Fry Reaches Tentative Truce With Vietnamese After Issuing Apology

Members of Orange County’s Vietnamese community reached a tentative truce with Westminster City Councilman Frank Fry Jr. on Monday night, after Fry issued a statement of apology for racially charged remarks made last week, a spokesmen for the community said.

“We hope the statement by Frank Fry, who apologized for his remarks today (Monday), will come out as stated,” said Tien Nguyen, a member of a Vietnamese ad hoc committee. “We do intend to decide against any further actions, but the committee as a whole needs to first see Fry’s letter so that we can vote on it.”

Nguyen said neither he nor any other Vietnamese representative spoke with Fry on Monday. However, Fry did direct Rusty Kennedy, county Human Relations Commission executive director, to revise his original letter of apology. The letter was to be read at a press conference today.

Part of Fry’s revised letter, disclosed by Kennedy on Monday night, states: “I did not intend to belittle . . . the sacrifice made by our Allies, the South Vietnamese during the Vietnam War.

“Nor did I mean that those who died in the war should not be honored. I would like to apologize for my statements that have caused this outcry.”

Parade Permit Was Denied

Fry, who was out of town Monday, could not be reached for comment. It was unclear whether a parade request that sparked the furor would be reconsidered by the Westminster City Council.

The uproar began last week when the South Vietnamese Armed Forces Day Committee sought a permit for a June 18 parade honoring all soldiers who died fighting the Communists in Vietnam. 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.

The councilman added, “If you want to be South Vietnamese, go back to South Vietnam,” a remark that prompted members of the county’s Vietnamese community to threaten a recall campaign.

Fry has said he made the remark because he believes that the city is becoming “too divisive” and that the growing Vietnamese community, now numbering about 100,000 residents, has created separate community groups.

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

Monday afternoon, with rolls of tape and scissors, several Vietnamese volunteers began hanging anti-Fry posters bearing his picture and the slogan: “We voted for you last year. We feel sorry for you this year!”

Chuyen V. Nguyen, who was in charge of hanging posters on behalf of the ad hoc committee, said he began hanging them after receiving a call from other committee members displeased by Fry’s original letter.

Nguyen said Fry’s letter only clarified his previous statement and did not contain the word apology, which was sought by Vietnamese leaders.

‘He Didn’t Apologize’

“He didn’t apologize at all,” Nguyen said, as he and several other volunteers began distributing 5,000 flyers in Vietnamese and hanging 500 posters at a shopping mall on Brookhurst Avenue in the heart of Little Saigon.

But late Monday, Kennedy was contacted by Fry, and an agreement was reached on a final letter of apology.

“I cannot speak for the ad hoc committee, but I believe that this will put this issue behind us,” Kennedy said Monday night.

As executive director of the Human Relations Commission, Kennedy and several commission board members became involved in mediation last week after Tien Nguyen and Arthur Suchesk, another spokesman for the panel on armed forces day, went before commission board members and asked for their assistance. The commission has condemned Fry’s statement.

Kennedy confirmed that Fry’s original draft was revised after Vietnamese leaders objected to the letter’s tone.

‘Willing to Negotiate’

“Fry was willing to negotiate (by telephone), and we came up with some possible language,” he said. “Later, we hammered out an agreement.”

If Fry’s letter is accepted, Tien Nguyen said, then the posters will be brought down.

“And we’ll stop everything. The issue here was that the Vietnamese community didn’t want to lose face. We’re a very proud people,” he said.