Dear Ms. Krieger:  Your article, "Finally, 'Little Saigon' banners fly over San Jose," is indicative of a lack of basic journalistic skills and laziness on your part; i.e., fact checking. Your editor should send you to a local college for a journalism 101 course.  Shame on you for the audacity of your ignorance in stating that the South Vietnamese residents of San Jose and surrounding area were singing the national anthem of the communist Vietnamese,"To Liberate the South," when celebrating after the inauguration of Little Saigon.  All you had to do is ask any one of the Vietnamese veterans the name of South Vietnam's national anthem and they would have proudly told you it was and still is "Oh, Citizens - Nay Cong Dan Oi..."    

 

You have managed to insult thousands of Vietnamese veterans and their families; the millions of courageous South Vietnamese who fought gallantly against the communists and died as a result; those millions of Vietnamese who suffered from years of hardships in the concentration camps (ironically called "reeducation camps), and those who died as a result; those thousands of Vietnamese who died on the high-seas fleeing the tyranny of the Vietnamese communists; the tens of thousands of Vietnamese who were murdered after the communist take over of South Vietnam; and the almost 60 thousand Americans who died fighting for the freedom of the South Vietnamese and the millions of Americans who served there.

 

If you and your paper fail to write a front page apology the these Vietnamese whom you insulted, you should be fired and your paper stop publishing. 

 

Sincerely, Michael Benge.  I served in Vietnam for 11 years as a civilian Foreign Service Officer, five of which was as a POW. 

 

Finally, 'Little Saigon' banners fly over San Jose

By Lisa M. Krieger

Mercury News

Article Launched: 10/11/2008 08:07:15 PM PDT

 

Long-awaited "Little Saigon'' banners were unfurled Saturday over the sidewalks and traffic of San Jose's Story Road, ending a contentious effort by the city's South Vietnamese community to name the business district after their fallen former capital.

The installation of the 18 colorful banners was celebrated with speeches and song by a crowd of hundreds of Vietnamese, political exiles who have formed one of the largest expatriate enclaves in the nation. The banners — privately funded, but sanctioned by City Hall after a year of protests, petition drives and combative meetings — have become a symbol of newfound freedom to those who fled their country after a long and losing war against the Communists.

"What these banners symbolize is that they've arrived,'' said San Jose Vice Mayor David Cortese, wearing a Vietnam Republic flag-themed tie, decorated with three red stripes on a yellow field. "After three decades, they've established themselves here and re-established their values — freedom, human rights, democracy, capitalism and basic family values."

The design of the banners was agreed upon in negotiations between the Vietnamese community and the city attorney's office, he said. A prominently featured Vietnam Republic flag was toned down, he said. An image of City Hall's Rotunda was added.

Because the banners along the one-mile stretch of Vietnamese-dominated businesses are only temporary installations under city law, the  Vietnamese community is now raising money to erect two permanent concrete monuments saying "Welcome To Little Saigon." One would be where Story Road intersects McLaughlin Avenue, the other at Story and Roberts Street.

 New "Little Saigon" license plate holders are also for sale by the Little Saigon-San Jose Foundation. Activists say they will seek to have "Little Saigon" placed on official city maps.

Saturday's emotional ceremony opened with a march of aging South Vietnamese army officers, carrying the American and Vietnam Republic flags, side by side. The crowd then joined in rousing renditions of "The Star Spangled Banner" and the Vietnam Republic anthem, "To Liberate the South."

 

Cao Hien, president of the Little Saigon San Jose Foundation, called for a moment of silence "for the sacrifice of the Vietnamese people, solders and 58,000 Americans who bravely fought and lost their lives for Vietnamese freedom and democracy."

 

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Thank you, Mike Benge.  This incident is indeed outrageous.

 

Jean Libby, editor

VietAm Review