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News Article
January 29, 2003
Bid to Honor South
Vietnamese Elicits Anger
Va. Bill to Display Defeated Republic's Flag Called 'Insolent' by Ruling
Government
By Steven Ginsberg and William Branigin
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, January 29, 2003; Page B01
RICHMOND, Jan. 28 (The
Washington Post) - A committee of Virginia legislators approved a bill today
that would honor the lost cause of South Vietnam through the display of the
republic's old flag, a proposal that heartened many war refugees in the
Washington region but was quickly condemned by the Vietnamese government as
"insolent."
The bill, approved 8 to 6 by the House Rules Committee, would require that the
flag of the defeated Republic of Vietnam, rather than the official flag of the
communist government, be displayed at any public function. Public schools and
colleges also would be required to display only the old flag.
The measure's sponsor, Del. Robert D. Hull (D-Fairfax), said the proposal aims
to support democracy over communism and remove a painful symbol, the communist
flag. In Vietnam, "free people that were defeated now live under communist
rule," he said.
The Vietnamese Embassy in Washington reacted angrily to House Bill 2829,
demanding that it be killed in the General Assembly. Legislators said the State
Department contacted them almost immediately after the vote to express concern
about constitutional issues and fear that the action could cause an
international rift.
Acknowledging those concerns, House Speaker William J. Howell (R-Stafford) said
he planned to have the bill referred back to committee to kill it.
"If [Del. Hull] doesn't take care of it, I think someone else will," said
Howell, who had voted for the proposal.
Hull vowed to press on. "Just because the State Department objects doesn't mean
we won't go forward," he said.
As Virginia becomes increasingly diverse, many politicians have sought to
address the interests of minority communities. Tagalog, Spanish and other
languages have made their way into campaign speeches, and politicians have begun
advertising in foreign-language newspapers.
Last year, Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) declared that June 19, 2002, would be
Vietnamese American Freedom Fighter Day and that the South Vietnamese flag, with
its three red bars on a yellow background, is an "eternal symbol of hope and
love of freedom." Warner spokesman Kevin Hall said the governor hasn't taken a
position on the House bill.
About 45,000 Vietnamese residents live in the Washington region, including
nearly 29,000 in Northern Virginia. The community has become one of the region's
most noticeable, establishing restaurants, markets and other imprints across
Northern Virginia, including many at the popular Eden Center in Falls Church,
which Hull represents.
The new and old flags of Vietnam arouse passions. In 1999, thousands of
Vietnamese refugees protested for 53 days outside a video store in California
after the owner displayed the Vietnamese flag and a picture of former North
Vietnamese president Ho Chi Minh.
Yesterday, Bach Ngoc Chien, the press attaché at the Vietnamese Embassy in
Washington, issued a statement saying, "We totally reject Bill 2829."
"According to international conventions and practices, the golden star and red
flag, the sole and official flag symbolizing the State of Vietnam, must be
hoisted on all occasions and in all places on the United States soil when there
is a requirement of display of the national flag of Vietnam."
Nguyen Dinh Thang, executive director of Boat People SOS, a Vietnamese American
civic group in Falls Church, said ethnic Vietnamese parents and students "reject
the red flag and gold star as a symbol of oppression and persecution." States
have the sovereign right to determine which flags to display, he said.
Thang said schools sometimes displayed the Hanoi government's flag without
realizing that it deeply offended thousands of refugees who fled the former
South Vietnam after forces of the communist north captured Saigon in April 1975.
"It's just like displaying the swastika in a community with a lot of people of
Jewish background," said Thang, 45, who came to the United States in 1979 as a
refugee after surviving a harrowing trip to Malaysia aboard a rickety boat.
Virginia schools "should display a flag representing the overseas refugee
community who fled the communists, and not a flag that we do not accept," said
Jackie Bong-Wright, who arrived in the United States from Vietnam in 1975 as a
widow with three children.
As president of the Vietnamese American Voters Association in Falls Church, she
encourages refugees to register. She estimates that about 12,000 are registered
to vote in Fairfax County.
Staff writers Michael D. Shear and Phuong Ly contributed to this report.
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