Seeking Unity in War Memorial

In the nearly quarter-century since the end of the Vietnam War, many refugees from that troubled nation have adopted Orange County as their new home.

The adjustments of the newcomers have not been easy, as two incidents this year showed. But a proposed memorial to the war that linked this nation to South Vietnam fortunately may help in the healing.

This month 15-year-old Phuong Duc Nguyen told the Westminster City Council his Vietnamese youth group could not find a site for a car wash to raise money for the memorial, a bronze sculpture of an American and a Vietnamese soldier side by side. Phuong’s plaint prompted the commander of the American Legion post in Midway City, Vietnam veteran Ed Crone, to offer the post’s parking lot.

It was a good gesture.

Westminster is home to Little Saigon, the area surrounding Bolsa Avenue that has become a centerpiece for Vietnamese refugees and immigrants and their America-born children.

Orange County’s Vietnamese population has been estimated at 200,000. It is considered the largest gathering place of Vietnamese outside Vietnam.

The question of what sort of relationship the exiles should have with the Communist government of Vietnam has divided the Vietnamese community from the start. If at times the tensions among refugees seemed to have subsided, they unfortunately flared up again this year.

First, a Westminster shopkeeper displayed inside his store a portrait of Ho Chi Minh, the late Vietnamese leader, and the flag of Communist Vietnam. That led to weeks of demonstrations.

Then the Bowers Museum of Cultural Art in Santa Ana displayed a collection of paintings from Vietnam. Some were thought to be favorable to the Communists, but to its credit, the Bowers refused to remove any.

A model of the proposed memorial is on display at Westminster City Hall. The finished sculpture is more likely to unite than divide. Whatever feelings about the Vietnam War may be, no one should forget its enormous toll or the divisiveness it caused.

Leaders of veterans groups said they hoped the memorial would bring people together in a nonpolitical way. That’s a good goal. The sculpture is being financed privately, which is appropriate. The monument may engender thoughts of sacrifice and suffering rather than bitterness and loss, much as the Vietnam memorial in Washington has.