Jerry Daniels

Who is Jerry Daniels?

Jerrold B. Daniels or Jerry Daniels was a CIA officer who worked in Laos and Thailand from the early 1960s to the early 1980s. He was known as his self-chosen call-sign "Hog" to other people. In the early 1960s, he was recruited by the CIA as a liaison officer between Vang Pao and the CIA. For twenty years, he worked closely with the Hmong people for the CIA's operations in Laos which is known as the "Secret War", and became "the most beloved of all the Americans by the Hmong". When the communists took over Laos in May 1975 and the United States pulled out, Daniels organized the secret air evacuation of General Vang Pao and over two thousand of his officers, soldiers, and their families to Thailand. Starting immediately after the departure of Daniels and Vang Pao, thousands more Hmong fled across the Mekong river to Thailand where they lived in refugee camps.