[books]
High on Hog Montana native’s covert life with the Hmong by Kate Whittle
Somebody ought to write the movie treatment to camps in Thailand and on to the United States. to Gayle L. Morrison’s new book, Hog’s Exit: Jerry Gen. Vang, sentenced to death by the Pathet Lao, fled Daniels, the Hmong, and the CIA. It should start with with his family to a ranch in the Bitterroot Valley. Though Daniels often talked about missing Flata scene in the Missoula airport in May 1982, where more than 150 people, including CIA agents, grizzled head Lake and other Montana landmarks in his letters smokejumpers, Hmong immigrants and a former home to his family, he stayed in Thailand for years after the war as a refugee coordinator. In 1982, State general, sat drinking beer. As Deirdre McNamer, a reporter with the Missou- Department officials cabled the news of Daniels’ death to his friends and lian at the time, recounts family. The official story is in the book, “There were that when Daniels hadn’t these people who showed shown up to work for up who looked like old three days, his swollen, disAsia hands with white figured body was found in linen suits on … a look his apartment, the victim that you don’t often see of carbon monoxide poiwalking down the street in soning from a faulty gas Missoula, Montana.” They water heater. were waiting for an aircraft It seems suspicious bearing the sealed casket that a savvy CIA agent, who of one remarkable man: survived a brutal war and Jerry Daniels, nicknamed was wanted dead by com“Hog.” munist forces, could be unHog’s Exit is an oral done by such an accident. history that tells Daniels’ One of several eyebrowstory through letters, raising details: Some news newspaper articles, Dereports mentioned that a partment of State cables young Thai man was found and quotes from dozens of unconscious in another his family and friends. The room of Daniels’ apartbook has everything you’d ment, but there’s no other want from a gritty politiHog’s Exit: Jerry Daniels, trace explaining who he cal thriller: revelations the Hmong, and the CIA was or how he survived. about the secret war the Gayle L. Morrison Oral histories can be a CIA orchestrated in Laos, paperback, Texas Tech University Press little difficult to follow, and heartening camaraderie, 512 pages, $39.95 I sometimes got lost in glimpses into a foreign Hog’s Exit’s plethora of culture, hard-drinking American boys and a mysterious death to top it off. I military acronyms and unfamiliar geography. I’d also highly recommend Hog’s Exit to people intrigued by recommend knowing a bit about the role the CIA war, U.S. government meddling, or anyone who’s played in Laos during the Vietnam War before delving ever wondered why Missoula is home to a Hmong into the book, and about the Hmong people, an ethnic group from regions of China, Thailand, Laos and community. Daniels, a blue-eyed, dark-haired man, grew up Vietnam. (Hmongmissoula.com is a good place to in Montana and worked as a smokejumper from 1958 start, actually.) But for the most part, Morrison finds the most to 1960. At the age of 19, the CIA recruited him to help with supply drops in Laos, where the U.S. gov- compelling quotes and stories from her subjects, and ernment had committed to fund a fight against invad- keeps the narrative fresh with chapters that alternate ing communist forces, concurrent with the war in with stories from Daniels’ life and of his death and fuVietnam. The CIA liked smokejumpers because, as nerals, which included a Buddhist memorial in one State Department employee says, “Smoke- Bangkok and a three-day traditional Hmong ceremony jumpers were people with special skills that were in Missoula. Testimonies ring with feeling. Xuwicha picked up during a time of crisis and told to keep “Noi” Hiranprueck, a Thai who organized the Buddhist ceremony, says, “I shared years of friendship their mouths shut. They did that superbly.” Daniels, an avid outdoorsman, fit in among the with Hog, and he is a man I am looking forward to Hmong people and their mountainous, rugged seeing in the afterworld.” Other stories in Hog’s Exit are more uplifting. homeland. He served as the CIA liaison and operations officer for Gen. Vang Pao, who led the Hmong Daniels certainly died too young, but it does him a guerrilla army. When it became clear that the war in disservice to dwell too much on his death. His astonsoutheast Asia was unwinnable, the CIA pulled all ishing legacy is that he saved thousands of lives. Gayle L. Morrison reads from Hog’s Exit: Americans out of Laos. The Hmong were left stranded, facing persecution by the new Pathet Lao Jerry Daniels, the Hmong, and the CIA at Shakecommunist government. Daniels was the lone CIA speare and Co. Tue., Sept. 13, at 7 PM. Free. representative who stayed behind and coordinated kwhittle@missoulanews.com flights, helping get more than 2,500 Hmong refugees
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missoulanews.com • September 12–September 19, 2013 [21]