Laos' Hmong Tribe: How They Fought, Fled, and Were Forgotten

During the Vietnam War, the CIA mobilized an isolated community, the Hmong Tribe in northern Laos, to fight the Viet Cong. More than forty years after the war ended, they are still waiting for someone to save them.

In 2008, Al Jazeera's Tony Birtley trekked uphill for more than two days through dense forests in search of the Hmong who were left behind. He found a settlement of fewer than 200 people, most born after the war but still living as their ancestors had. He was the first outsider they had seen in 32 years.

(Image credit: NamViet News)