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Academics Take Stand Against Viet-Am Anti-communist Obsession
A destructive obsession:
Vietnamese-Americans are held hostage by fanatic anti-communist faction
by VIET THANH NGUYEN
6/6/04
The Associate Professor of English and Asian-American Studies at USC co-wrote this with Hien Duc Do of San Jose state university; Hung Thai of UC Santa Barbara; Jeffrey Brody of Cal State-Fullerton; Van Bich Thi Tran of the Social Science Research Council in New York; Nguyen-vo Thu-huong of UCLA; Yen Le Espiritu of UC San Diego; Phuong Nguyen of USC; and Dan Duffy of the University of North Carolina
Garden Grove and Westminster, the key cities of Little Saigon and home to many Vietnamese-Americans, recently passed resolutions to create "communist-free zones." Such a zone is clearly a symbolic act against the government of Vietnam. Anyone who is familiar with the Vietnamese-American community and its politics would hardly be surprised by such an act, for vocal anti-communists have led, or dragged, the community for nearly 30 years. What is different about this act, versus past gestures and protests, is that it has a dubious air of legality about it, and it is sponsored by second-generation Vietnamese-American legislators.
Non-Vietnamese-Americans, and even many Vietnamese-Americans, may think that the Vietnamese-American community is united behind such an act. This is not so. Many Vietnamese-Americans have no wish to continue the fight against communism, but are very reluctant to say so, since an extremist element in the Vietnamese-American community resorts to protests, shouting and even violence to quell any such disagreement. The turn to legal action, however, shows that the Vietnamese-American community is maturing and that it is attaining a political power and voice that it lacked in the past. What disappoints is the fact that a new generation of Vietnamese-American and other elected officials choose to fan the flame of hatred as the most convenient way to get votes rather than work to represent the diverse interests of their constituents. Many of us have long started redefining our relationship with Vietnam through our work, travels, commerce and social connections. Most of us have done so quietly, but it is time to speak out forcefully against the McCarthyist anti-communism of some Vietnamese-Americans.
