I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, when the Vietnam War seemed to be on everyone’s mind.
It certainly was on my parents’ minds.
They talked about it ad infinitum at the dinner table. They organized. They demonstrated. They protested. And when Saigon fell in 1975, the Rhoades’ house took in refugees who had fled the war-torn country for a better life in America.
That war remains a sore spot for my parents, who are now in their 70s. And, remember, we were something like 10,000 miles from Indochina.
I grew up in the 1960s and 70s, when the Vietnam War seemed to be on everyone’s mind.
It certainly was on my parents’ minds.
They talked about it ad infinitum at the dinner table. They organized. They demonstrated. They protested. And when Saigon fell in 1975, the Rhoades’ house took in refugees who had fled the war-torn country for a better life in America.
That war remains a sore spot for my parents, who are now in their 70s. And, remember, we were something like 10,000 miles from Indochina.
So imagine what it must be like for those who lived through the ordeal, which took about 58,000 American lives and hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese.
I bring this up because of the latest flap involving Vietnamese-Americans protesting a Garden Grove newspaper called the Viet Weekly, which they say is pro-communist and doesn’t print anti-communists’ point of view. Etcetera Nguyen, the managing editor of Viet Weekly, said some don’t want to recognize the current government of Vietnam, and if one does recognize it (employees of Viet Weekly have flown to Vietnam and reported on the goings-on, as well as invited Vietnamese officials to their offices in downtown Garden Grove), he or she is branded a communist.
This back-and-forth has been going on – in Garden Grove and Westminster, in particular – for decades.
At any rate, protesters were out in droves on Saturday.
Honestly, it’s hard to get a handle on this story because the Viet Weekly – which is about 60 pages and full of ads, as well as news – is printed in Vietnamese, not English, and I don’t read or speak Vietnamese. The publisher, Le Vu, said the newspaper prints all points of view and is not pro-communist. Further, he said, the protesters are bullies.
“I escaped communism. I escaped Vietnam,” he said. “I appreciate the values of America.”
Nevertheless, protesters like Neil Nguyen insist that the paper serves as a propaganda tool for the communist government of Vietnam.
“People in our community are fed up with them,” Nguyen said.
I do know this: communism is a touchy subject, and particularly touchy for those who’ve been stung by its creeping, crawling tentacles. Look at our own country’s bad behavior in the 1950s, when McCarthyism ran roughshod over countless innocent victims, ruining careers and lives. McCarthy, of course, went too far and was finally, and fortunately, stopped, which begs the question: Are these protesters paranoid or legitimately concerned? Is this a new form of McCarthyism?
I have to wonder. Why would immigrants from Vietnam take up residence in our neck of the woods and promote communism? After all, they got the heck out of Vietnam, choosing a freer and more promising existence in the United States. And … even if they were promoting communism, it’s a futile effort here in the states. We who have enjoyed the liberty that comes with individual rights want no part of collectivism, or centralism, and we chafe at the thought of socialism, let alone Communism.
But don’t expect this battle to end. Chalk it up to old war wounds. It’s been going on around these parts ever since 1975, and it’s not going to end anytime soon.
