Laos (,),officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic,is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula,Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest,Vietnam to the east,Cambodia to the southeast,and Thailand to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city is Vientiane.
The Hmong people are indigenous people that mainly live in Southwest China,Vietnam,Laos,Thailand,and Myanmar. They have been members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since 2007. In China they are classified as a subgroup of the Miao people.
The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) is an independent agency of the U.S. federal government that is primarily responsible for administering civilian foreign aid and development assistance. With a budget of over $27 billion,USAID is one of the largest official aid agencies in the world and accounts for more than half of all U.S. foreign assistance—the highest in the world in absolute dollar terms.
Thomas Stewart Udall is an American diplomat,lawyer and politician serving as the United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa since 2021. A member of the Democratic Party,he served as a United States senator from New Mexico from 2009 to 2021. Udall also served as the U.S. representative for New Mexico's 3rd congressional district from 1999 to 2009 and New Mexico Attorney General from 1991 to 1999. Born in Tucson,Arizona,he is the son of former U.S. Representative Stewart Udall and the nephew of former U.S. Representative Mo Udall. A member of the Udall family,a western American political family,his relatives include Colorado's Mark Udall and Utah's Mike Lee. He was the dean of New Mexico's congressional delegation. Udall was first elected in the 2008 Senate race. He did not seek a third term in 2020,making him the only Democratic senator to retire that cycle. On July 16,2021,President Joe Biden nominated Udall to serve as United States Ambassador to New Zealand and Samoa.
Andrew S. Natsios is an American public servant and Republican politician from Massachusetts,who served in a number of positions in the administrations of Governor Paul Cellucci and President of the United States George W. Bush.
James Manuel Costa is the U.S. representative for California's 16th congressional district. Serving as a Democrat in Congress since 2013,he represented California's 20th congressional district from 2005 to 2013. The district includes most of Fresno. Costa served in the California State Assembly from 1978 to 1994 and in the State Senate from 1994 to 2002. At the time of his election to the California State Legislature,he was the youngest member of the legislature at the age of 26. During his time in the California State Assembly,he served as the Majority Caucus Chair. Costa chaired the Blue Dog Coalition and was ranking member of the United States House Agriculture Subcommittee on Rural Development,Research,Biotechnology,and Foreign Agriculture.
Hmong Americans are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Most Hmong Americans consist of those that fled to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s due to their cooperation with the United States' Central Intelligence Agency operatives in northern Laos during the Vietnam War,and their descendants. Over half of the Hmong population from Laos left the country,or attempted to leave,in 1975,at the culmination of the war. At the time,the Pathet Lao launched an aggressive campaign to capture or kill Hmong soldiers and families who aided the CIA. Thousands of Hmong were evacuated or escaped on their own to Hmong refugee camps in Thailand. About 90% of those who made it to refugee camps in Thailand were ultimately resettled in the United States. The rest,about 8 to 10%,resettled in countries including Canada,France,the Netherlands,and Australia. According to the 2019 American Community Survey by the US Census Bureau,the population count for Hmong Americans was 327,000.
Christopher Andrew Coons is an American lawyer and politician serving as the junior United States senator from Delaware since 2010. A member of the Democratic Party,Coons served as the county executive of New Castle County from 2005 to 2010.
Steven Craig Gunderson is an American former politician who was a Republican U.S. Representative for representing Wisconsin's 3rd congressional district from 1981 to 1997,when was succeeded by Democrat Ron Kind. After leaving office,he was president and CEO of the Council on Foundations,and then of Career Education Colleges and Universities.
The alleged 2007 Laotian coup d'état plan was a conspiracy allegation by the United States Department of Justice that Lt. Col. Harrison Jack (Ret.) and former Royal Lao Army Major General Vang Pao,among others conspired in June 2007 to obtain large amounts of heavy weapons and ammunition to overthrow the Communist government of Laos in violation of the Neutrality Act. The charges were ultimately dropped and the case helped serve to further highlight,instead,major human rights violations by the Lao government against the Hmong ethnic minority,Laotian refugees,and political dissidents.
William Raymond Steiger is a Public Policy Fellow at the Wilson Center in Washington,D.C.. He served as Chief of Staff at the United States Agency for international Development from 2017 to 2021. Previously,Steiger was the chief program officer at Pink Ribbon Red Ribbon,an organization affiliated with the George W. Bush Institute,which works to reduce deaths from cervical cancer and breast cancer in low- and middle-income countries. He was the Special Assistant to the Secretary for International Affairs and the Director of the Office of Global Health Affairs at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) during the George W. Bush Administration,with a portfolio that included HIV/AIDS,malaria,avian flu and pandemic-influenza preparedness.
Relations between Laos and the United States officially began when the United States opened a legation in Laos in 1950,when Laos was a semi-autonomous state within French Indochina. These relations were maintained after Lao independence in October 1953.
Frank James Sensenbrenner Jr. is an American politician who represented Wisconsin's 5th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives from 1979 to 2021. He is a member of the Republican Party.
Rajiv J. "Raj" Shah is the President of the Rockefeller Foundation. He is a former American government official,physician and health economist who served as the 16th Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) from 2010–2015.
The U.S. Global Leadership Coalition (USGLC) is a nonprofit organization formed by a coalition of American businesses and NGOs,senior national security and foreign policy experts,faith-based and community leaders from across the United States who promote increased support for the United States’diplomatic and development efforts among both politicians and the public.
African-Americans in foreign policy in the United States catalogs distinguished African Americans who have and continue to contribute to international development,diplomacy,and defense through their work with the U.S. Department of State,the U.S. Agency for International Development,the U.S. Information Agency,and the U.S. Congress,and other notable agencies and non-governmental organizations. The creators acknowledge the presence of the interagency contributions to the foreign affairs realm,and welcome additional content to showcase the achievements of African-Americans in other relevant USG agencies.
The Lao Veterans of America,Inc.,describes itself as a non-profit,non-partisan,non-governmental,veterans organization that represents Lao- and Hmong-American veterans who served in the U.S. clandestine war in the Kingdom of Laos during the Vietnam War as well as their refugee families in the United States.
The Hmong Veterans' Naturalization Act of 2000 is &Se legislation which granted Hmong and ethnic Laotian veterans,who were legal refugee aliens in the US from the communist Lao government,and who also served in U.S.-backed guerrilla,or US special forces-backed units in Laos,during the Vietnam War,"an exemption from the English language requirement and special consideration for civics testing for certain refugees from Laos applying for naturalization." The initial Act gave these alien veterans eighteen months since the day of the bill's passage by the U.S. Congress,and its signature by the President of the United States,to file a naturalization application for honorary U.S. citizenship. However,the Act was later amended by additional legislation passed by the United States Congress which extended the N-400 filing date by an additional 18 months.
The President's Malaria Initiative (PMI) is a U.S. Government initiative to control and eliminate malaria,one of the leading global causes of premature death and disability. The initiative was originally launched by U.S. president George W. Bush in 2005,and has been continued by each successive U.S. president.
Michael George Glen Waltz is an American politician and United States Army officer serving as the U.S. representative for Florida's 6th congressional district. A member of the Republican Party,he was first elected in 2018 and succeeded Ron DeSantis,who went on to be elected the 46th governor of Florida in 2018.
