Yolanda Rodriguez - Staff
Wednesday, November 12, 2003
A group of Vietnamese immigrants in metro Atlanta has joined a national campaign for official recognition of the flag of the former Republic of Vietnam --- a yellow field with three horizontal red stripes.
The group persuaded three Georgia cities, Doraville, Norcross and Clarkston, to recognize the flag as representative of the Vietnamese community.
"It's the de facto symbol of our community and our exodus into a free country," said Baoky Vu, who is leading the flag-change effort in metro Atlanta. Vu was 8 years old when he fled Vietnam in 1975 with his family to Australia before coming to the United States.
For the Communist government in Vietnam, the goal of the Vietnamese-American community is tantamount to interference in the country's affairs.
The push to recognize the flag of the former government of South Vietnam "is not consistent with the current bilateral relations," said Bach Ngoc Chien, a spokesman for the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington.
"It only rekindles the past hatred and trauma. . . . Vietnam and the United States have established full diplomatic relations," Chien said. "The two countries respect each other's national symbols."
The issue has come before at least 19 local and state governments, with four rejecting the measures, Chien said.
The debate has also drawn in the State Department.
Earlier this year, a proposed Virginia law would have required school boards, colleges and all state-sponsored events to fly the standard of the former South Vietnamese government instead of the flag of the current government, a red field with a yellow five-pointed star in the center.
The measure was dropped after State Department officials warned it could damage relations between Washington and Hanoi. But a similar bill in Louisiana was signed into law in July.
Doraville Mayor Gene Lively backed the move for the Vietnamese-American Heritage and Freedom Flag, as the community calls it. "We thought it was a good idea," he said. "Most fought in the war alongside our people. They weren't asking to replace the American flag. They just wanted a freedom flag that they felt would represent their people."
The Doraville and Norcross proclamations allow the flag to be flown on city property and at city-sponsored events and urge county, state and school officials to pass similar measures.
They also criticize the human rights record of the Communist government of Vietnam.
Clarkston, however, balked at a similar clause in its resolution. "Our city attorney said that was more of an international affair," said Clarkston City Clerk Carole Keys.
Chamblee Mayor Evelyn Dane Kennedy, who was also approached by the group, decided not to take the issue before the City Council. She felt recognizing a flag was not an issue for the city.
"To recognize a flag of another country belongs to the State Department," Kennedy said.
For the Vietnamese-American community, the flag is a potent reminder of what they lost three decades ago when many fled South Vietnam.
Tom Nguyen, a Chamblee real estate agent, said the flag of his former home is a reminder of what he left behind and why Vietnamese came to the United States.
"The reason we're here is because we are looking for freedom," Nguyen said.
"We left our country [with] nothing, everything was behind us. The only thing we bring with us is that flag. That's the soul, our soul."
Vietnamese-Americans have embraced the Stars and Stripes, but they still must remind future generations "why we are here in the first place," he said.
He wants to spread the message that the people of Vietnam live in a country "where they can't say anything, where they don't have any voice. No freedom of speech."
The flag movement comes as the United States and Vietnam have been easing relations, talking trade and reconciliation. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is working with the Vietnamese government on a public education and land mine removal plan in Quang Tri, the province where the demilitarized zone was located.
Just this week, Vietnamese Defense Minister Pham Van Tra visited Washington, meeting with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Secretary of State Colin Powell.
While the debate threatens the burgeoning relationship between Washington and Hanoi, the move has had the opposite effect within the Vietnamese community in metro Atlanta.
The campaign has brought together members of two community groups who had been at odds with each other in recent years, said Vu.
Work on the Vietnamese flag was a "means to an end," he said.
"The end is to get the Vietnamese-American community more involved in politics," said Vu, who is also on the President's Advisory Commission on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and is an ex-officio member of the state's Asian American Commission for a New Georgia.
ON THE WEB: Vietnamese Freedom and Heritage Flag: www.fva.org/vnflag/index.htm