The forgotten peoples of Vietnam’s Wars

In the second half of the 20th century two of Indochina’s ethnic groups found themselves on the “wrong side of history”. Both supported the US forces in the Vietnam War and against communist insurgents. Both were left behind when the US withdrew, and both were persecuted in the decades that followed. For the ethnic minorities of the Lao Hmong and the Degar-Montagnards, the fall of Saigon forty years ago marked the end of hope and the renewal of a long persecution.