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this
image is from
http://www.hndlink.org/mrpop.htm
He looks like someone from an
American TV series in the 1950's, but while he may look like Sergeant
Bilko he probably had more in common with Mother Theresa without the
hype. But while the nun is immortalized on screen, in books and more
than 2 million listings on Google, Edgar 'Pop' Buell has a mere 113,000
entries and a hard to find book. The Hmong, though, know who he was.
Pop was a successful Indiana farmer
who'd have grown up during the Great Depression so he'd have known a
thing or two about need. After his wife died he sought something new and
ended up, in 1959, in Laos, a country then, as know, little known to the
outside world. He worked as an agricultural advisor with the Hmong and
learnt their language and customs. Pop admired the small, sturdy
villagers who worked with and he noticed similarities with people from
his own background. Hard work, thrift, conservative, they shared values
as easily as they shared 'lao khao'.
Land
locked Laos in the late 50's early 60s was an interesting place. To the
east Vietnam was doing it's best to reunify under Communism while the
Americans pumped billions of dollars in to keep the South sovereign. To
the west Thailand was laughing all the way to the bank as it's airbases
were developed and used by the Americans for their sorties over Vietnam.
And Laos was going through it's own little crisis but nobody really
cared that much. Most of the population were illiterate subsistence
farmers, the country had no natural resources and nobody could find it
on the map anyway. Oh, and more Lao people lived in Thailand anyway.
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As America increased it's
involvement next door, Laos started feeling the pressure. It's
own quaint three way civil war bubbled along but more ominously
the Viet Cong started infiltrating Lao territory on the Ho Chi
Minh Trail (there was actually more than one). The Americans
started clandestine bombing while telling all and sundry they
were strictly observing Laos' neutrality. It is of course
difficult to carpet bomb anywhere on the quiet but effective
diplomacy (remembering the old adage that a diplomat is a nice
guy paid to lie) kept the sharks, sorry the press at bay for a
while. |
Additional Reading:
Tragedy In Paradise -
Charles Weldon
Air America -
Christopher Robbins
The Ravens - Christopher
Robbins
Mr. Pop - Don Schanche
(I've never seen this...)
Pop Buell's Home Page
and more about the Hmong |
Meanwhile out there in the mountains
and jungle of the USAAF's own private playground, thousands of Hmong,
American allies in that they were anti communist, were kept on the move
trying to keep ahead of their friends who were bombing them and their
enemies who were trying to kill them. Without their own land they
couldn't plant their crops, the Americans had to do something. Thing is
there was little they could do. They couldn't admit they were bombing so
they couldn't admit to the seriousness of their plight. They also lacked
people on the ground. They did have Pop and that is how this gruff
farmer came to be responsible for thousands of mouths and bellies.
The
people increasingly looked to Pop for the rice and medicine they
desperately needed. He set up office in Sam Thong, north east of
Vientiane and commuted by plane there being no roads to speak of and
from here he coordinated the relief efforts as the Hmong became
increasingly hemmed in. He was the point man for the CIA funded Air
America who ferried around medical staff, among them Charles Wheldon,
and Pop as well as spooks and did rice and medicine drops. The best way
of getting to know Pop is through his dealings with authority of which
he was mistrustful to say the least. After being parachuted into the
jungle one time and trekking through the undergrowth he reached a
clearing and was more than a little peeved to see a chopped parked on
the grass and US special forces in place. No respecter of rank POP let
fly with both barrels bemoaning lack of communication and suggested they
start coordinating a bit better. Or words to that effect. It is worth
remembering that at this time Pop was 65 years old and had no military
training. Not even Mother Theresa would fly in on a parachute.
What
followed went all the way up to Washington. Pop Buell out there in the
jungles and mountains responsible for maybe feeding 120,000 people
passed his needs on to Vientiane. The message would get to Air America
and soon allsorts would come flying out the sky in crates, pigs n all.
In Laos at least Pop became a celebrity. Visiting bigwigs would be
shunted up to Sam Thong to be this cranky old bugger who probably scared
the living crap out of the suits in the city but was a pussy cat with
the villagers under his care. This suited the CIA because not far from
Pop's base was Long Tien which nobody could see. Radio broadcasts
offered big sums for the Bilko look-alike but nobody came after him.
*** To Be Continued *** |
