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Just when the flood of Vietnamese evacuees from Katrina started to subside, a wave of Vietnamese Rita victims showed up at a popular Asian mall in southwest Houston this week. "We had 200 people outside our door (Tuesday) morning," said Tram Nguyen, with Boat People S.O.S., an organization that, through its office in the Hong Kong City Mall on Bellaire, has led the effort to help Vietnamese evacuees. Nguyen estimates there are more than 500 Vietnamese evacuees from Rita in Houston. Nearly 5,000 Vietnamese live in Port Arthur and Beaumont, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. As with the Vietnamese...

GULFPORT, Miss. - (KRT) - A Vietnamese man who spent five days in a wrecked fishing boat before being saved told rescuers he did not understand the evacuation orders issued before Hurricane Katrina. And not knowing how to get help nearly killed him and another man, rescuers said. Many fear that without translated information the area's largest non-English speakers - the Vietnamese and Latino communities - could be more at risk than their English-speaking neighbors to a litany of health problems, from carbon-monoxide poisoning from generators to skin rashes and gastrointestinal problems from drinking unclean water. "It's disconcerting that there...

Editor's Note: The Vietnamese American community relies heavily on their own mass media in times of crisis, and the Katrina hurricane accentuates how indispensable it is. SAN FRANCISCO--When the levee broke in New Orleans and water rose to his knees at the Lavang Church in Versailles, a small town outside of New Orleans, Father Vien Nguyen reached for the phone. He did not call CNN or 911. Instead, he called Saigon Television Broadcasting Network to report that dozens of elderly Vietnamese were taking shelter in his church and to ask for help. At a time when America was wringing its...

Storm Takes Community Back to Its Beginnings, but Buddhist Temple Offers Hope BILOXI, Miss., Sept. 8 -- It took 30 years for Vietnamese refugees to turn a homely corner of Biloxi into a thriving neighborhood -- and 13 hours of Katrina to send them back to the day they came here. Much of the neighborhood is either leveled or broken beyond repair. The My Viet Supermarket is gone. The Chi-Kim-Lien fashion boutique -- gone. Gone too is the marquee restaurant, Xuan Huong, which took up half a block of Division Street and brought tourists into the neighborhood from all over...

With Vietnamese evacuees continuing to pour into Houston, some Asian representatives worry the community may be trying to do too much on its own. The uncounted thousands of Vietnamese storm victims are not going to the Astrodome or the George R. Brown Convention Center to seek help from the government, leaders say. Instead, many gather at Hong Kong City Mall on Bellaire, a privately run mall where they are being connected with ample free food and housing from fellow Vietnamese — help that cannot last indefinitely. "The problem is, because the Vietnamese are not in the shelters, they are not...

A Vietnamese immigrant is facing deportation after punching a high-ranking Vietnamese official visiting Washington late last month. Tuan Phuoc Le, 34, of Atlanta, punched in the face Nguyen Quoc Huy, vice chairman of the Prime Minister's Office for the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, during a protest at the Willard InterContinental Hotel on June 21, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in the District. Mr. Le said Mr. Huy "was a communist" and "he killed my U.S. Marine father in Vietnam," court records show. Ernestine Fobbs, spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), said legal immigrants...

The first day of a historic U.S. visit by Vietnam's prime minister had a rocky start yesterday, as hundreds of noisy protesters lined the street outside his Seattle hotel and others heckled him at an afternoon news conference. Images from Phan Van Khai's visit." Phan Van Khai, the first Vietnamese prime minister to visit the United States in the 30 years since the Vietnam War ended, yesterday kicked off his weeklong, multistate tour by urging Vietnamese emigres to help strengthen relations between the two nations. Vietnamese Americans must recognize they "have the same roots," Khai said through an interpreter. "The...

The prime minister of Vietnam was met by angry protests and sharp questions about human rights as he kicked off a historic week-long visit to America with a stop in Seattle yesterday. A contingent of about 300 Vietnamese emigres demonstrated outside a downtown hotel as the communist leader, Phan Van Khai, conducted a press conference inside, police said. A police spokeswoman, Christie-Lynne Bonner, described the demonstrators as "pro-democracy." Some critics of Mr. Khai carried banners denouncing the regime in Hanoi. The protesters shouted "Down with Communists" and some carried signs that read, "Khai Is Another Saddam Hussein," the Associated Press...

SEATTLE (AP) -- A Vietnam veteran's chance trip to a grocery store and his distinctive, almost shrill voice have reunited two friends who faded from each other's lives more than 30 years ago. It happened a few weeks ago when Wesley Fisk, 63, was in the checkout line at a north Seattle store, chatting with friends. A diminutive man who was bagging groceries sidled up to Fisk and pulled on his sleeve. ''I used my quiet voice,'' said Thin Binh, 58. ''I said, 'Are you Fisk?''' Fisk searched the man's face, found nothing familiar, and scanned down to his name...

Bitter memories of the fall of Saigon, signifying the end of the Vietnam War 30 years ago today, will be shared quietly among Vietnamese refugees in homes, cafes and restaurants across America. Public demonstrations are planned in Washington, D.C., and Vietnamese-American enclaves like Westminster. The San Gabriel Valley is home to 41,300 Vietnamese Americans, or 46 percent of the county's Vietnamese-American population, including ethnic mixes from that country. In one Rosemead Vietnamese restaurant, a group of men talked recently about what it was like seeing their country torn apart by civil war and arriving in America penniless and broken-hearted. The...

BY JOHN REYNOLDS AVALANCHE-JOURNAL The United States lost the war in Vietnam in part because the U.S. people ultimately came to hate the war and hate themselves because of the war. That legacy, according to Cornell University professor Keith Taylor, is important because it continues to permeate how the U.S. public approaches military conflicts 30 years after the fall of Saigon. Taylor was one of several speakers who addressed aspects of the Vietnam War's legacy on the second day of the fifth triennial Vietnam Symposium. The symposium is held by Texas Tech's Vietnam Center, which also maintains the largest non-governmental...

MEDFORD, Mass. -- Every Saturday and Sunday morning since the beginning of this semester my alarm clock has shrilled at exactly seven in the morning. Rain or shine, energetic or tired, hung-over or sober, I have committed myself to getting up, putting on a shirt and tie and making the almost hour-long trek from my house to Dorchester, Mass. In Dorchester I teach English to a group of seventeen Vietnamese immigrants all of whom have been in the United States for less than three years. The organization I work at, The Vietnamese American Civic Association (VACA), has a mission "to...

Vietnamese-Americans Against Illegal Immigration http://www.fairimmigration.com/id3.html Vietnamese will be treated fairly and no longer be discriminated against by the U.S. Government if it does the following: 1. Enforce all immigration laws. At a minimum these enforcement measures should include: A) Businesses should be required to check the validity of new employees Social Security or work permit numbers. B) Local and state law enforcement officers should verify the citizenship and immigration status of everyone they apprehend. Every illegal alien they apprehend should be detained and transferred to the Homeland Security Departments ICE division for deportation. 2. Children born to illegal aliens and...

Charlotte, Feb. 09, 2005 (CNA) - The Catholic Church in the southern U.S. is flourishing and growing at an impressive rate. But its rebirth in the historical Protestant Bible Belt is not only about numbers in the pews, but the creation of a Catholic culture and a strict adherence to Catholic teachings, says a report by journalist Tim Padgett. Catholics make up about 12 percent of the South’s population. While still quite low, Catholics saw growth of almost 30 percent in the 1990s, compared with less than 10 percent for Baptists, who make up the area’s largest denomination. Reported Padgett....

Fifty-five days after he gave his life defending his post from a would-be suicide bomber, Cpl. Binh Ngoc Le was posthumously awarded U.S. citizenship during a ceremony here at the Henderson Hall Theatre Jan. 27. Since the birth of our nation, many people have come to America from different walks of life for numerous reasons. Whatever the motive, those who have sought citizenship here became part of a group of millions of immigrants who have declared in one voice, "I am an American." Eduardo Aguirre, director of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, presents a posthumous citizenship award to Cpl. Binh...

When Lan Nguyen entered Andrew Hill High School as a sophomore in 1984, he had about two years to learn English, graduate and adjust to life outside the homeland he had fled in the bottom of a fishing boat. Twenty years later, Nguyen is the first Vietnamese-American trustee in the school district he entered as a refugee. The soft-spoken social services analyst represents a dramatic shift in a community that once largely ignored local politics, focusing its energy instead on fighting communism abroad.

. NEVER FORGET On Monday December 6, 2004 at 11:00 am the Chief Justice of the California Supreme Court RON GEORGE gleefully administered the Oath of Office to the 1st Vietnamese-American to enter a State Legislature... ...one VAN TRAN. His Oath of Office to the California State Assembly was administered in the Governor's Press Conference Room across the hallway from Gov. ARNOLD's Office. December 6, 2004 = One giant step towards Freedom's Return to Vietnam. Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer - A Vietnam Veteran Witness NEVER FORGET .

WASHINGTON--Binh N. Le had not been back to the land of his birth since coming to the United States with an aunt and uncle at age 4, leaving his parents behind. So in 2002, after graduating from suburban Edison High School and before joining the Marine Corps, Le made a joyous pilgrimage to Vietnam to visit his mother and father. Recently, he told one of his aunts in the United States that when he returned from his second tour in Iraq in April, they would make the trip together. But Le, a 20-year-old corporal from suburban Alexandria, Va., was killed...

Ford Motor Co. said Friday that its head of advanced product development Chris Theodore will retire December 1, to be succeeded in the job by Hua Thai-Tang who led the development of the 2005 Mustang. Hau Thai-Tang, 38, consolidates Theodore's job with that of the Special Vehicle Team (SVT). Thai-Tang will report to Martens. John Coletti continues as director of the Special Vehicle Team and will report to Thai-Tang. Besides the new Mustang, Thai-Tang developed the special edition Bullitt Mustang off the previous vehicle. It was a white Mustang fastback with racing decals, probably a 1968 or 1969, that captured...

Nov 4, 3:02 AM EST First Vietnamese-American lawmaker is object of pride and threats By BEN FOX Associated Press Writer WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) -- The first order of business for Van Tran, following his election night success, was a trip to a Vietnam War memorial. With a bodyguard. That's politics in Southern California's Little Saigon, where the first Vietnamese-American elected to a state legislature - and the nation's highest-ranking Vietnamese-American elected official - is an object of community pride and death threats. Tran said he has been told by two people he considers reliable that Vietnamese communists have targeted him...