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Councilman’s Remark Angers Vietnamese

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Times Staff Writer

A leader of Orange County’s Vietnamese community announced plans Thursday to recall Westminster Councilman Frank Fry Jr., who voted to deny a parade permit sought by a group of South Vietnamese military veterans while telling them, “If you want to be South Vietnamese, go back to South Vietnam.”

“The Vietnamese community will not sit still for this,” said Arthur Suchesk, a spokesman for the South Vietnamese Armed Forces Day Committee, who vowed to start a recall drive.

Fry’s statement, made at a Westminster City Council meeting earlier in the week, was racially insensitive, Suchesk and Vietnamese veterans have charged. The armed forces day committee sought a parade permit and approval to block traffic on busy Bolsa Avenue in the area of Westminster known as Little Saigon.

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‘That’s My Opinion’

Fry, who joined three other council members in voting against the request, told the group’s representatives that they should commemorate their war dead on a U.S. holiday such as Memorial Day or Veteran’s Day.

“It’s my opinion that you’re all Americans and you’d better be Americans. If you want to be South Vietnamese, go back to South Vietnam,” Fry said. “That may be unfair, but that’s my opinion and I’m sure that is the opinion of a lot of people around here.”

Tony Lam, a Vietnamese community and business leader, said Fry’s statements were “uncalled for.”

“It’s an insult,” Lam said. “He’s so naive to make that kind of a statement. We’re trying to be in the mainstream of America (and) trying to maintain our cultural heritage. That’s why we work in harmony. But that kind of a statement really breaks up the harmony.”

The council voted 4 to 1 late Tuesday to reject the proposal that would have honored all soldiers who fought the Communists in Vietnam. Only Mayor Charles V. Smith, a Korean veteran, supported the parade.

The veterans’ group plans to mobilize the Vietnamese community and mount an “anti-Fry” campaign with demonstrations.

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