http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishp...s.asp?ID=30908
FALLS CHURCH, Virginia, Oct 17 (AFP) - White House aspirant John Kerry is hailed by his Democratic Party as a Vietnam War hero but the senator is waging an uphill battle convincing 1.5 million Vietnamese Americans to vote for him.
Many of them are expected to vote for incumbent George W. Bush in the November 2 presidential polls because decorated naval officer Kerry returned from combat to denounce the United States for going to war against then communist North Vietnam, community leaders say.
Another reason Vietnamese Americans are reluctant to vote for Kerry, who spent four months in South Vietnam, is that he blocked legislation intended to force the current communist government in Vietnam to stop human rights abuses.
A bill tying US aid to improvement on the human rights record in Vietnam was passed 410 to 1 in the House of Representatives three years ago but Kerry blocked it in the Senate, preferring constructive diplomacy.
Following pressure from rights groups which have long charged the communist regime with smothering all dissent and jailing democracy or human rights activists, the bill was resuscitated and again passed the House this year with a 323-45 majority.
The Senate did not endorse it before breaking up for polls.
"Obviously most Vietnamese Americans who lost their homeland to the communists do not like Senator Kerry because he was antiwar and he denigrated the cause of the South," said Dan Hoang, representative of an advocacy group promoting awareness among Vietnamese American voters.
"But the key reason many of them are expected to vote against him in this election is that he has been very nonsupportive of human rights in Vietnam, which is by far the most predominant issue of the community here," said Hoang from the Vietnamese American Public Affairs Committee.
At the Eden shopping centre in Falls Church, one of many business areas that cater to the large Vietnamese community in northern Virginia, some establishments displayed posters backing President Bush and running mate Vice President Dick Cheney.
Kerry's Democratic Party campaigners, who arrived in a van equipped with loudspeakers to woo shoppers, were told they were in unwelcome territory.
"Kerry, go home. We support Bush," shouted a silver haired ex-military officer with the South Vietnamese government, suggesting that Kerry had abetted the communists and caused American prisoners of war to be not released by his vociferous antiwar campaign on his return from duty.
"We will continue to demand for human rights in our motherland," he said, repeatedly pointing to a yellow flag with three red stripes fluttering beside the US Stars and Stripes flag on long poles outside the shopping center.
The yellow-red flag represented South Vietnam before the nation fell into enemy hands but Vietnamese American leaders say it is a symbol of resilience and freedom deeply rooted in the cultural heritage of the community.
They have successfully lobbied 70 US counties and cities and several states to pass resolutions honoring and recognizing the flag.
"Our simple understanding is that Kerry supports the communist government in Vietnam. How do you expect us to back a person who supports a brutal regime from which we fled and risked our lives in the process," said Toam Nguen, 60, a noodle shop owner at Eden Center.
Choked with emotion, he said he had to flee by boat in a perilous journey with his family to the United States on the eve of the fall of South Vietnam to the communists in 1975.
"Now you know why I will cast my vote for President Bush? I have also told my daughter, who is 20 years old, to vote for Mr Bush but I leave it entirely to her to decide," Nguen said.
While Nguen and other older Vietnamese Americans see Kerry as a turncoat, many younger voters are more open-minded, Hoang said.
Some are eager to put the war behind them and move on, and this is the group which is expected to vote for Kerry, political observers say.
Hoang said that initially, Vietnamese Americans were probably overwhelmingly Republican because of the perception that the party was anti-communist but over time, younger members of the community became Democrats because of "social issues."
"I would say the predominance of voter registration is probably still Republican."
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