Vietnamese Want a Word With McCain

Orange County’s Vietnamese American community is preparing for a visit Wednesday from presidential candidate and former prisoner of war U.S. Sen. John McCain.

The Arizona Republican’s visit--most likely to Westminster’s Little Saigon neighborhood--is widely anticipated. Though many identify with his suffering as a prisoner of war, others are angry over his use of a racial epithet, a term he later explained as a reference to his North Vietnamese captors.

“There’s a strong interest in the community in seeing McCain and hearing what he has to say on a whole host of issues,” said Westminster attorney Van Thai Tran. “Including his recent statements.”

McCain originally referred to his Vietnamese captors as “gooks” on a campaign trip in October. Since then, McCain has repeatedly defended his use of the slur, saying it referred specifically to the North Vietnamese soldiers who tortured him while he was was held captive for more than five years.

McCain’s comments have offended some Asian Americans and could be significant in the California primary, political experts have said, because 11% of the state’s population is of Asian descent.

During the Orange County campaign stop, a visit that was initiated by McCain’s campaign, the senator is tentatively scheduled to meet community and religious leaders in Little Saigon. The time and place of McCain’s appearance has not been set, campaign officials said.

Peter DeMarco, a spokesman for McCain 2000, said the campaign is finalizing the details of the stopover after weeks of planning, and that it was not arranged specifically to smooth relations with Vietnamese Americans.

“McCain has been forthright in apologizing” for the remark, DeMarco said. “He has great respect for the Vietnamese American community.”

Describing the relationship between Vietnamese Americans and the senator as “complex and emotional,” Westminster attorney Tran said the comment sparked a discussion in the community.

“Many Vietnamese veterans have told me they have used much worse language to describe their captors,” said Tran, referring to the South Vietnamese prisoners of war. “On the other hand, second-generation Vietnamese Americans and Asian American community members have expressed strong disappointment over the slur, in light of the fact that he is running for president.”

Experts say conventional wisdom has it that a Republican candidate has to win vote-rich Orange County by a large margin to win in California. The presidential hopeful last week opened a campaign office in Tustin.

The senator’s grandfather, John McCain Sr., was an admiral in the Pacific during World War II. His father, John McCain Jr., also became an admiral in the Second World War. Sen. McCain was a Navy fighter pilot, and during a bombing mission on the North Vietnamese capital in 1967, he was shot down over Hanoi’s Truc Bach lake.

“He has shed blood and risked his life,” Tran said. “On the other hand, the policies he espouses, reconciliation with Communist Vietnam, also raise questions and concerns on the part of the Vietnamese community here in Southern California.”

Traditionally, the Vietnamese American community is considered to be conservative Republican. However, some observers have noted a change in the political makeup of the community, highlighted in the 1998 state Assembly election of Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove) over incumbent Republican Robert K. Dornan.