Rallying Opponents of California State Bill to Endorse Old Vietnam Flag; With Mercury News Piece

From dduffy@email.unc.edu Tue Jun 28 13:48:13 2005

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 16:47:52 -0400

From: Dan Duffy <dduffy@email.unc.edu>

Reply-To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>

To: vsg@u.washington.edu, Vietnamese American Studies <vietnameseamericanstudiesteam@yahoogroups.com>

Subject: [Vsg] rallying opponents of California State Bill to endorse old Vietnam flag; with Mercury News piece

Here is an announcement from John Wheeler, calling for people to contact him to oppose the California bill to endorse the Republic of Viet Nam flag. He includes a newspaper story about the bill. I do not have an opinion of my own about this yet, but recommend Wheeler as someone to work with.

Wheeler is a complex man for a complex issue. You can read his Touched with fire : the future of the Vietnam generation (1984). He initiated the drive for a Viet Nam memorial in Washington, and fought for Maya Lin's design although it was not his favorite. A graduate of Yale Law School as well as West Point, he supported our Sister City committee in New Haven, Connecticut against opposition from local veterans' groups. He has been building schools in Viet Nam for years now. Here is the call for support:

Greetings! I opened a mailbox, vetsforfriendshipwithvietnam@usa.net, to accumulate supporters of an effort to stop California from passing its SCR 17, a resolution to endorse the old yellow and red flag as official symbol of the Vietnamese-Americans. It is a bad idea, a troublesome issue of "face" for Hanoi. It passed the California Senate June 2 and now pends in the Assembly.

Best,

John Wheeler

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

Fri, Jun. 24, 2005

Veterans group supports old enemy on Viet flag issue

By Truong Phuoc Khánh

Mercury News

In his 20s, Paul Cox fought on the battlefields of Vietnam. Thirty years or so later, the former Marine finds himself battling some of the people he was sent to the jungles to defend.

``It's an odd position,'' said Cox, 57, a Bay Area engineer, ``and I'm not comfortable with it.''

The issue, quietly making its way onto city council agendas and state committee hearings from California to Colorado, is what role the ``old'' flag of the former Republic of Vietnam has if that land today exists only in memory.

Many cities and states have endorsed the flag as a positive symbol for Vietnamese immigrants living in America. Veterans like Cox feel differently. Official U.S. endorsement of the former South Vietnamese flag, they say, is an insult to Hanoi.

Vets for Friendship with Vietnam, a small, Washington, D.C.-based coalition, was just formed to welcome Vietnam's Prime Minister Phan Van Khai to the United States this week and to oppose resolutions in favor of the South Vietnamese flag. The campaign, backed by veteran Terry Anderson, who was held hostage in Lebanon for seven years, threatens a warm alliance that exists between Vietnamese refugees and U.S. veterans -- two groups with a shared past few who weren't there could understand.

``Every day I think about the war, but I don't want to refight it,'' said Cox, who testified against flag recognition this month before the California Senate. ``The South Vietnam flag is a symbolic act of war. It's the South Vietnamese in this country who want their country back, and they are not going to get it back that way.''

Vietnamese-American groups who shun the country's current flag -- bold red with a gold star -- have successfully lobbied nearly 100 cities and nine states to pass resolutions endorsing the former flag -- yellow with three red stripes -- as a symbol of freedom and cultural heritage. The San Jose City Council did so in May to a standing ovation, and California could soon become the 10th state.

There is dissent among Vietnamese-Americans on the matter of flag recognition; some say Vietnamese-American leaders use the topic to pander to the émigré community, achieving little in terms of advancing democracy in Vietnam. Others question why veterans would get involved at all.

Lest he be painted a ``commie,'' Cox emphatically stated he is not an ally of the current Vietnamese government.

``I feel bad that the South Vietnamese had their country yanked out from under them,'' he said. ``They've lost a lot.''

In the last decade or so, as Hanoi has opened up to economic reforms, more U.S. veterans and Vietnamese expatriates have ventured back to reconcile whatever old ghosts still haunted them. Many have started non-profit projects, building schools and clinics in a country where a third of the population lives in poverty.

John Wheeler, a Vietnam veteran who was involved with establishing the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C., founded Vets for Friendship coalition.

``They are becoming a friend, and possibly even an ally,'' said Wheeler, citing the current U.S. policy of rapprochement with Vietnam. ``That makes the problem of the flag urgent and important. It's time to stop these flag endorsements.''

Wheeler, a lawyer, has been back to Vietnam at least four times. He said the history of U.S. soldiers is that they ``don't hold grudges.''

Not all vets are so ready to shake hands with the former enemy, however. ``I know it's been 30 years; I'm still bitter,'' Vietnam veteran Richard Bostwick said. ``It's a communist-controlled country; they are not an ally.''

Bostwick, 62, of San Jose, was an Air Force medic in Vietnam who says he will never be a friend of communism.

``Why do you think all the South Vietnamese want to come here?'' Bostwick asked. ``I was willing to risk my life for their freedom.'' On the other hand, Vets for Friendship struck a chord with Bernard Greening, 59, of Santa Clara. Greening, who belongs to the San Jose chapter of Veterans for Peace, expressed interest in joining Wheeler's coalition.

Public debates about the so-called Saigon flag and its place in U.S. democratic halls of government, said Greening, ``bring the war back, and I'd rather be done with it.''

He, like others, says those who campaign to bring life to Vietnam's former flag are waging a phantom war.

``Their mentality,'' Greening said, ``reminds me of the white Southerners that lost the Civil War.''