Another Vietnam? 'Little Saigon' Press Reacts to Iraq War

Pacific News Service, News Report, Julian Do And Sandip Roy, Posted: Apr 04, 2003

Possible parallels between the Vietnam and Iraq wars, noted frequently in mainstream media, are not lost on America's large Vietnamese community. Intimate memories of war and strong patriotism for America characterize Vietnamese American press reaction to the war in Iraq.

WESTMINSTER, Calif.--Barely 10 days into the war on Iraq, media pundits and army veterans began to speculate on whether the sands of Iraq could become the quagmire of Vietnam. As headlines scream "The New Vietnam," the parallels are not lost on the million-plus Vietnamese American community, most of whom fled to the United States after the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Reports of U.S. and British troops having trouble distinguishing civilians from Iraqi guerillas resurrects "ghosts of Vietnam" for columnist Son Dien, writing in the Viet Bao newspaper, in Southern California's Orange County. But Dien warns that it might be premature to think Iraq is about to metamorphose into Vietnam-style guerilla warfare. "Without the support of the people to provide hiding places and supplies, Saddam Hussein's loyalists would be fish on dry land. Without political legitimacy, a foundation for long-term fighting, it would also be hard for Hussein's armies to sustain its morale and will to fight," Dien wrote.

California is home to the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, about half a million. Many of them live around Westminster in an area called Little Saigon. Here, amidst bustling strip malls with street signs in Vietnamese, in karaoke bars, pho restaurants and dentists' offices, support for the war is strong.

Viet Tide, a bilingual weekly based in Little Saigon, conducted informal interviews with Vietnamese American shoppers and businesspeople. While some were apathetic, most showed strong support for the U.S. government.

In fact, of the various Asian American groups, Vietnamese were among the first to take to the streets to support the troops. The Vietnamese community has traditionally been a strong supporter of the Republican Party, believing it to have stronger anti-Communist credentials. BachLien TranBatdorf, president of the American Vietnamese Republican Assembly of Orange County, sent out e-mail newsletters to the community encouraging people to show up to support the troops at a rally at the Oscars.

The war in Vietnam is never far from mind here. "The Vietnam War ended in 1975, but it still continues in our community," says Nam Nguyen, the publisher of the Vietnamese daily Cali Today. While others see echoes of Vietnam in Iraq, some Vietnamese wish the United States had been as pre-emptive in its Vietnam strategy as it has been with Saddam Hussein. "They feel that the U.S. could have been more successful in Vietnam had they taken a more pro-active approach and attacked the North instead of just defending the South," says Vi Nguyen, an editor with Cali Today.

Many of those who participated in rallies in California marched not just with red white and blue flags but also the red and yellow flags of the former South Vietnam, according to San Jose weekly Viet Merc and the bilingual Web portal Kicon.com. Even as Vietnamese Americans marched in the streets of San Jose for George W. Bush, over in Hanoi the flip side of the story is playing out as the Vietnamese government organized anti-war rallies labeling the United States as an imperialist aggressor.

While anti-war protesters have carried signs saying "No Blood for Oil," some Vietnamese analysts describe the Iraq situation as far more complex, with many countries meddling in and bearing some responsibility for the conflict, just as they had in Vietnam 30 years ago. A cartoon in Viet Bao shows Iraqi missiles bearing labels like "Made in France, Germany and Russia." Ly Thai Hung, an analyst writing for the Tin Viet News in San Jose, says that it's really "self-interest" that hides behind the apparent "humanitarian motives" of those countries. Hung thinks that when President Bush told the world that the oil wells in Iraq belong to the Iraqi people, he was indirectly warning "France, Russia and China that the U.S. doesn't want to be competing for oil wells."

Another editorial in Viet Bao refers to "Vietnam of yesterday, Iraq of today," and looks back to Vietnamese history to figure out why, at the first sign of U.S. "shock and awe," the Iraqi people did not rise up and oust a dictator like Saddam Hussein. "In Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh, similar to Stalin, was a dictator who had killed thousands with land reform, but still received support from the millions of Vietnamese to fight against the French and Americans because he effectively portrayed the U.S. as foreign invader," opines the editorial, which suggests Saddam Hussein is taking a leaf out of the same book.

Whatever their concerns, unlike Vietnam, all observers are confident about the outcome this time. "The U.S. military undoubtedly will defeat Iraqi forces. Victory, however, will not be determined until the fighting stops and we see what type of nation building has transpired," writes Ngo Nhan Dung in the Westminster newspaper Nguoi Viet, which has published for more than 25 years.

PNS contributor Julian Do is the Southern California coordinator for New California Media, an association of over 400 print, broadcast and online ethnic media organizations founded in 1996 by Pacific News Services and members of ethnic media. PNS Associate Editor Sandip Roy (sandiproy@hotmail.com) is host of "Upfront" -- the Pacific News Service weekly radio program on KALW-FM, San Francisco.

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