 This official reversal of U.S. policy has since been considered monumental and nearly without precedent in American foreign policy since, in acknowledging the Secret War's existence, the U.S. also implicitly acknowledged that it had lied for decades in denying that it had engaged in combat operations in Laos during the Vietnam War.The reversal of the forced repatriation policy was subsequently supported even more vigorously by the George W. Bush Administration which strongly supported the earlier bipartisan demands of advocates, and a bipartisan coalition in the U.S. Congress (including progressives, independents and conservatives) that Thailand-based Hmong refugees from Laos be afforded U.S. immigration rights.The Secret War was funded, and supported, by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's Special Activities Division and led by General Vang Pao, a Lao Hmong military leader who led the Hmong in supporting tens of thousands of U.S. air combat raids, along with major ground operations, against the North Vietnamese Army and the Pathet Lao communist guerillas in Laos during the Vietnam War.