BY BRADY RHOADES: For thousands of Vietnamese-Americans in Westminster and Garden Grove, April is a bittersweet month.<\/p>\n

Sweet because it marks their maiden voyage to American – and away from a repressive, Communist government.<\/p>\n

Bitter because they were forced from their homeland.<\/p>\n

Countless family members and friends were killed, injured, imprisoned, left behind.<\/p>\n

Vietnam is a beautiful country. But on April 30, 1975, Saigon – under siege from the north – was the site of a terrible, ugly atrocity known as the Fall of Saigon.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

BY BRADY RHOADES: For thousands of Vietnamese-Americans in Westminster and Garden Grove, April is a bittersweet month.<\/p>\n

Sweet because it marks their maiden voyage to American – and away from a repressive, Communist government.<\/p>\n

Bitter because they were forced from their homeland.<\/p>\n

Countless family members and friends were killed, injured, imprisoned, left behind.<\/p>\n

Vietnam is a beautiful country. But on April 30, 1975, Saigon – under siege from the north – was the site of a terrible, ugly atrocity known as the Fall of Saigon.<\/p>\n

Those older than, say, 50, cannot unsee the sights seared into their memory: fleeing families, helicopters, an embattled American embassy, violence and chaos everywhere.<\/p>\n

Saigon is now known as Ho Chi Minh City.<\/p>\n

Those victimized by a brutal regime will never forget.<\/p>\n

“We live with it every day,” said Peter Vo, a longtime Westminster resident. “We continue to call on the United States to denounce Vietnam for its human rights abuses.”<\/p>\n

On April 30, 42 years after that dreadful day, Westminster and Garden Grove, which have the largest Vietnamese-American population, per capita, in the country, will commemorate the occasion.<\/p>\n

Former South Vietnamese soldiers and U.S. military personnel will stand side-by-side.<\/p>\n

Respects will be paid to those who were lost.<\/p>\n

Thanks will be given for newfound freedoms, for hope amid horror.<\/p>\n

Look for more information about events in upcoming editions of this paper and on this website.<\/p>\n

Brady Rhoades is the editor. He can be reached at brhoades@localnewspapers.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BY BRADY RHOADES: For thousands of Vietnamese-Americans in Westminster and Garden Grove, April is a bittersweet month. Sweet because it marks their maiden voyage to American – and away from a repressive, Communist government. Bitter because they were forced from their homeland. Countless family members and friends were killed, injured, imprisoned, left behind. Vietnam is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":1764,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5307],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1763"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4532,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1763\/revisions\/4532"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ocn.archives.ocnnewspapers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}