General Vang Pao was a Laotian military figure of the Second Indochina War. He was commander of the Secret Army, a force made up mostly of Hmong tribesmen. He went into exile in the United States after the communists seized power in 1975. He is considered the preeminent leader of the Hmong people in the United States, though there is some controversy surrounding his previous involvement in the illegal drug trade as well as his continued support of insurgency in Laos.