Saluting as One

It was a moment that testified to the healing power of a war memorial planned in Westminster, a city where tensions have long flared between non-Vietnamese and Vietnamese residents:

Phuong Duc Nguyen, 15, made his way to the podium in the Westminster City Council chambers on Tuesday to say his Vietnamese youth group is planning a carwash to raise money for the memorial, which would honor two armies that fought together--and lost--against Communist troops in Vietnam.

But, he explained, the group couldn’t find a place to hold the event.

Ed Crone, commander of the American Legion post in Midway City and a Vietnam veteran, promptly offered his post’s parking lot.

Though he has been at odds with the Vietnamese community before and was unsure about the planned war memorial--yet another symbol in a city where symbols have divided more often than unified the residents--Crone was moved by the teen’s appeal.

“I was on the fence before, but now this changed my mind,” said Crone afterward. “I think we need to bring our two communities together.”

Indeed, the proposed memorial has bridged differences in this torn community, where the most recent clash was in April over the joint display of American and South Vietnamese flags from city light poles. Though different from the kind of war memorial that American towns embraced in the simpler times after earlier wars, it draws support from the same well of patriotism, community observers say.

Spearheaded by Mayor Frank Fry Jr., the privately funded monument depicts two young soldiers--one American, the other Vietnamese--standing side by side. Made of bronze, it would stand 12 feet high from a three-foot concrete base.

“It’s my hope that it will . . . bring the Vietnamese and American communities closer together,” Fry said.

Ironically, the Communist government of Vietnam helped create that unity: A letter from the Vietnamese consulate in San Francisco complaining about the planned monument has only served to fuel local support.

“It’s an issue that unifies both peoples. It gives credit that’s long overdue to veterans on both sides,” said community observer Jeffrey Brody, a communications professor at Cal State Fullerton. “Any objection is political suicide.”

The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to accept the memorial upon its completion. Though it is to be built with private funds, the memorial will stand on public property, most likely at the Civic Center, and will be maintained by the city.

During the meeting, packed with about 100 people, not a single voice was raised in opposition to the project.

A far different reception greeted a proposal this spring to fly American and South Vietnamese flags together from city light poles on Bolsa Avenue, the heart of Little Saigon, to mark the April 30 anniversary of the fall of Saigon.

Members of the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars renewed previously unsuccessful objections that flag etiquette prohibits the American flag from flying level with or lower than the flag of another nation. It was Crone, in fact, who led the fight. The council ultimately rejected the display, with Tony Lam--the lone Vietnamese member--casting the only vote in favor.

At the time, there was lingering anger among many non-Vietnamese residents about weeks of noisy anti-communist demonstrations in February and March that had brought tens of thousands of Vietnamese to Little Saigon. The protests had been prompted by a shopkeeper’s decision to hang a photo of Communist leader Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese flag at his Bolsa Avenue video store.

In the aftermath of both conflicts, local Vietnamese leaders have worried that there has been a lingering prejudice against them.

And there is no question that the tensions brought to the forefront the sharp and emotional differences within a once-rural community of bean fields and strawberry patches forever changed by the influx of Vietnamese refugees after 1975.

“I can tell there is a resentment . . . stirred up by certain people who don’t like Vietnamese,” said Lam. “They feel that a lot of the time . . . [city leaders] give favors” to Vietnamese residents.

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But something entirely different has happened with the memorial project, which touches the emotions of an issue dear to both the Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese communities, say observers.

“The Americans and Vietnamese have fought side by side during that long and costly war. I think it’s about time that we acknowledge that we were allies in the war and our suffering was for the same cause, which was freedom for South Vietnam,” said attorney Luan Tran, who has represented anti-communist protesters.

Emblematic of the new spirit of camaraderie is the volunteer committee organizing the memorial effort. It unites American and Vietnamese veterans, and professionals with youth groups.

“We’ve been wanting to do a project that brings everyone together in a nonpolitical way,” said Craig Mandeville, a board member of the Vietnam Veterans of America.

The criticism from a common opponent also helped. After hearing about the project, Vietnamese Consul General Phong Xuan Nguyen wrote the city to complain that the memorial would only “dredge up a bitter past . . . that both sides have decided to leave behind.”

Nguyen’s barb not only rubbed Westminster citizens the wrong way, but played a deciding factor in clinching local support.

On formally accepting the project on the city’s behalf, Westminster Councilman Kermit Marsh seized upon the Vietnamese representative’s letter to scold: “You have proved unable to provide freedom and democracy in your own country. Please refrain from telling us what to do.”

Efforts to raise the $500,000 needed for the sculpture have already begun, with one Vietnamese-language radio station already gathering $13,000. Fry hopes the statue--to be crafted by Santa Ana sculptor Tuan Nguyen--will be completed by July 2000.

By then, the relationships being forged now will only grow stronger, said Lam, expressing a wistful amazement at the difference between the people who packed the chambers three months ago and those who turned up last week.

“I think it’s a turnaround. . . . To me, it’s a healing process,” he said.

The carwash to benefit the Westminster Vietnam War Memorial will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 8 at the American Legion, 14582 Beach Blvd.