...because they know which side John Kerry was fighting for...and it wasn't theirs!
Posted on 10/31/2004 12:45:01 PM PST by freedom44
Senator John F. Kerry has touted his Vietnam experience as a key qualification for being president. Ironically, and precisely because of his Vietnam experience, I will join most Vietnamese Americans in opposing his candidacy.
Ever since Lieutenant Kerry chased and executed a wounded communist guerrilla more than 30 years ago, he has done everything in his power to support the communist regime's efforts to strangle human rights and democracy in Vietnam. Senator Kerry has also become one of the most loyal boosters of Hanoi's interests in America. The victorious communists of Vietnam have publicly and repeatedly over the years thanked John F. Kerry for helping them defeat the "American imperialists."
There is simply no question that the Hanoi regime has systematically abused its own people. Numerous governments entities, including the European Union and the US State Department, have joined human-rights organizations such as Amnesty International and Reporters Without Borders to condemn Hanoi's persecution of Buddhist monks, Catholic priests, Protestant ministers, journalists, Internet dissidents and even ex-communist soldiers.
Hanoi has put all leaders of Vietnamese independent Buddhist churches either in prison or under house arrest. It also sentenced Catholic priest Nguyen Van Ly to 12 years of hard labor for submitting a testimony to the Congress. A physician, Dr. Pham Hong Son, received an 11-year sentence for translating the article "What is Democracy" from the US Embassy website and circulating it on the Internet. Nguyen Vu Binh, a former editor of the Communist Review, received a seven-year sentence for asking the government to establish a political party.
On Eastern Sunday April 11, 2004, Hanoi’s police violently attacked a peaceful march of Vietnamese Christian mountain people, killing hundreds of them and forcing thousands into hiding in jungles or fleeing to neighboring Cambodia. In May, police surrounded Minister Nguyen Hong Quang’s house, dragged him out, beaten the daylight out of him and then arrested him. In July, Hanoi sentenced the elderly literature professor Tran Khue and Retired Colonel Pham Que Duong to 19 months in prison for "abusing the right to democracy and freedom." Apparently, Vietnam is the only country has such a crime!
Professor Nguyen Dinh Huy, 78 years old, is now the world’s oldest and longest serving political prisoner, almost 30 years.
Senator Kerry has not only kept silent on these naked abuses, but he’s also visibly and vocally defended Hanoi’s record. In 2002, he personally killed the Human Rights for Vietnam Bill—HR2833 in the US Senate. The Bill was passed by the House with 410-1 margin. It proposed linking increased US non-humanitarian aid for Vietnam to that country’s human-rights record.
Kerry's blockage of the Human Right Bill exasperated Vietnamese Americans so much that more than 500 of us from all over the country protested in front of his office for a week in August 2002. The Senator's only response to us since then took place last fall, when his campaign asked for our support.
When Vietnam needed America to bail it out of its disastrous economic policies, Senator Kerry was the most outspoken advocate for normalization with Hanoi. This came despite mounting evidence that for years Hanoi had been warehousing the remains of US MIA/POWs and using them as bargaining chips. Sidney Schandberg, a Pulitzer Prize winner reporter, wrote in the Village Voice of New York that Senator Kerry "covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners -- perhaps hundreds -- were never acknowledged or returned."
Thanks to Senator Kerry’s efforts, Hanoi now enjoys Most Favored Nation trading status with America, while thousands of America's brave sons and daughters remain missing in Vietnam.
Article 4 of Vietnam’s Constitution illegitimately gives the Vietnamese Communist Party a monopoly over every aspect of everyone's life in Vietnam. Therefore, for many decades, the Vietnamese people have been robbed of their dignity and the basic freedom to pursue their own happiness. As the Democratic nominee for president, how can Senator Kerry claim to have the moral courage to lead the "Free World" when he cannot face up to Vietnam's corrupt dictators?
Many have accused Kerry of flip-flops. I disagree. On the issue of Vietnam, he has been consistently on the wrong side. As a Massachusetts voter, often I wonder whether Senator Kerry is from Massachusetts of USA, or is he actually from Hanoi? As a Massachusetts voter, I must vote my conscience and join most Vietnamese Americans in not supporting our senator.
HUA!!!
...because they know which side John Kerry was fighting for...and it wasn't theirs!
I have a Vietnamese American working for me. He was captured by the Cambodians but was able to eventually escape. He equates, in no uncertain terms, the democrats with the communists. Same with a couple other Vietnamese I know.
"Senator John F. Kerry has touted his Vietnam experience as a key qualification for being president."
Pure BS and has sKerry ever had anything positive to say about our Country? Our Troops? The coalition forces? Allawi and Iraq? Keeping OBL in caves and taking out the training camps? Taking down Saddam and his sons? Has sKerry ever had ANYTHING GOOD to say about Vietnam Veterans other then proclaiming himself as a war hero?
A local Portland, Oregon Vietnamese paper is definitely slanted Democrat. We have some Vietnamese workers and I would guess most will vote Democrat. Hmmm, is it just Oregon?
One of my wife's sisters has always voted straight democrat - till this year.
Don't jump to conclusions. An ethnic poll run by New California Media in August gave GWB 71 percent of the Vietnamese-American vote, 11 percent for Kerry.
Professor Nguyen Dinh Huy, 78 years old, is now the world's oldest and longest serving political prisoner, almost 30 years.
Prof. Nguyen's daughter passed her U.S. citizenship tests recently. Americans could not ask for a better new fellow citizen.
It would be interesting to see exactly how the democrats have stolen their souls in just one short generation. Sad
And why wouldn't he? (Rhetorical question, no answer necessary.)
I do think liberal Portland has had an influence on some of the young Cambodians. There is a gang problem. We went to a Cambodian dance festival at Portland State University and shortly after we left they had some gang incident between different Cambodian youth. Scary.
Also gangs of Vietnamese using intimidation against Vietnamese business owners.
Thanks. That is distressing.
Unfortunately there are always some bad seeds in all communities. We (the Vietnamese immigrants) have our share of these problems. But as a whole, we have contributed to the US economy and have tried to pull our weight, especially those who escaped during the early part. Most of the recent immigrants are not from the same stock. They have lived too long under the socialistic system and have been brain washed, expecting free hand-outs from the government. I am very ashame of them.
I came to this country in 1978, lived through one year under the communist regime. I escaped in 1976 via the South China Sea, arrived in this country with $100.00 in my pocket, obtained my chemical engineering degree, while working and using student loan (which I repaid in full). I thank this country every day of my life for providing me with the opportunities.
As I have told numerous people who complained about this country: Capitalist is not a perfect system, but it is the best in the world.
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