WESTMINSTER – The University of Southern California will not take down the Socialist Republic of Vietnam’s flag in front of one of its main buildings on campus despite concerns raised by Vietnamese American students on campus, a university spokesman said Thursday.
Little Saigon activists approached USC officials last month after the Vietnamese Student Association on campus raised issue with the so-called communist flag being hung at the university’s Von KleinSmid Center.
James Grant, a university spokesman, said he believes a public forum held Monday on campus about the flag issue was “constructive.” But, he added, that the university’s position remains the same.
“The university displays the flags of nations from which our international students come to attend USC,” he said. “These flags represent nations recognized by the United Nations and the U.S. Department of State.”
Christopher Tran, president of the Vietnamese Student Association, said he wanted to explore all options before resorting to a large-scale protest. He said the flag hanging at the center does not represent him or the 1,000 Vietnamese American students attending the school.
Tran and other members of his group requested Monday that the university either consider adding the red and yellow flag of former South Vietnam to the exhibit or take down all the flags.
Steven Huynh, also an association member, said the communist flag certainly doesn’t represent him.
“My mother was a refugee and my father was a prisoner of war who later became a refugee,” he said. “So this is really an important issue for me.”
Close to 49,000 people voted on The Orange County Register’s online poll last month on the issue. An overwhelming 91 percent said the university should remove the flag; 3 percent said it should be left alone and 6 percent said it should be replaced with the South Vietnamese flag.
But Vu Nguyen, a member of the Vietnamese International Students Association, which consists of students from Vietnam, says he is hurt that people want to take down the flag that represents him and more than 20 students on campus.
“That flag represents us as well as the 80 million people of Vietnam,” he said. “I respect that the Vietnamese American community has a separate flag. But it would be an insult to us to have our country’s flag taken down.”
Grant said the university does not intend to hang the South Vietnamese flag at that location because it does not represent international students. Asked if the red and yellow flag will be flown at another location on campus, Grant said: “I can’t say.”
Little Saigon activists say it’s a significant issue for this largely refugee, expatriate community. Most of its members fled Vietnam by boat after the communist takeover on April 30 1975. The community is in the process of organizing several Black April commemorative ceremonies to mark the occasion next week.
Local activist Hung Phuong Nguyen said he and others are standing by to organize a protest if the university fails to take down the communist flag or add the red and yellow flag. Nguyen says he and other activists plan to send out letter to all universities in California to remove the communist flag and replace it with the red and yellow flag.
“We want to give USC students the chance to discuss this with the officials,” he said. “We’ve stepped aside for now, but if they ask for our help in protesting USC, we’ll definitely join the protest.”
Nguyen and other activists were successful recently in getting Irvine Valley College to take down an entire flag exhibit because it had the communist flag in it.
Bao Mai, a member of Garden Grove-based Union for Vietnamese Students Association, agreed.
“The school doesn’t seem to understand that one flag does not represent everybody,” he said. “If the students can’t work it out, we’ll be supporting them in a protest.”
Huynh said he does not believe anything positive came from Monday’s campus meeting, which he said included no top university officials.
“I think there is going to be a protest over this issue,” he said. “It seems almost inevitable now.”
Contact the writer: 714-445-6685 or dbharath@ocregister.com
