O.C. Veterans Open Group to Vietnamese

In a potentially historic union between soldiers who fought side by side but became aloof neighbors, an Orange County Vietnam veterans group has become the first chapter in the country to offer associate membership to former South Vietnamese soldiers, local veterans disclosed Saturday.

The proposal from the Orange County chapter of the Washington-based Vietnam Veterans of America is still in its infancy, and veterans were hesitant to offer many details of the agreement.

The union would be an important development in Little Saigon, home to the largest concentration of Vietnamese outside Vietnam, and comes as the community kicks off its annual Tet celebration--an often fractious time for Southern California’s Vietnamese Americans.

The Orange County chapter would be the first of Vietnam Veterans of America’s 525 local chapters to offer “associate” membership to former South Vietnamese soldiers, said John Lynch, an intelligence officer during the war and the president of the local chapter for the last year and a half.

“The Vietnamese American veterans and the American veterans, they were comrades in arms,” said Mai Cong, president of Vietnamese Community of Orange County Inc., a nonprofit social services, economic development and health services center. “I think it is a really good idea for those who shared a common goal at the time--to fight for freedom--to come together.”

Tet, which commemorates the lunar new year and is the most significant holiday in many Asian cultures, observes the arrival of spring and is seen as a new beginning. Some Asians paint their homes or wash their cars to signify a cleansing, and the veterans’ offer to open their doors to former South Vietnamese soldiers--though it is a coincidence that it falls near the Feb. 5 Tet holiday--would seem apropos.

“It is a time of renewal,” said Cong, whose organization is based in Santa Ana. “It’s the right time.”

The union could be an important olive branch in the Vietnamese community, which is often divided, especially during recent Tet celebrations, this year’s included.

“This year is one of particular healing since it marks the end of the war of Vietnam,” Lynch said, referring to this year being the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, when Communist forces seized the capital of South Vietnam.

“We have reached out because we want to have the veterans recognized for their contributions. What the organization is really about is helping other veterans and their families.”

There are approximately 110,000 Vietnam-era American veterans in Orange County, including about 37,000 that were considered “in-country”--stationed in Vietnam, Lynch said. There are about 40,000 veterans of the South Vietnamese Army in Orange County, according to Cong.

Vietnam Veterans of America, which has a national membership of about 50,000, bills itself as the only Vietnam veterans organization that is chartered by Congress and exclusively dedicated to Vietnam-era veterans. Officials at the organization’s Washington office could not be reached Saturday for comment.

Then known as the Council of Vietnam Veterans, the group was established in January 1978 amid a perception that the needs of Vietnam veterans were being ignored by the country, the government and older, more establish veterans organizations.

The organization offers a number of services to members, including legal assistance to veterans seeking government benefits. The group lobbies for legislation that can help its members, such as job-training programs aimed at veterans and laws that assist victims of Agent Orange exposure. The group also supports homeless shelters, substance-abuse programs and crime-prevention campaigns.

For now, Lynch said, his organization wants to “focus on recognition.”

It’s unclear even how many new associate members there will be, or what services they may become eligible for, he said.

When the Orange County chapter offered associate memberships to former South Vietnamese soldiers during a trial period in late November and early December, more than 1,000 Vietnamese-Americans responded, said Greg Esslair, the chapter’s secretary. Last weekend, when some of those Vietnamese veterans gathered quietly to elect a board of directors, more than 150 veterans attended.

“After we’ve had further discussions with new members, we will better define what areas of mutual interest we can develop,” Lynch said. “It would be inappropriate for me to go beyond that now.”

But Esslair--who did two tours in Vietnam from 1969 to 1972, mostly running convoys out of Cam Ranh Bay as a military police officer--said he hopes South Vietnamese veterans can share lobbying strength in Washington. And eventually, he said, many members hope that federal medical benefits offered to American veterans might be extended to South Vietnamese veterans.

“They were as much a part of that war as we were, maybe more,” he said.

In Westminster, members of the Vietnamese community gathered Saturday for the first of this year’s Tet celebrations--the Union of Vietnamese Student Association festival. Westminster police said they expect as many 30,000 people to attend by the time the festival ends tonight.

Last year’s Tet festival coincided with anti-Communist demonstrations directed at Truong Van Tran, a video store owner who displayed a picture of Vietnam War-era Communist leader Ho Chi Minh and the Vietnamese flag in his store. The display sparked a two-month protest drawing as many as 15,000 people.

Organizers of Tet festivals have routinely sparred--including this year, when funding disputes quashed a planned parade--and South Vietnamese veterans have had as many as 18 organizations.

“This is one method of healing,” Esslair said. “What took place last Saturday [the board of directors vote] was historic.”

But there was already evidence that the agreement between American veterans and South Vietnamese veterans was creating its own bout of tension.

Nguyen Phuong Hung, a veteran of the South Vietnamese Army, said he would withdraw his membership to the associate veterans group following last week’s election of the board of directors. He said the vote was flawed and his name inexplicably dropped from consideration at the last minute.

“If you don’t do the right thing the first time, I can’t trust you,” he said at the Westminster festival on Saturday. “I like the VVA. But I think people are disappointed.”