"With little to cling to except each other, Hmong girls reflect the uncertainty of a people driven from their homes in the protracted war for Laos. The Hmong were forced to flee their mountain villages and to take sides in the conflict. Crack Hmong guerillas became the undeclared muscle behind U.S. foreign policy in this Southeast Asian nation. Now, a precarious peace has come with the 1973 cease-fire, and the Hmong, driven out of their hilltop isolation, find themselves thrust into the mainstream of Laotian life."

—From “The Hmong of Laos—No Place to Run,” January 1974, National Geographic magazine