Although not as open as America's war effort in Viet Nam, the
"secret war" in Laos was no less intense. After recruiting and
equipping ethnic Hmong to fight the communist Pathet Lao, in
May of 1975 the US sponsored an air evacuation to rescue their
allies from the hands of the victorious communists. Gayle
Morrison's Sky Is Falling pieces together the story of the
evacuation from the actual words of the participants - from the son
of Hmong leader Vang Pao to American pilots to ordinary Hmong
students and villagers caught up in events beyond their control or
understanding.
Morrison's oral history begins in early 1975 with Americans
and Hmong contemplating Hmong survival after years of
depending on CIA airlifts for food and supplies. According to a
USAID official, "Many of the young children…assume [rice]
come from the heavens in double-bagged burlap bags." With the
winding down of American support and increasing communist
strength in a supposedly coalition government, the position of the
fiercely anti-communist Hmong under Vang Pao becomes tenuous.
By early May, in the face of Pathet Lao tanks backed up by
Vietnamese artillery, the situation is clearly grim. "If you stay in
Laos, you're dead," reports a Hmong CIA employee.
On May 9th, the US begins airlifting key Hmong leaders and
their families out of the Hmong stronghold of Long Cheng. The
transcribed accounts from people involved in the week-long
evacuation provide a vivid picture of the chaos, confusion and
desperation of the airlift. The airlift begins in an orderly fashion:
"People don't fight…They wait calmly, they don't panic". Two
days later, however, the mood has deteriorated quickly: "It is not
an evacuation at all - just a stampede."
Morrison's interviewees are not journalists or historians, but
rather the pilots and mechanics and evacuees who were involved in
the airlift, many of them speaking in a non-native tongue. While
the interviews are organized to flow together chronologically, the
actual text is presented without editing. The interview
transcriptions are often quite raw and loaded with more detail than
would appear in a more conventional history. But while the text is
often lacking in grammar or word choice or elegance of the
narrative, the sheer honesty and forthrightness of their narration
offers its own eloquence. One is haunted by the words of a father
who lost three children in the confused crossfire of a roadblock: "I
am paralyzed from losing three children in one night, in five
minutes…I know only that my mind keeps asking "Why? Why?
Why?" - over and over again." Or the Hmong student from
Vientiane trying to assess the chaotic situation: "I am sad and I am
scared…Maybe we Hmong people will have to suicide."
Unfortunately, the book's strength is also its greatest
weakness. By relying only on well-organized snippets of
interviews, Morrison provides a series of snapshots with which to
piece together the full story of this momentous event. As
interesting as the telling of each individual's tale is, taken together
they still cannot convey the full force which the evacuation
deserves. In essence, Sky is Falling is less than the sum of
its parts.
Morrison provides a brief chronology of events and 15
newspaper excerpts, but otherwise relies solely on her interviewees
to provide any historical context. Making it exclusively an oral
history results in a lack of background information which robs the
book of some its potential. As examples: The lack of planes for the
evacuation effort carries even more poignancy if contrasted with
the seemingly infinite resources the United States spent on the war
effort; several interviewees allude to their anger at the United
States for what was essentially a betrayal of the general Hmong
population at the end of the war, but there is precious little
background detail on the extensive CIA involvement with the
Hmong; the stories of those who fought their way their way onto
the airplanes would be even more dramatic if the fates of those
who did not escape were also presented. Finally, for all the detailed
information about the evacuation, Morrison never provides an idea
of how many people were left behind and fled on foot or remained
in Laos.
The individual tales are compelling, but the overall story could
have been much more forceful if presented along with additional
historical context. For the Hmong community or readers intimately
familiar with the "secret war" in Laos, Morrison's book is a
valuable addition to the history of the war. But for the general
public, the book's focus exclusively on oral history saps a good
deal of its worth. In sum, Sky is Falling provides a detailed and
fascinating snapshot - but only a snapshot - of a desperate end to
a desperate war.