not only apply within your own community, love one another, but community is bigger than self. >> yes. >> kamau heads to mississippi to find out what reproductive justice means for women and why it is under attack. tomorrow night at 10:00. hey, who are you? oh, hey jeff, i'm a car thief... what?! i'm here to steal your car because, well, that's my job. what? what?? what?! (laughing) what?? what?! what?! [crash] what?! haha, it happens. and if you've got cut-rate car insurance, paying for this could feel like getting robbed twice. so get allstate... and be better protected from mayhem...

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vietnam, thailand, and laos. not trying to start a fight here but they are credited as among the first to cultivate rice in asia. once they arrived in minnesota the snow didn't slow them down at all. in fact, they revitalized the twin cities farmer's market scene and make up more than 50% of the farmers in the markets. >> when you meet a hmong person who doesn't have a green thumb it's like what is wrong with you? >> this was a new york city ad executive who moved back to minnesota to work on her family farm. since it is winter she grabbed some canned a fruit from the farm and is going to teach me to make some jam. also this is my audition to be a judge on "jobs." >> i was told apples and bananas are your favorite. >> i am a big fan, yes. >> you want to open this for me? >> happy new year. it is hmong new year right? >> yes. >> happy new year. >> so we can also add raspberries, too. some pectin gives you the gel

effect. two cups of sugar. >> the same amount of sugar i put into coffee in the morning. where did you grow up in california? >> fresno. >> which is the other hmong motherland in the states, right? >> yes. fresno used to be really well nene for olives. olive trees are 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 until you said taylor swift. i'll google it later. i thought you knew because you were a farmer. i didn't think it was because you were a swifty. growing up was there talk in your family and community about the secret war and what it meant? >> personal family stories yes but the politics behind it, no. there is a lot of ptsd unspoken. my dad was recruited as a soldier at 12. >> really. >> yeah. so 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. that's ptsd. >> ptsd or post traumatic stress disorder can affect a person in a wide variety of ways after they experience or even just witness any number of traumatic events. the symptoms can stick around a few months or a lifetime. according to the v.a. it is estimated around 30% of vietnam war vets have dealt with ptsd. there is a big difference between the american born vietnam war veterans and the hmong who fought for america. >> the v.a. benefits and everything hmong people just don't get it. >> you're not part of that. >> no. >> not part of the v.a. system. >> no. >> that is horrible and not surprising. >> yeah. just recently legislation 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, right? our issues and our culture is just as important as everybody else's. >> where do you fit into this? >> my generation which is like the first generation here, it's about deciding on what 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? >> yeah. how is my jam doing? >> we are just about done here. >> i'm ready. >> all right. >> that's good. i like it. undertone of the raspberry and the overtone of the apple. they're coming together. the tartness of the raspberry is really coming through. >> that was some good -- >> thank you. now a sports story that is so amazing it makes the run my golden state warriors are on look cute. this is the johnson high school girls badminton team. i promise i didn't purposely wear the same color as them.

it is just wednesday is my maroon day. these young women are among the top badminton players in the state. they have won nine state championships and are going for their tenth. though practice looked intense and rough a couple star players took a break from beating that birdie to talk to me. how long have you played badminton? >> six years. >> what do you like about it? >> smashing. >> smashing? tell me what that is. >> when you kill the birdie where it goes straight down. >> a scary, violent sounding word. smashing. like the spike in volleyball? >> yep. like a spike in volleyball. >> okay. are you both hmong? >> yes. >> why are there so many hmong girls on the team? >> i think it's because they are willing to work together a little bit more. >> okay. >> before we came here they were the state champion so it gave that reputation and we wanted to do it. >> what are your hopes for the future of badminton? >> tenth year. >> the repeat and the three-peat. air going for the ten-peat.

a lot of pressure? >> yes, a lot. >> these young ladies are for real. since i'm wearing the team colors i might as well try out. she is going to put me through my paces. i'm trying to hit it that way? >> yeah, sure. >> all right. >> oh, there you go. >> oh, all right. what if i find out this was my calling? >> want to hit it this way. if you're standing this side -- >> oh, so hitting over there i'm actually doing the right thing. i'm actually great at this. >> yeah. >> okay. all right. okay. yeah. that's the one that is going to air on television. maybe not the only one. is that bad? all right. last time. because i'm feeling all of my

age. okay. so i didn't make the team. but they're kind enough to let me pretend that i did. >> go! >> go! whoo-hoo!

>> go! ♪ ♪ whoo-hoo! ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

>> i'm looking forward to this meal. hmong food is not really about the food. it's actually about the community. that's what happens when you have a group of people that don't have a land or country of their own. regardless of where we are, we have each other. >> tonight i'm the lucky guest of chef yia vang at his family's home for dinner. chef yia is the co-owner of union kitchen, a catering pop-up restaurant that specializes in hmong cuisine. and 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. and 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, and now it's like you're a part of the family. >> my dad is going to pray real quick. is that okay? >> of course. >> i can pray in my language. [ laughter ]

>> start serving yourself. grab some lettuce. >> how do you eat it? >> i always tell people it's dealer's choice. eat it any way you want. this is the hot sauce and this is the peanut sauce that you can pour right over. >> wow. it might be a two-plate situation. >> my mom wants you to eat everything. >> okay. [ laughter ] >> challenge accepted. >> these are yia's mom and dad. they met in a refugee camp in thailand where yia and his brother were born. and while yia honors his family by celebrating the food of his people, his brother peter honors his father's military history by being a u.s. army sergeant with a couple of tours of duty in iraq. that's a lot to take on when your dad is an actual war hero. >> my dad wants to show you a few of his pictures real quick. my dad had to use those pictures

to prove that he was -- he fought for the u.s. in order to come here. there were a lot of young farmers who didn't fight and they say, i can just say i was in the army, you know, and fought for the americans. >> it's way harder than your average citizenship test. >> who was the first president? >> exactly. what was the tree that george washington chopped down? >> he was about 12 when he joined and he was 14 when they took that photo of him. >> you look like a man. >> war will do that to you. >> yeah. >> the irony is, that's your identification to show -- to prove to others, 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 identify you as an american. they're going to kill some americans.

>> my mom, she lost her husband in the war. she was a widow. when she met my dad, all of his former soldiers were like, hey,

as an officer he treated us really well. there was a lot of sticky situations they were in and somehow he always got them out. that's why my mom was attracted to my dad because he cares a lot about his men. when the war was over a lot of, you know, officers left a man behind, but my dad, he actually stayed to make sure all of 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 and they would say we're here in america because your dad saved us. and because of that sacrifice i have the ability then to dream. for me it's always been like, how do i honor their legacy? and i'm not good at math. i'm not good at science. but i knew how to cook. if somehow through cooking the foods that we grew up eating intrigued people enough to follow the trail back to what is behind why you cook why you

cook, if all that comes to back to their legacy, that's what motivates me. >> and connect to these stories. >> as you can tell, my dad's so proud of telling you this. he really wants you to know, get this message out. it's for a greater good and i think that's the way that my parents have embodied their life. >> get the message out. i'll do my best because one thing i know for sure is this country is not done a good job of listening to the story of the hmong or learning the lessons from the story of the hmong. these are important stories. not just because they're compelling or relatable or sometimes filthy, but because there's a lot we can learn from them. we can learn that immigrant, refugee and patriot don't always mean what you think. that hmong americans embody all three in their own way and maybe we can finally learn when the united states intervenes around the world, that there are real people who get caught up and there are real consequences. people deserve more than our bombs and guns. they deserve our respect and our

help. and we all know this isn't theoretical. all over the world as i speak, the united states is in some country repeating the same mistakes we made with the secret war over and over again. ♪ this week i'm in tacoma, washington, and seattle, washington, hanging out with the redneck revolt, the john brown gun club and now tacoma against nazis. i'm talking to white people who want to end white supremacy and they're not doing it the way white people normally do it by hashtaging it. right now they're protesting a nazi-owned tattoo shop. i should say allegedly nazi-owned tattoo shop. i don't want to get sued by nazis.