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Me#1You#10
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Joined: 06 May 2004
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 Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 4:48 pm Post subject: Communist flag at UTA ignites protests |
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Required reading for Kerry/Kerrey '08?
| Quote: | Communist flag at UTA ignites protests
By MARK AGEE
Star-Telegram Staff Writer
Sun, Apr. 30, 2006
Graphics Caption: UTA biology senior Amy Le thanks the United States for the freedoms she enjoys. She spoke Sunday during a Vietnamese protest at UTA after the school's decision to hang the Communist Vietnamese flag in Nedderman Hall. An estimated 3,000 participated in the march.
ARLINGTON - Bill Laurie thinks the Vietnamese Communist flag hanging at the University of Texas at Arlington is an affront to his fight against that country with the U.S. Army - and he flew in from his home in Mesa, Ariz., to say so.
“It’s more than a slap in the face,” Laurie, 60, said. “It’s shoving you in the mud and spitting on you. It’s not just a betrayal of us, and of the Vietnamese people, but of American principles.”
Laurie was one of an estimated 3,000 people who protested Sunday at UT-Arlington. Mostly Vietnamese, they chanted and carried the red-striped flag of the former government of South Vietnam. Part of Cooper Street was closed for the march, which stretched for a half-mile.
The yellow-star flag of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam was recently hoisted in Nedderman Hall where flags are flown to represent the countries of foreign engineering students who have attended UT-Arlington.
Last month, members of the Vietnamese-American community were angered when university officials would only fly the official Vietnamese flag - that of the Communist government - during International Week, and not the flag that formerly belonged to South Vietnam.
Word of the controversy has spread quickly in the Vietnamese-American community.
Sandra Vule, vice president of the Vietnamese-American Community of Greater Dallas, said organizers were pleased with the protest turnout, and that many were drawn because of the symbolism.
“People say, ‘It’s just a flag,’ but flags stand for things,” Vule said. “When we look at that Communist flag, our minds think of oppression. We can’t just close our eyes.”
UT-Arlington spokesman Bob Wright said Sunday that the College of Engineering flies both flags - along with 121 others in the Hall of Flags - and will continue to do so.
“The flags have nothing to do with the nations or the governments,” Wright said. “They represent the students. We feel that we want to treat both groups equally. We really feel it is the American thing to do.”
The rally was held on the 31st anniversary of the fall of Saigon and the victory of Communist forces in 1975.
While protesters picked Sunday because it is a moment of mourning, some of the international students from Vietnam said they planned to have dinner together to celebrate the reunification of the Vietnamese people.
“We just want to have the flag to represent us and the country,” said Dung Nguyen, 20, a junior majoring in civil engineering, in an interview Friday. “There’s no reason why they need to protest and take the flag down. ... We don’t have to be liberated. Why do the people who live here have to do that for us?”
Giao Nguyen, 26, a doctoral student in finance, said that Vietnamese who disagree on the flag issue mostly avoid talking about it.
“They believe we’ve been brainwashed,” he said of the Vietnamese-Americans and students who are speaking out against the Communist flag. “Most of them have been raised here and have only learned about Vietnam through their parents.”
But some of the protesters have first-hand knowledge.
Tam Nguyen, 65, of Rowlett, was an artillery captain in the South Vietnamese Army. His unit kept fighting after Saigon fell until they were captured. He then spent 11 years in a prison camp. After being freed, he said he tried to escape the country on a boat and was sent back to prison for three more years.
Nguyen said he finally arrived in the United States in 1995 after a human rights group arranged for his release from a re-education camp.
He became angry and animated as he talked about the flag issue.
“It is a no-good country,” Nguyen said as the crowd chanted “Freedom!” in the background. “The people there have a horrible life. It is no good that they show respect to that flag.”
Staff writer Patrick McGee contributed to this report.
Mark Agee: rmagee@star-telegram.com
Star-Telegram.com |
HT: Wintersoldier.com |
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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 5:17 pm Post subject: |
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John Kerry probably couldn't be prouder that the commie flag flag flies over US soil.
I have many in-laws living here who were forced to go through the indoctrination camps in commie Viet Nam. They hate the star flag with a passion.
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71) |
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JN173
Commander
Joined: 10 May 2004
Posts: 341
Location: Anchorage, Alaska
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 5:30 pm Post subject: |
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Talk about mixed emotions! 
My heart is with the protestors and given a chance I would join them in the next protest.
BUT we did establish diplomatic relations with those *&^%$$#@! people. It leaves a sour tatse in my mouth but I have to say the University is correct in flying the communist flag if they have students from Vietnam attending and they fly the flags of the countries of other students. 
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A Grunt
2/503 173rd Airborne Brigade
RVN '65-'66 |
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Me#1You#10
Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 6:26 pm Post subject: |
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| JN173 wrote: | | ...but I have to say the University is correct in flying the communist flag if they have students from Vietnam attending and they fly the flags of the countries of other students. |
Yes, perish the thought that an American University might actually be judgemental enough to take a principled stand in behalf of liberty and freedom at the expense of repression, re-education camps and totalitarianism.
| Quote: | “It’s more than a slap in the face,” Laurie, 60, said. “It’s shoving you in the mud and spitting on you. It’s not just a betrayal of us, and of the Vietnamese people, but of American principles.”
<snip>
“The flags have nothing to do with the nations or the governments,” Wright (UT-Arlington spokesman Bob Wright) said. “They represent the students. We feel that we want to treat both groups equally. We really feel it is the American thing to do.” |
Must be a Yale graduate.
Last edited by Me#1You#10 on Tue May 02, 2006 6:50 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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| Posted: Tue May 02, 2006 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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Whether they fly the commie star or the flag of the Republic of Viet Nam ought to depend upon the student it is meant to represent. If the student is here on a visa from Viet Nam and will be going back then I suppose it is politically correct to fly the red star. If, on the other hand, the student is here because they or their parents fled from the commies, then it is an afront to them to fly the flag they sought to escape. It is probably a fair assessment that the great majority of Vietnamese students in American colleges now are here because they fled from communism.
In 1999 more than 20,000 Vietnamese Americans besieged a video shop in Southern California's Little Saigon because the owner had put up a picture of Ho Chi Minh. If these same people, god bless them, get wind of the actions at UTA, god help the university administration.
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Swift Boats - Qui Nhon (12/69-4/70), Cat Lo (4/70-5/70), Vung Tau (5/70-12/71) |
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Stevie
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 25 Aug 2004
Posts: 1451
Location: Queen Creek, Arizona
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| Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 8:13 am Post subject: |
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buffalojack - do they have email? 
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Stevie
Congressmen who willfully take actions during wartime that damage
morale and undermine the military are saboteurs and should
be arrested, exiled or hanged. |
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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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| Posted: Wed May 03, 2006 11:10 am Post subject: |
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| Stevie wrote: | | buffalojack - do they have email? |
Email? I doubt if most of them (like my inlaws) even have computers. For the majority of Vietnamese that I know, computers are for the kids and the young folk just starting out in life. These fierce anti-communists aren't organized, but they know, first hand, what it is like to live under communist domination and it is something they don't want.
If you would like to read more about the siege of the Little Saigon Video Store there are plenty of references on the web.
http://news.pacificnews.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=7ddc00a73cc7bff060965407cbf6344b
http://www.geocities.com/vnwomensforum/kyduyen.html
from : Newsweek
note: URL converted to hyperlink/me#1
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Me#1You#10
Site Admin
Joined: 06 May 2004
Posts: 6503
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| Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 3:48 am Post subject: |
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A follow-up on this story that I just caught over at Wintersoldier.com...
| Quote: | May 11, 2006 -- The University of Texas at Arlington has taken down all 123 national flags, including the flag of communist Vietnam, from the engineering school's "hall of flags." UTA issued the following statement by President James Spaniolo, which repeatedly emphasized the school's commitment to celebrating and embracing "diversity." In fact, Mr. Spaniolo plans to form a committee...
Unmentioned by Mr. Spaniolo is that his change of heart followed meetings with several elected officials who proposed to reduce UTA's funding if the flag remained on display. Kudos to the Texas legislators who made this happen, including Toby Goodman, Chris Harris, Hubert Vo, Bill Zedler and Anna Mowery.
More details are available here.
Wintersoldier.com
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BuffaloJack
Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 1637
Location: Buffalo, New York
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| Posted: Tue May 23, 2006 11:03 am Post subject: |
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Thank you, Toby Goodman, Chris Harris, Hubert Vo, Bill Zedler and Anna Mowery.
You are true Americans.
And thank you Me#1You#10 for posting the reference above.
You have no idea how passionately anti-communist the Vietnamese communities in the United States are.
By taking down ALL the flags the actions of UTA are almost like those of spoiled children who aren't getting their way. If they can have every item on their list they don't want any of it.
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UTAAlum
Seaman Recruit
Joined: 14 May 2006
Posts: 1
Location: Arlington, TX
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| Posted: Thu Jun 15, 2006 5:55 pm Post subject: Not anti-communist: They just wanted votes! |
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Those 17 or so legislators are clearly NOT anti-communists, as they had no problem at all with the flags of the former Soviet Union, of Red China, or of any of the other Communist countries whose flags were also hanging! They were, however, strongly reminded that there's an election coming up. Most of those legislators would have complained about the US flag if they thought it would get them votes. And, yes, both the US and Texas flags were removed with the others.
Just for the record, the RVN flag had flown in the former Hall of Flags - now the Hall of Shame - for a number of years. The SRVN flag was added this year at the request of an engineering student from Communist Vietnam who recognizes it as his flag. (Interestingly, some of the "Communist" Vietnamese students recognoze the RVN flag as theirs.) There are quite a few misstatements of fact on the net claiming it was removed. Until Spaniolo removed all of the flags, no flag had ever been removed from the Hall.
As both a Vietnam Veteran and an Alum of the College of Engineering at UTA, I am appalled at the action of those legislators. If we didn't want the SRVN flag hung, then we should not have admitted students from SRVN. Of course, you might want to ask those "wonderful" legislators exactly how much they have had to do with the developing relationship between Texas and the SRVN.
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An interested UTArlington Alum
graduate of the College of Engineering
Vietnam veteran |
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