Retiring Madison School Board member Shwaw Vang’s eloquent speech to honor a revered Hmong leader and ally of American forces during the Vietnam War clinched a unanimous decision by board members to name Madison’s newest school General Vang Pao Elementary.
“Your vote will honor the Hmong people who were loyal allies of the United States during Vietnam and will give Hmong students and their families a sense of belonging,” Vang explained in English and in Hmong to an enthusiastic audience that included 75 to 80 members of the local Hmong community.
….Five years ago an effort to name a local park for Pao was shelved because of the controversy surrounding allegations by a University of Wisconsin professor (Alfred McCoy) and others that Pao was involved with the heroin trade during his years of work with the CIA.