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CARTHAGE - My siblings and I call it "The Asian Invasion." Every summer during the first weekend of August, tens of thousands of Vietnamese Catholics flock to the small southwest Missouri town of Carthage for a four-day festival to celebrate the Virgin Mary. Vietnamese refugees credit the Catholic icon for their protection and rescue from Vietnam as they fled the country after the Vietnam War. The Marian Days celebration began in 1978 with only a few hundred people. It takes place every year on the 28-acre campus of the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix, a Vietnamese order of priests and...

Many who read this were born and raised in the United States. Native patriotism, embedded from early childhood experiences of flag and fireworks, parades and anthems, is a home-bred version. It resides deeply and passionately but even today on July 4, for many patriotism is an expression of gratitude shaped by birthright, not by choice. There are exceptions. For instance, this account of a Lee's Summit man's bravery, wisdom and resourcefulness...a man who saw America fundamentally for its abundant opportunity at a time when most Americans could only see their country's flaws - a man whose gratitude burned so fervently...

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(PRWEB) July 8, 2006 -- As Independence weekend celebrations spread throughout the United States, V.I.P. Promotions Founder/CEO Tommy Nero interviewed U.S. Army Captain James Van Thach while he was spending his July 4th, weekend deployed to Baghdad, Iraq on his first overseas tour of duty. "It's so unusual these days, Captain Thach, to find young people even thinking about devoting their lives to something greater than themselves May I ask why you volunteered to join the Infantry after finishing Touro Law School?" "Mr. Nero, there are higher callings in life than just focusing on building a very comfortable lifestyle for...

Editor's Note: Though many Vietnamese-Americans see parallels between My Lai and Haditha, most remain solidly behind President Bush's policy in Iraq. Andrew Lam is a New America Media editor and the author of "Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora" (Heyday Books, 2005). SAN FRANCISCO--Of all ethnic groups in America, the most conservative and pro-war is undoubtedly the Vietnamese. While San Francisco was flooded with anti-war demonstrators during the U.S. invasion of Iraq in April 2002, Vietnamese in Orange County marched to support the U.S. troops. "We Love Our Troops," was one of two signs that hung in front of...

Vietnamese immigrants proud to call America home By Brian P. Heilman       This is the third and final installment in a series examining local efforts at reconciliation in the extended wake of the Vietnam War. The two previous articles focused on area veterans who have returned to Vietnam in a spirit of mutual support and forgiveness. This final article addresses the Vietnamese immigrant population in Minnesota, shedding light upon the rewards and challenges facing new Americans.* * * Sure, KimChau Ngo was different from the other members of her graduating class at Winona Senior High School. Ngo was,...

ARLINGTON, Texas, May 1 (UPI) -- The University of Texas at Arlington says the flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam will stay in a hall where the countries of students are represented. "The flags have nothing to do with the nations or the governments," a spokesman, Bob Wright, told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "They represent the students. We feel that we want to treat both groups equally. We really feel it is the American thing to do." About 3,000 people, most of them Vietnamese-Americans, protested Sunday. They were joined by veterans of the Vietnam War. Sunday was the 31st...

A weeping Kim-Hoan Thi Nguyen kissed her 7-year-old son goodbye at the Ho Chi Minh airport and told him it would be a long time before they would be together again. Little Binh Le boarded the plane and flew off to the States, where his mother hoped he would flourish. It was 1991. She next saw Le when he visited Vietnam at 12. He cooked her french fries. He visited again when he was 18 and a recent graduate of Edison High School in Fairfax County. They had a party. Their next reunion came in December 2004. At his funeral,...

. 30 years ago, exactly, after the fall of Saigon a 10 year old Cub Scout named VAN TRAN came to America speaking only 2 words of English. 1 year ago, exactly, VAN TRAN entered the California State Legislature as a State Assemblyman. Next year = The California State Senate .

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...

First Vietnamese-American lawmaker object of pride, threats WESTMINSTER, Calif. - 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 for assassination because of his new political status and past activism against the regime...

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...

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...

From Mike Benge Former VN POW, '68-73 Many people including Vietnamese-Americans, Vietnam and other Veterans and others, especially the younger generation, know very little about the Vietnam War. Even the Vietnam Veterans by and large knew little more than a microcosm of what was going on other than their little part of "Hell." Almost everyone has seen the picture of the South Vietnamese General summarily executing a Viet Cong, but was never told that this VC was part of a special assassination unit that had just finished cutting off the legs of the dependents, wives and children, in the police...

. NEVER FORGET Those who fought for their Freedom and had it taken right out from under them... UNDERSTAND..!!! Little Saigon is now leading the fight against JOHN KERRY's push to kill Freedom once again, right here in the good old USA. Signed:.."ALOHA RONNIE" Guyer of Little Saigon / Van Tran for Assembly Campaign NEVER FORGET

WESTMINSTER, Calif. (AP) -- In the teeming markets and cafes of Little Saigon, generational changes and misgivings over his policies have weakened President Bush's support among Vietnamese-Americans. Still, few are embracing his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry.Most people in the nation's largest Vietnamese community respect that Kerry, unlike Bush, risked his life and fought the communists during the Vietnam War. It's what Kerry did when he returned from the battlefield that angers them.Many resent Kerry for protesting the Vietnam War as a young veteran and later, as a senator, engaging with Vietnam's communist leaders and not taking a tougher stance...

WESTMINSTER, Calif. - Here in the teeming markets and cafes of Little Saigon, the shifting political loyalties of Vietnamese American voters are evident when conversation turns to November's presidential election. Westminister and neighboring Garden Grove, which make up the nation's largest Vietnamese community, have long been Republican strongholds, but generational changes and misgivings over President Bush's policies have weakened GOP support among Vietnamese Americans. Still, despite concerns about Bush, the Iraq war and a lackluster economy, few are rushing to embrace his Democratic challenger, Sen. John Kerry, who has made his Vietnam War military service a centerpiece of his presidential...

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 ...

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,...

DURING THE Vietnam War, John Kerry testified before a Senate Foreign Relations Committee panel that an investigation conducted by Kerry and his group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War, revealed that U.S. soldiers committed atrocities in Vietnam. The investigation was called Winter Soldier. Now that Kerry wants to be president, some of his former military colleagues say they still resent his allegations. They believe that Kerry slandered his colleagues as war criminals merely as a pretext for gaining support for the withdrawal of troops from Vietnam. They believe he was pandering to those who said the "domino theory" was not valid,...

WESTMINSTER, Calif., Sept. 21 - Nearly 30 years after the fall of Saigon, the specter of Vietnam hangs over an American presidential campaign. No day passes without a reminder of what parts George W. Bush and John F. Kerry played, or did not play, in that conflict. On and on, the supposed lessons of Vietnam are rehashed on talk shows and in newspaper commentary to criticize or defend the conduct of the war in Iraq. But here among the bustling shops and cafes of Little Saigon there is pained weariness over a war that scarred the lives of nearly all...

Kerry's new Vietnam fix Refugees of communist takeover won't forget, forgive his past By Jan Golab "If you want to be president, you have to talk to everybody in America, and that is what we are going to do," Sen. John Kerry declared last July, when he spoke before the NAACP. It was a dig against President George W. Bush, who had declined an invitation to speak to that organization. But there's no way Kerry will ever speak to America's 1.2 million Vietnamese-Americans, most of whom live in California. Many of California's Vietnamese-Americans will be in Washington, D.C., today to...

. Vietnamese and Republican go together like beef and cabbage at a party in Santa Ana. .

DATELINE: SAIGON -- Little Saigon that is. In the largest Vietnamese enclave outside of Vietnam they remember the Vietnam War as the American War. Spanning the three Orange County, California cities of Westminster, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, the residents of this communist-free (by legislation) stronghold have little use for War Hero candidate John Kerry. Chock full of beauty schools, cafes, and ubiquitous Pho restaurants (the classic Vietnamese soup), the pre-communist national flag proudly waves next to the Stars and Stripes above the Veterans memorial at Westminster City Hall. In "America's Most Republican County" (350 elected officials; registration 48.5% Rep./30.6%...

"It is intriguing about this election that Vietnam is coming in to play," Tran muses. "Vietnamese-Americans haven't forgotten John Kerry's anti-war stance. It would not be too much to say there is some hatred for him in the community." With a population of over a million in the U.S., and almost half of that in California, this sizable and vocal minority voting block may have some resonance during this election cycle.

LOS ANGELES — The John Kerry many Vietnamese-Americans remember is not the hero promoted by the Democratic Party, but the ex-soldier who returned to the United States to denounce the Vietnam War. "His close association and anti-war activity make him known as Mr. Jane Fonda," said Frank Jao, who fought in the South Vietnamese army against the communist North. Jao emigrated to California, and now is the Donald Trump of Orange County's Little Saigon (search), the largest Vietnamese community outside of Vietnam. In this area, 58 percent of the residents are registered Republicans. While older Vietnamese-Americans may see Kerry as...

Prior to the Democratic national convention in Boston, journalists in both mainstream and ethnic press queried Vietnamese in the United States and in Vietnam on their views of the two presidential candidates. The contrast is startling. The majority in the Mekong Delta region of South Vietnam interviewed by the Associated Press said that they don't pay much attention to current events in the United States because they are poor and struggling to survive. But those who do have time to read, said they support John Kerry because he and Sen. John McCain, both Vietnam veterans, have in the past pushed...

NEVER FORGET ...Last night the Westminster, California City Council voted 5-0 to become the 2nd 'Communist FREE Zone' City in America, following Garden Grove's 5-0 lead from last week. These 2 City Resolutions will prevent Communist Vietnam Leaders from coming to Little Saigon in public motorcades that would incite expensive protests from FREE Vietnamese-Americans. ...In early 2003 these Cities' roles were reversed as Westminster, in February, became the 1st City in America to proclaim the FREE Flag of the former Republic of South Vietnam as the official Flag for its Vietnamese-American Community to fly next to our American Flag of...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Southern California city known as "Little Saigon" because of its large Vietnamese population has become the first U.S. city to declare itself a "no Communist" zone. The city council in Garden Grove, about 30 miles south of Los Angeles, passed a resolution on Tuesday saying it "does not welcome, or sanction high-profile visits, drive-bys or stopovers by members or officials of the Vietnamese Communist government." The resolution, passed to cheers from a crowd of about 200 Vietnamese residents, also urged city officials to refrain from "initiating engagements with or facilitating" visits by Vietnamese Communists. Garden...

NEVER FORGET From Los Angeles Times Staff Writer: DAVID HALDANE 'To Vietnamese Communists, From Garden Grove: Stay Away To the delight of observing crowds, council members easily pass a resolution voicing opposition to visits by Hanoi delegations' Link to follow below. (Speaking before the Garden Grove City Council last night I read my letter in support of their Resolution saying "NO" to Communism in their City that appeared in Sunday's Los Angeles Times. It was a response to an Editorial calling such a Resolution a .."Rights Lapse in Little Saigon"..!) QUOTE: THOSE WHO'VE LEARNED THE LESSONS of FREEDOM May 9,...