Vang Pao

Vang Pao ( Hmong: Vaj Pov, born 1929 in Nong Het, Province Xiangkhouang, † January 6, 2011 in Clovis, California ) was a Laotian general who served in the Royal Lao Army and during the Vietnam War and associated with this Laotian Civil War worked closely with the U.S. government. He belonged to a minority Hmong in the United States and was a leader of the Hmong American community.

Pao died in January 2011 in California from pneumonia. One request of his family after a dispensation for a funeral in the U.S. National Cemetery in Arlington was not granted.