Mayor Upbeat on War Memorial

Mayor Frank Fry Jr. said he is not deterred by the recent controversy over the planned Vietnam War memorial and he said he hopes to unveil the statue at a location yet to be determined in September.

A ceremonial groundbreaking scheduled for April 29 at the Civic Center was canceled and a memorial committee member representing veterans of the former South Vietnam in Southern California resigned in early April.

The 10-foot statue, portraying an American soldier and a South Vietnamese soldier, was approved last July to be placed on city property and is under construction at an artist’s studio. Fry, who heads the privately funded memorial committee, said that the Civic Center and the city-owned vacant lot across from it are “both very honorable places” to have the memorial.

Despite initial approval for the memorial on city property, the canceled groundbreaking reflected a community divided on its final location. The mayor said the opposition to the memorial’s location is the result of negative feelings about an unpopular war.

“You have to remember that [America] was divided over this war in the first place,” Fry said. “We still are divided.”

He said those opposing a connection between the city and the memorial are afraid of other demonstrations similar to the Little Saigon protests last year. Two months of demonstrations drawing as many as 15,000 people some days started after a shopkeeper displayed a portrait of Ho Chi Minh and a Vietnamese Communist flag.

“A memorial is something you pray around,” he said. “I cannot see any memorial anywhere ever becoming a rallying point.”

Fry said April and May were a critical time for raising the remaining funds needed for the $500,000 memorial, which will include a computer information kiosk. About $300,000 has been raised so far.

Alex Murashko can be reached at (714) 966-5974.