The Montagnards are a group that should be resettled in America, instead of opening up the southern border to all comers.
Via The State
Almost 50 years after experiencing what one Green Beret called a “marriage made in heaven,” Green Berets who fought in Vietnam and their Montagnard brethren will meet again in Columbia this week.
The Dega people of the Central Highlands in Vietnam have been living in the region for nearly 2,000 years. When the Vietnam War began for the United States in the mid-1960s, the U.S. government sought the help of these indigenous people to fight against Viet Cong forces from North Vietnam. A contingent of around 3,000 Green Berets were deployed to the Central Highlands to organize an armed resistance of these tribes.
The Dega people, more commonly known as the Montagnards, a French word meaning “mountain people, worked with the Green Berets in the mountainous terrain. The two groups of fighters became brothers-in-arms as they attempted to liberate South Vietnam from an impending communist threat, working to stop Viet Cong activity near the Ho Chi Minh Trail, a major North Vietnamese supply route.
It was “a marriage made in heaven,” said former Special Forces Green Beret George Clark.
This week, Green Berets of all ages will be setting up camp in Columbia as the National Special Forces Association hosts its 50th annual conference at the Marriott Hotel on Main Street. Veterans from both the Green Berets and the Montagnards living in the United States will attend. There will be a variety of events, including a golf tournament, sharpshooter tournament and various tours around South Carolina to take in its rich military history.
It will be the first time many of the Montagnards have attended and the first time they have seen the Green Berets they fought alongside. A large group of Montagnards now live in North Carolina.
The conference will honor Green Beret veterans and those on active duty as well as the Montagnards, many of whom left Vietnam because of religious persecution.