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Mor r ison, Gayle L. Hog’s Exit: Jer r y Daniels, the Hmong, and the CI A. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech Univer sity Pr ess, 2013. 431 pages.
Reviewed by Dr . Nengher N. Vang
Hmong Studies Jour nal, 15(1): 1-5.
Hog’s Exit: Jer r y Daniels, the Hmong, and the CI A, by Gayle L. Mor r ison. Lubbock, TX: Texas Tech Univer sity Pr ess, 2013. 431 pages. Review by Nengher N. Vang.
It w as late 1960 w hen CIA oper ative William James Lair fir st made contact w ith anticommunist Hmong leader Gener al Vang Pao, then a lieutenant colonel of the Royal Lao Ar my (RLA), in the mountains near the Plain of Jar s in Xieng Khoung Pr ovince, nor ther n Laos. Fr om 1961 to 1973, the United States, thr ough the Centr al Intelligence Agency (CIA) and Air Amer ica, pr ovided tr aining, money and logistical suppor t to tens of thousands of Hmong and other ethnic minor ity gr oups in a cover t oper ation against the communist Pathet Lao and Nor th Vietnamese Ar my in w hat has become know n as the Secr et War in Laos. Dur ing that per iod, the Hmong ser ved in both the r egular RLA and the Special
Guer illa Units (SGU) par amilitar y units author ized by the RLA but dir ectly suppor ted by the CIA. At the height of the w ar in 1969, for ty thousand Hmong w er e in the SGU. Some
Hmong became pilots and flew on air str ike missions. Other s w er e spies and r adio oper ator s gather ing cr itical intelligence on the movement of Pathet Lao and Nor th Vietnamese tr oops. As Amer ica’s foot soldier s, many Hmong and other minor ity gr oups r isked their lives to r escue Amer ican pilots shot dow n by Pathet Lao and Nor th Vietnamese gunner s, often paying a heavy cost in lives. Yet , after the United States signed the peace tr eaty w ith the communists to end its involvement in the w ar in 1973, it w ithdr ew all funding to the Royal Lao Gover nment and the RLA, of w hich the SGU had been a subset, and left the r egion, leaving its allies—both Hmong and those fr om other ethnic gr oups—
entir ely on their ow n to defend themselves. The United States made its final evacuation of Amer ican militar y per sonnel fr om Laos on 14 May 1975, one day befor e the communists took over the countr y.
Gayle L. Mor r ison documented the tumultuous evacuation of 2,500 Hmong fr om Long Cheng, the “secr et city” w her e the militar y headquar ter s of the CIA and Gener al Vang Pao w as based dur ing the w ar , and abandonment of tens of thousands of other Hmong w ho flooded Long Cheng air base on 14 May hoping to be air lifted w ith Amer ican militar y
per sonnel to safety in her fir st w or k, Sky Is Falling: An Or al Hist or y of t he CIA’s Evacuat ion of t he Hmong fr om Laos, published by McFar land & Company in 1999. Hog’s Exit : Jer r y
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Exit center s on just one char act er r ather than a w hole population. Hog’s Exit is, in shor t, an or al histor y of Jer r y Daniel’s life and death, his connection to the CIA and the Hmong, and his r ole in the Secr et War in Laos in the 1960s and ear ly 1970s.
Ther e ar e four par ts to the book. Ther e ar e thr ee chapter s each in the fir st tw o par ts. The thir d par t is the longest w ith tw enty-one chapter s w hile the four th par t is the shor test w ith only two chapter s. In tw enty-nine chapter s, Mor r ison deals w ith a w ide r ange of issues: Daniels’ childhood, passion for outdoor adventur e, and ear ly car eer as a smokejumper in Montana; his ar r ival and employment as a “car go kicker ” w ith Air Amer ica and the CIA in Laos in 1961; his assignment as an air oper ations officer wor king dir ectly w ith the Hmong at Lima Site 36, Na Khang, in Militar y Region 2 fr om 1965 to 1968; his tr ansfer to Long Cheng to wor k dir ectly w ith Vang Pao as his case officer / advisor and the CIA’s chief of oper ations fr om 1970 to 1973; his vital r ole in the evacuation of the Hmong fr om Long Cheng to Thailand on 14 May 1975; his decision to stay in Thailand to w or k as a r efugee coor dinator for the U.S. State Depar tment Refugee Pr ogr am after the fall of Laos to communism; his r ole in the r esettlement of Hmong r efugees in his hometow n of Missoula, Montana; his mother ’s influence on his life and w or k; his pr oblem w ith binge dr inking and passion for w omen; and his thr ee-day funer al cer emony in Montana or ganized by his Hmong fr iends and for mer comr ades-in-ar ms. She devotes multiple chapter s to Daniels’s r ole in the Secr et War in Laos in the 1960s and ear ly 1970s alone (e.g., chapter s 6, 7, 8, 9, and 19).
The cr ux of Hog’s Exit, how ever , is found in the fir st tw o chapter s of Par t I and the last tw o chapter s of the book (chapter s 28-29 of Par t IV). It i s in these chapter s that Mor r ison deals w ith the myster y and contr over sy sur r ounding Daniels’ untimely death in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1982. The official account w as that Daniels w as discover ed in his apar tment thr ee days aft er he had not show n up for wor k, and that he had died fr om car bon monoxide poisoning due to a faulty gas w ater heater . Daniels’ family member s and many of his Hmong and non-Hmong fr iends w er e, how ever , w er e unconvinced by the U.S. gover nment’s account of Daniels’ death. The medical examiner in Missoula at the time of Daniels’ death, Dr . Ron River s, also questioned t he ver acity and r eliability of the
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Gr ow ing up in the Ban Vinai r efugee camp in Thailand, w hich I called home fr om 1980 to 1987, I often hear d my father and other Hmong elder s mention the name “Jer r y” in their conver sations about Hmong life in Laos. They all spoke lovingly of the man they called Jer r y. Fr om the bits and pieces of the stor ies that I hear d, it w as appar ent that Daniels had made a huge impact on the Hmong. I, how ever , knew little about Daniels or w hy he w as so ador ed by the Hmong. Mor r ison show s w hy in Hog’s Exit. Unlike other Amer icans, Daniel s w ent “native” in Laos. He lived w ith the Hmong in their houses, and he lear ned and spoke their language. He r aised geese, par ticipated in r ooster fights, w atched bullfights, r ode bulls, and w ent w ild chicken hunting w ith the Hmong. He ate w hatever they ate and alw ays told them the tr uth. As Randolph “Toby” Scott, a for mer smokejumper and Continental Air Ser vices (CASI) loadmaster in Laos r ecalled, “Jer r y stayed ther e and lived w ith them. Whatever food they w er e eatin’, he never tur ned it dow n. If he had to eat monkey or bat, he’d sit r ight beside them and join in. If they w ent tw o w eeks w ithout a bath, he did, too…. He w as the only guy the CIA had that w ould go out and live w ith the Hmong and r espect them and talk to them and not lie to them or feed them w ith a bunch of cr ap” (p. 52-53). In May 1975, days befor e the communists took pow er in Laos, Daniels or chestr ated at gr eat per sonal r isk the air evacuation of Vang Pao and 2,500 of the CIA’s beleaguer ed Hmong allies fr om Long Cheng air base to Thailand, w hich Mor r ison chr onicled extensively in Sky Is Falling. Most of all, after Laos fell to communism and other Amer icans w ho wor ked w ith the Hmong in Laos had r etur ned home in Amer ica, Daniels stayed w ith the Hmong in Thailand and wor ked until his death in 1982 to r esettle thousands of Hmong r efugees in Amer ica, including Vang Pao and many of his Hmong comr ades-in-ar ms to his hometow n.
One other contr ibution that Mor r ison makes in this book that I especially appr eciate is her car eful documentation and extensive endnotes on the Hmong funer al r ituals and pr oceedings as per for med at Daniels’ funer al, pr oviding one of only a few accounts in English of the Hmong funer al pr ocess available to date. She descr ibes the w ashing and dr essing of the deceased and setting up of the qeej and the dr um to pr epar e for the cer emony; the “show ing the w ay” or qhuab ke cer emony, the funer al chant phases of the cer emony, and the playing of the qeej instr ument on the fir st or opening day of the funer al (chapter s 10, 13 and 16); the r ituals on the “visiting day” or hnub qhua t xws and the
symbolic impor tance of gifts and monetar y donations (chapter 21) on the second day; and the playing of the “leaving song” or qeej sawv kev and the bur ial on the thir d day or hnub sam sab in chapter s 25 and 27.
Like a good myster y w r iter , Mor r ison also keeps the r eader s on edge r ight fr om the star t. She pr esents the myster ious cir cumstances sur r ounding Daniels’ death at the star t of the book and keeps them guessing on w hat r eally happened and anticipating an answ er by the end of the book. Thr ough the or al testimonies that she has collected, Mor r ison has successfully show n how it w as impossible for Daniels to die fr om the gas leak the w ay that the U.S. gover nment said Daniels did. Regr ettably, how ever , Mor r ison does not dr aw any conclusion on what happened. As a consequence, the r eader s ar e left w ith an unsolved myster y and plenty of speculation and unansw er ed questions—the ver y questions for w hich Daniels’ fr iends and family member s had demanded answ er s fr om the U.S.
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w hat caused Daniels’ death? Did Daniels r eally die? How did his body become so disfigur ed and r otten after being dead for just thr ee days? Was it r eally his body in the sealed casket because the casket w as too small for his size? Was he sent on a secr et
mission to Afghanistan, Nicar agua, or another countr y somew her e in the w or ld? Who w as the “myster y” man w ho kept calling Daniels w ith thr eatening messages w eeks befor e he died? Was he a victim of communist assassinati on thr ough chemical or gas poisoning? Was he killed by his ow n gover nment in or der to stop him fr om disclosing classified infor mation and going public about the U.S. secr et oper ations in Southeast Asia and other locations ar ound the w or ld? Was ther e a cover up? Was this the r eason for the sealed casket, as ther e w as no appar ent indication of any health r isk? Why w as the U.S. gover nment so r eady to take the r epor t of the Thai gover nment at face value w ithout conducting its ow n investigation especially w hen Daniels w as a U.S. feder al gover nment employee? Was Daniels alive in Russia hunting polar bear s as seen in a pictur e year s later at a local spor ts w ar ehouse in Missoula?
Like a good or al histor ian, Mor r ison has also put together an impr essive or al histor y documentar y to tell the complicated stor y of Daniels’ life and especi ally the myster y and linger ing contr over sy of his death. She devoted ten year s to the pr oject, inter view ed near ly one hundr ed individuals w ho knew or wor ked w ith Daniels, car efully tr anscr ibed and edited her inter view s, and select ed the most compelling quotes and stor ies fr om her
inter view s for the book. But a differ ent for mat, such as a biogr aphy, w ould have been mor e effective. Not only is the or al histor y for mat that Mor r ison employs in this book r epetitive, it makes it unnecessar ily difficult for the r eader s to get a good gr asp of Daniels’ biogr aphy. To get a basic nar r ative of Dani els’ life, r eader s w ould have to constr uct one on their ow n using the br ief sketch of Daniel’s life in the intr oduction and the chr onology of events that Mor r ison pr ovides. Most of all, the or al histor y for mat might also be r esponsible for the disor ganization of the book, which again makes it difficult for the r eader s to follow the events in Daniels’ life. The book jumps back and for th betw een life in Southeast Asia and life in Amer ica (e.g., chapter s 1-3 on events in Laos and Thailand and then chapter s 4-5 on life in Missoula, Montana, and then back to life in Laos in chapter 6). Ther e is also no appar ent effor t to gr oup chapter s w ith similar themes together to show continuity and connection betw een the chapter s and the nar r ative. The discussion of Daniels’ involvement in the Secr et War in Laos, for example, is spr ead out in chapter 3 of par t I, chapter 6 of par t II, chapter s 7-9 and 19 of par t III. Similar ly, Hmong funer al r ites ar e discussed separ at ely in par ts of chapter s 10, 13, 16, 21, 25, 27. Wr iting Hog’s Exit as a biogr aphy that moves chr onologically fr om Daniels’ bir th to his death and subsequent funer al cer emony in
Montana w ould still have allow ed Mor r ison to incor por ate the many voices that she does in its cur r ent for mat and make it easier for those w ho ar e less familiar w ith histor y of the Secr et War in Laos and the Hmong to follow .
These flaw s and shor tcomings, how ever , should not obscur e or tr ivialize the
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face value but challenged and disputed. Hog’s Exit, in the final analysis, r emains an
invaluable r esour ce for anyone inter ested in the Secr et War in Laos, the histor y of the CIA, U.S. inter ventions over seas, or al histor y methodology, the Hmong and their cultur e,
par ticular ly the Hmong funer al pr ocess, and anyone else w ho has ever w onder ed w hy and how the Hmong came to Amer ica or why Missoula became the site of one of the ear liest Hmong communities in the U.S.
Author Contact Info:
Dr . Nengher Vang
Elizabeth City State Univer sity
Depar tment of Social and Behavior Sciences 1704 Weeksville Road
Elizabeth City, NC 27909 Email: nnvang@mail.ecsu.edu
Phone: (651) 343-3768
Author ’s Bio:
