Laotian and Hmong soldiers, first backed and armed by President John F. Kennedy, the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), and U.S. Department of Defense, also interdicted North Vietnamese forces and supplies on the Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos.
Philip Smith, serves as the Washington, D.C. Director and Liaison for the Lao Veterans of America, Inc., and has advocated on a variety of issues for the Laotian and Hmong-American community as well as representing the organization in the US Congress and on Capitol Hill.
The Lao Veterans of America, its Washington, D.C. Director, Philip Smith, and others, as well as tens of thousands of LVA members and their families, dedicated the monument in Arlington National Cemetery.
"[6][7] Thousands of Lao and Hmong-American veterans from across the United States and their families participated in the Arlington and Washington, D.C., national recognition ceremonies.
On May 15, 2015, Lao- and Hmong-American veterans and their families from across the United States held a special 40th anniversary veterans memorial service in Arlington National Cemetery to mourn the fall of the Royal Kingdom of Laos to invading North Vietnamese Army forces of the People's Army of Vietnam and communist Pathet Lao guerrillas.
Congressman Bruce Vento (D-MN) of St. Paul, Minnesota, with bipartisan support from prominent Republicans, including Congressmen Lamar Smith (R-TX) of Texas and Henry Hyde of Illinois (R-IL), and others.
The Lao Veterans of America, and its Washington Director Philip Smith, engaged in a decade-long bipartisan effort in the U.S. Congress, and with Democratic and Republican Administrations in the White House, to promote the bill's passage and final implementation.
The LVA and Philip Smith worked to organize policy events and rallies on Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C., Virginia, California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, North Carolina, and other states in support of the legislation.
In the late 1980s, 1990s and 2000s, the LVA participated in research missions, along with Members of Congress, and the Centre for Public Policy Analysis to Lao and Hmong refugee camps along the Mekong River and the Buddhist temple of Wat Tham Krabok to help document human rights violations under the Marxist regime in Laos and to seek to halt and reverse the forced repatriation policy directed against political refugees and asylum seekers in Thailand and Southeast Asia.
[30][31] The LVA has raised repeated concerns about the ongoing role of the SRV and Vietnamese People's Army (VPA in support of the Pathet Lao Marxist government in Laos, especially with regard to illegal logging, human rights violations, military attacks against Hmong civilians and political and religious dissident groups, and religious persecution.
Bills are pending in the U.S. Congress for this purpose introduced by Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Congressman Jim Costa of California.