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Vietnamese-American Republicans Should Rethink their Vote for Bush on Nov 2An open letter to all young Vietnamese-AmericansIf you are over 18, a registered Republican and plan to cast your vote for President Bush on November 2nd, PLEASE RECONSIDER your decision. This presidential election might be the most important election you will have ever participated in your lifetime. Please hear me out if your reasons for becoming a Republican and supporting Bush are: 1) the Republican Party is anti-Communist, 2) Ronald Reagan brought down the Soviet Union, 3) Republicans advocate for human rights of the Vietnamese in Vietnam, 4) a Republican president might hasten the demise of Vietnam's current regime and, finally, 5) the Republican Party stands for values and beliefs similar to ours as Vietnamese immigrants. (A few recent news stories reported the above as reasons given why Vietnamese-Americans support Bush and the Republican Party. Repeated over time, they have become the handy explanation for Vietnamese-American Republican leaning tendency.) Yes, I am a registered Democrat and I will cast my vote for John Kerry on November 2nd. No, I am not in the employ of the Democratic Party or any of its affiliates. And yes, I've voted for candidates other than Democrats in the past. Throughout the history of US involvement in Vietnam, it is a documented fact that the Democratic Party was the champion of the former South Vietnam state, not the Republican Party. Yes, Senator Joseph McCarthy, who led the Communist witch hunt in the 50s, was a Republican. But the Communist Party was, and still is these days, legal in the US. One of the greatest Americans of the 20th Century was a Socialist by the name of Eugene Victor Debbs. Debbs gave Theodore Roosevelt quite a scare when he ran for president and won 6% of the electoral votes in 1912, whereas Ross Perot and Ralph Nader won none in their 1992 and 2000 presidential campaigns, respectively. This goes to show that there have been a great many Americans who support the cause of Socialism/Communism, or at least its ideals. In his inaugural address in 1961, it was President-elect John F. Kennedy, a Democrat, who determined that the US was to "pay any price" to defend the cause of freedom against global Communism and soon after, Vietnam was the place where the US was going to draw the line in the sand in an effort to stop the so-called "domino effect." After JFK's assassination, his successor Lyndon Johnson, another Democrat, asked Congress for a resolution, the now infamous "Gulf of Tonkin Resolution," the WMD of the day, to declare war against Communist North Vietnam in 1964. Who ended the Vietnam War? It was Richard Nixon, a Republican, who decided to withdraw from Southeast Asia. Nixon's decision was prompted more by domestic concerns to save his presidency, but it was also because of the thaw in relations between the US and its former adversaries, the Soviet Union and China. It was pure RealPolitiks. Nixon sent his then-National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger to Beijing and Russia to begin diplomatic discussions in secret in 1971 and 1972, respectively. These secret missions were pivotal in the US decision to withdraw from Vietnam. And for the so-called "Peace Negotiation," to end the war, with Le Duc Tho representing North Vietnam in 1973, Kissinger was co-awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Le Duc Tho declined the award but Kissinger was more than glad to accept his. From this day on, Kissinger has been a certified "Peace Maker," despite his involvement, directly or indirectly, in the killings of thousands of innocent people around the world. It's now widely accepted that Reagan's outsized defense spending that contributed to the downfall of the Soviet Union was a contributing factor but not the sole reason. The Soviet Union was driven bankrupt, in a sense, in an arms race with the US. And of course Pope John Paul, II and the Vatican played a role. So did Lech Walesa and his fellow Polish shipyard workers. The US has historically, under both Democratic and Republican presidents, supported some of the most repressive, and often murderous, dictatorship regimes in modern history from Chile, under Augusto Pinochet, to Uganda, under Idi Amin, to the Philippines, under Ferdinand Marcos. And now the US has come under fire for its questionable human rights record under the Patriot Act, a byproduct of a Republican-controlled White House and Congress in our post-September 11 world. So, the answer is: no. A Republican President does not necessarily make a better advocate of human rights, anywhere in the world. It might be worse. Yes, it was Bill Clinton, a Democrat, who lifted the economic embargo against Vietnam and normalized relations between the two countries. The economic embargo against Vietnam and the drive to isolate it from the rest of the world after the Communist north captured South Vietnam may have been started by a Republican president, Gerald Ford, but it was further toughened under a Democratic president, Jimmy Carter. It should also be said that it was under Carter that most Vietnamese refugees were taken in. The warming of relations, which led to the normalization of ties in 1994, began with the Republican Reagan in 1988, who authorized the cooperation between the US and Vietnam in the search for American service men missing in action (MIA), which came with financial aid to Vietnam. The pace to normalize ties with Vietnam was further quickened under President George Herbert Walker Bush, the current president's father, both Republicans, of course. The two acknowledged-champions of normalization of ties with Vietnam are two US Senators, the Republican John McCain and the Democratic John Kerry, both Vietnam vets. However, McCain is often seen as a hero to Vietnamese-American Republicans, but not a traitor for having reached out to Vietnam's current regime. What gives? And last but not least... This could not be any more further from the truth. A lot of us may have fallen under Ronald Reagan's spell - his Hollywood charms and cowboy swagger - but to believe that the Republican Party speaks to us is to deny the realities of the impact under Republican presidency. Rolling back immigration, cutting social benefits, abolishing affirmative action, gutting the public school system, more churches and bible studies classes - how are these reflected the realities of the Vietnamese-American experience? Not all Vietnamese have made it, or have been given access to the halls of power like Viet Dinh, who is reportedly the author of the PATRIOT ACT. Most of us have been able to immigrate to this country because of the blood, sweat and tears of the Civil Rights activists of the 50s, 60s and 70s. They fought for our Civil Rights, the very Civil Rights that the extreme right of the Republican Party want to do away with. Affirmative Action was one tangible result of the Civil Rights movement. Many of us Vietnamese-American have been able to go to college because of affirmative action, not in spite of. I was one of them. I went through the Educational Opportunity Program at San Francisco State University. So have hundreds and thousands of other Vietnamese-Americans who have gone through the same program at SFSU and other similar programs at universities and colleges throughout the country. They may have done so without being aware that they reap the fruit of the Civil Rights movement and affirmative action. I also did live off Aid to Families with Dependence Children (AFDC), commonly known as "welfare," when I first arrived in this country in 1980. I know countless other Vietnamese refugees and immigrants who received either AFDC or General Assistance (GA), another social welfare benefit. Without these and MediCare and employment training programs and services, many of us would not be where we are today. These are some of the social programs that the Republican Party has tried to abolish for many years. Adding insult to injury, George W. Bush, in a call-in interview with FOX-TV Bill O'Reilly had this to say about Vietnamese, many of whom are now his party's hard-core supporters:
In closing, for Vietnamese-Americans, the reasons that are often given for being and voting Republican do not add up. We exercise our right to vote as American citizens, not Vietnamese nationals. Yes, we do and should care about US foreign policies towards Vietnam, but as American citizens. The history of Vietnam and the facts about the Vietnam War have often been distorted by all sides. As Vietnamese-Americans, we should make an extra effort in understanding and knowing history based on documented facts beyond our own personal history. Our emotional response to this painful chapter in our lives should be tempered by facts and intellect. I hope your choice in electing the next president on November 2nd will be a decision based on facts and realities, not distortion and myths.
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