An admired Hmong leader is wrapping up a rare trip to Northcentral Wisconsin. General Vang Pao was the keynote speaker for the “Hmong in the Past, Present and Future” conference in Wausau today.

Several hundred people from across the state gathered at the University of Wisconsin – Marathon County to hear his message on how to end domestic violence and polygymy.

"The husband has to know how to respect the wives as he respects himself. And the wife has to be a good role model so that you can be a good example for your family and children,” General Vang Pao told the crowd Saturday.

In traditional Hmong culture, family problems are discussed with elders and clan leaders, but organizers of the conference say more needs to be done.

They are now calling on the one man they say has just as much influence over their people as the President of the United States over Americans.

"You have to understand, in the Hmong community, in order for the Hmong leaders to solve the Hmong problems, it has to come from the Hmong clan leaders or the elders and they respect the general,” said Yer T. Yang, an organizer of Saturday’s conference.

General Van Pao said while the message comes from him, the action must come from individual communities.

In Weston, where three tragedies involving the Hmong have taken place, the village administrator says now is the time for change.

"I challenged the old customs and I challenged them to embrace the new ways of the United States and General Vang Pao echoed on a lot of what I had to say. That put kind of an exclamation point on the morning for me,” said Dean Zuleger, Weston’s village administrator.

During the Vietnam War, General Vang Pao was appointed by the United States Army to lead a secret CIA-backed army in Laos.

After the war, he and a few other families were the first to arrive in America in 1975. He is now 79.

But of course, support for the general does not come from all over.

In June 2007, Vang Pao and ten others were arrested in California and charged with trying to overthrow the Laotian government.

This May, a federal judge rejected a request to dismiss the charges.

Because the case is still pending, General Vang Pao was not able to comment on the charges.