MPR’s Bob Potter talks with Lee Pao Xiong, member of the Metropolitan Council, about what has changed in the past 25 years for the Hmong community. Xiong is the first Hmong appointed by the governor to a state policy-making body.

One of groups directly impacted by the Vietnam War was the Hmong. During the war, the CIA recruited many Hmong out of the hills of Laos. They were trained to rescue downed American fighter pilots. After the war, some of them fled to the United States, where few Americans knew of their contribution to the war effort. Minnesota now has the largest urban Hmong population in the U.S., with estimates ranging from 45,000 to 70,000.