He was born in the Laotian jungle in 1929 and died Jan. 6 in suburban Clovis, Calif. Along the way,

General Vang Pao, son of Hmong farmers, became a key, if controversial, American ally and the

symbolic father of a persecuted people.

Vang Pao, who was 81, is best known for his role in America's "secret war," a covert, CIA-backed

campaign against Laos' Viet Cong–aligned leaders during the Vietnam War. In the lead-up to war, North

Vietnamese forces cut tracks through the Laotian jungle, creating the supply route now known as the Ho

Chi Minh Trail. Laos was also at war, split between the communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao forces.

The Americans teamed up with the latter, working with Vang Pao and a band of guerrilla fighters to

disrupt the North's network of trails. For Vang Pao's 15-year fight against Southeast Asia's communists,

former CIA chief William Colby once called him "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War."But Vang Pao's relationship with the U.S. — as with his homeland — was always complicated. In 2007,

after a lengthy investigation known as Operation Tarnished Eagle, the ex–CIA operative was arrested for

plotting to overthrow the Laotian government. He was charged under the U.S. Neutrality Act, a security

clause that prohibits actions on American soil against foreign governments with whom Washington is at

peace. Federal prosecutors alleged Vang Pao, then 77, and several colleagues were funding guerrilla

fighters living in Laos. Vang Pao didn't deny the charge but countered that the CIA was well aware of his

plans to send American weapons to his former comrades in arms. The case against him, which drew

outrage, was later dropped.

Vang Pao, outside a California courthouse in 2009, was called "the biggest hero of the Vietnam War" by

former CIA chief William Colby

It was not the first time the general felt he had been slighted by Washington. In 1975, after Saigon fell,

Vang Pao and his fighters were all but abandoned. Thousands were killed, and tens of thousands took to

the hills or traveled overland to camps in neighboring Thailand. Some languish there still. Vang Pao was

among the 100,000 or so Hmong who eventually made it to the U.S., where they were "resettled,"

primarily in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin. But America's erstwhile allies were not welcomed as

heroes — far from it. The government did not officially acknowledge Hmong fighters until 1997. That year,

Washington recognized their heroism with a small copper plaque. Vang Pao and some 3,000 veterans

attended the ceremony.

Vang Pao's exile in America was spent advocating for Hmong refugees and bolstering the resistance

movement in Laos. He helped found the United Lao National Liberation Front and spoke out against the

forced repatriation of Hmong refugees living in Thai camps. At 80, he vowed to return to Laos to help

broker peace between his people and the country's communist leaders; those leaders said they'd

execute him if he tried. Vang Pao, like so many of the Hmong, never got to go home.