Minnesota in the Vietnam War
Who are the Hmong?The Hmong people are a minority group that lived in Southeast Asia and China. After 1975, many became refugees in North America, Australia, and parts of Europe and South America.
From 1961 to 1975, in an effort to contain the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, the United States recruited, trained and financed the Hmong and Laos to serve as surrogate soldiers in the American armed forces.
Episodes
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Minnesota in the Vietnam War:
Scout Dog Platoon
1969: Thomas Quinn, St. Louis Park, worked with guys named Butch, Ming and Satan—the German shepherds who were the real stars of the 45th Scout Dog Platoon. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
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Minnesota in the Vietnam War:
The Vietnam Women’s Memorial
1984: The Vietnam Wall and the Three Soldiers statue in the nation’s capital didn’t tell the whole story. Diane Carlson Evans, an army nurse in Vietnam, wanted a memorial for the thousands of women who served in the war. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
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Minnesota in the Vietnam War:
A Virtual Vietnam Memorial
2016: For the past two years, Herb Reckinger, Jr, had worked with a veteran and a journalism professor to locate a photo for every Minnesotan lost in Vietnam to post on the online Vietnam Wall site. But one photo was a blurry high school yearbook group shot. There had to be a better photo out there.
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Minnesota in the Vietnam War:
Behind Enemy Lines with SOG
Sometime: 1970-71. Somewhere: Behind enemy lines. Today’s mission was supposed to be easy-ish. Change a magnetic tape that was recording a wiretap. But Nick Brokhausen knew no day was easy with SOG. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
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Minnesota in the Vietnam War:
An Interrogator with the Screaming Eagles
September 19, 1970: Ken Klose had some downtime. So he decided to write to his cousin in Farmington, Minnesota, about life with the 101st Airborne at Camp Eagle, Vietnam. Here’s Britt Aamodt.
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Minnesota in the Vietnam War:
Operation Babylift
May 2, 1975: Saigon had fallen to the North Vietnamese. The war was over. And Suzie Warren was at a Red Cross center, holding a six-year-old boy. He was one of 2,000 orphans flown out of Saigon as part of Operation Babylift. Here’s Britt Aamodt.