Official’s Remarks on Vietnamese Stir Westminster Furor

Three days after a Westminster city councilman criticized South Vietnamese military veterans for wanting to hold a parade, both the councilman and the city’s mayor expressed concern Friday that a continuing controversy could further divide the community.

“This was done to try to keep the city from being polarized further,” Councilman Frank Fry Jr. said. “I was trying to pull the community together, and here it turns out I’m pulling it apart instead.”

At the same time, according to Westminster Mayor Charles V. Smith, some Latino and Jewish residents expressed concern about the impact of Fry’s comments, not only on the Vietnamese community but also for their potential of igniting antipathy toward other groups.

The beleaguered councilman said his comments, which were made at a televised Westminster City Council meeting Tuesday night, were simply a statement of his personal thoughts about assimilation.

At the meeting, Fry voted to deny a parade permit sought by a group of South Vietnamese military veterans and told them, “If you want to be South Vietnamese, go back to South Vietnam.”

Fry, who was joined by three other council members in voting against the request, told the military veterans they should commemorate their war heroes on a U.S. holiday, such as Memorial Day or Veterans Day.

He said he also voted against the request, in part, because the permit would have allowed the group to close off a portion of Bolsa Avenue in Westminster’s busy Little Saigon area.

“We already closed off the street during the Tet (Vietnamese New Year’s) Festival, and we got a lot of neighbors complaining about that,” Fry said.

Too many other events already had been scheduled in June, Fry added.

“On Memorial Day, we have some doings at the Westminster cemetery and all the (local) vets are taking part in that. On June 14, we have a Pause for the Pledge Day, and I told them they were welcome to take part in that. But they wanted June 18, which happens to be Father’s Day, a real lousy day to close anything down.”

Fry reported that his remarks have generated substantial support, however.

“I have only had one call against what I’ve said and about 600 for,” Fry said, admitting he did not tally each telephone call. “The telephone started ringing yesterday (Thursday) beginning at 7 a.m. and did not stop until midnight. The majority of people told me, ‘We support what you’re saying 100%, that they should be assimilated in the American way of life.’ ”

But Mayor Smith said the councilman’s statements--condemned Thursday by the Orange County Human Relations Commission--could unearth strong emotional feelings that may further divide the city of 75,000.

Only last summer, Smith said, a black family was the target of a cross-burning in their front yard, while a Jewish synagogue and a Korean store were vandalized with pro-Nazi slogans. In addition, the assimilation of Vietnamese refugees, who now make up one of the largest Vietnamese populations outside Vietnam, has never been smooth.

To help ease racial tensions, the city, religious leaders and the Human Relations Commission, sponsored a Harmony Festival last fall and invited many different ethnic groups as a common community project.

But Smith said Friday that since Tuesday’s council meeting, he has received telephone calls not only from Vietnamese residents, but also from Latino and Jewish residents who expressed their concern about Fry’s statement and the ensuing controversy.

“The city is really getting a big black eye. And judging from telephone calls received at City Hall, I understand that more have been supporting him than are against him,” Smith said.

However, the mayor said, those who telephoned City Hall probably harbor “some deep resentment” toward the city’s growing Vietnamese community.

“We’ve tried to work so hard to bring people together here. . . ,” he said.

Meanwhile, Fry and Arthur Suchesk, a spokesman for the South Vietnamese Armed Forces Day Committee, the group that was denied the parade permit, have accepted invitations from two Los Angeles radio stations to speak about the issue. They also have television show offers pending.

Vietnamese military associations and other community groups scheduled meetings this weekend to discuss how to mobilize the community. Suchesk has said he intends to start a recall campaign against Fry.