Posted on 10/16/2004 7:58:46 PM PDT by nypokerface
FALLS CHURCH, Virginia, Oct 17 (AFP) - White House aspirant John Kerry is hailed by his Democratic Party as a Vietnam War hero but the senator is waging an uphill battle convincing 1.5 million Vietnamese Americans to vote for him.
Many of them are expected to vote for incumbent George W. Bush in the November 2 presidential polls because decorated naval officer Kerry returned from combat to denounce the United States for going to war against then communist North Vietnam, community leaders say.
Another reason Vietnamese Americans are reluctant to vote for Kerry, who spent four months in South Vietnam, is that he blocked legislation intended to force the current communist government in Vietnam to stop human rights abuses.
A bill tying US aid to improvement on the human rights record in Vietnam was passed 410 to 1 in the House of Representatives three years ago but Kerry blocked it in the Senate, preferring constructive diplomacy.
Following pressure from rights groups which have long charged the communist regime with smothering all dissent and jailing democracy or human rights activists, the bill was resuscitated and again passed the House this year with a 323-45 majority.
The Senate did not endorse it before breaking up for polls.
"Obviously most Vietnamese Americans who lost their homeland to the communists do not like Senator Kerry because he was antiwar and he denigrated the cause of the South," said Dan Hoang, representative of an advocacy group promoting awareness among Vietnamese American voters.
"But the key reason many of them are expected to vote against him in this election is that he has been very nonsupportive of human rights in Vietnam, which is by far the most predominant issue of the community here," said Hoang from the Vietnamese American Public Affairs Committee.
At the Eden shopping centre in Falls Church, one of many business areas that cater to the large Vietnamese community in northern Virginia, some establishments displayed posters backing President Bush and running mate Vice President Dick Cheney.
Kerry's Democratic Party campaigners, who arrived in a van equipped with loudspeakers to woo shoppers, were told they were in unwelcome territory.
"Kerry, go home. We support Bush," shouted a silver haired ex-military officer with the South Vietnamese government, suggesting that Kerry had abetted the communists and caused American prisoners of war to be not released by his vociferous antiwar campaign on his return from duty.
"We will continue to demand for human rights in our motherland," he said, repeatedly pointing to a yellow flag with three red stripes fluttering beside the US Stars and Stripes flag on long poles outside the shopping center.
The yellow-red flag represented South Vietnam before the nation fell into enemy hands but Vietnamese American leaders say it is a symbol of resilience and freedom deeply rooted in the cultural heritage of the community.
They have successfully lobbied 70 US counties and cities and several states to pass resolutions honoring and recognizing the flag.
"Our simple understanding is that Kerry supports the communist government in Vietnam. How do you expect us to back a person who supports a brutal regime from which we fled and risked our lives in the process," said Toam Nguen, 60, a noodle shop owner at Eden Center.
Choked with emotion, he said he had to flee by boat in a perilous journey with his family to the United States on the eve of the fall of South Vietnam to the communists in 1975.
"Now you know why I will cast my vote for President Bush? I have also told my daughter, who is 20 years old, to vote for Mr Bush but I leave it entirely to her to decide," Nguen said.
While Nguen and other older Vietnamese Americans see Kerry as a turncoat, many younger voters are more open-minded, Hoang said.
Some are eager to put the war behind them and move on, and this is the group which is expected to vote for Kerry, political observers say.
Hoang said that initially, Vietnamese Americans were probably overwhelmingly Republican because of the perception that the party was anti-communist but over time, younger members of the community became Democrats because of "social issues."
"I would say the predominance of voter registration is probably still Republican."
I posted the same kind of article today, it was in a Philly paper talking about the Vietnamese here. About time!
I wonder if ABC will interview any of these Vietnamese people about John Kerry.
1.5 million Viet Namese.... DO THEY VOTE?
Is the BC/04 Campaign reaching out to the Viet Namese?
Well, Kerry did admit to commiting atrocities against Vietnamese people.
Why would South Vietnamese Americans vote for a North Vietnamese war hero?
But Kerry testified that there would be no persecution.
At least one of sKerry's citations mentions transporting South Vietnamese Army regulars aboard his swift boat. I wonder if any of those troops made it out alive and perhaps to the US.
It would be very interesting to hear their 1st hand account.
Anyone that knows anything should step up and be heard.
This man appreciates what it means to live in America more than John Kerry ever will, and if that's seen as an attack on Kerry's patriotism, then so be it.
if not they better start!
Nobody understands the fact that traitors like Kerry, Clinton, Harkin, et al, delivered their homeland and their countrymen and their families into the hands of the communist tyrants better than Americans of Vietnamese descent.
Based on numerous conversations I've had with Vietnamese residents of South Cali, they will they you what they think you want to hear. While doing a voter registration drive, I came off as a Democratic and they assured me of their support saying; Democrats 'mo better for welfare". When I represented myself as a Republican, guess what?.
Some habits die hard, eh?
That was how they stayed alive through the war, many of them...
yeah....jenjis kerry....the scumsuckin weasel
FWIW...
http://www.opensecrets.org/indivs/search.asp?Order=A&txtName=nguyen&txtState=&txtZip=&txtEmploy=&txtCand=&txt2004=Y&txt2002=&txt2000=&txt1998=&txt1996=&txt1994=&txt1992=&txt1990=&txtSoft=N
Opensecrets.org search for "Nguyen" sorted by amount.
Kerry's not often found in the top results.
Both HATE democrats.
One Kerry donation and a few for Clark and Lieberman.
I would almost say Military is the vietnamese's biggest issue by looking at those donations.
Support for GWB's WoT and Iraq policies run about 80 to 90 percent in the V-A community (less so with the younger Americanized kids). At the Eden Center mentioned above, for some events there will be 50 American and South Vietnamese flags in the parking lot.
As for you comment:
they will they you what they think you want to hear.
... they do that because they are "guests" in the United States, even those here for 20+ years and with U.S. citizenship. It would be hugely arrogant for a V-A refugee to tell you - the native American - what they think of American politics. They do not want to offend you.
At a V-A event last Sunday I asked a former ARVN helicopter pilot (16 years "reeducation", 10 years in America) what he thought of John Kerry. Not surprisingly, he asked "What do you think?"
In an ethnic poll at www.ncmonline.com, Vietnamese likely voters are 71 percent for GWB, 18 percent undecided, 11 percent for Kerry (September poll).
69 percent of Vietnamese don't like outsourcing. 56 percent think it was right to go to war with Iraq (22 percent against).
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