Anti-Communist Vietnam Protest

* I am legal counsel to one of the “right-wing anti-Communist” Vietnamese American groups referenced in Jeffrey Brody’s Oct. 4 Orange County Voices article concerning the demonstration in front of the Cal State Fullerton theater.

The group known as the Vietnamese Community of Southern California is composed of refugees as mentioned in the article. I first became acquainted with this organization at its inception in 1989 and have not heard any leader of this group advocate or condone violence, although it is true that the mood was ugly on Sept. 25.

It is also true that no one was hurt on that night. It is true that a professor at Cal State Fullerton was murdered on campus in 1984, but it is unfair for the article to insinuate that there was a relationship between that event and this group, founded five years later.

Brody’s suggestion that demonstrations and political attacks from this group have scared other immigrants from exercising their rights as citizens would be unfortunate if correct. But freedom of speech is among their rights under the Constitution, which many of them have recently undertaken to learn to become citizens.

I disagree with his comment that some “elements of the Vietnamese community forget that the war is over.” Instead, what I believe unforgettable is the taking of property which had been passed down through several generations, 10-, 15-, 20-year prison terms of people whose crimes included becoming judges, congressmen, U.S. government contractors, and writers and newspaper reporters.

Other things which some may find unforgettable include relatives dying in prison due to lack of food or medical care, boat people escapees dying at sea and their daily struggles in a strange environment.

If there was ugliness on Sept. 25, this group must share the blame for failing to restrain its members, but there is plenty of blame to spread around.

When the university decided to invite the representatives of Vietnam here, there must have been complete insensitivity to the refugees from that regime now living in Orange County.

It is a mystery how university officials could not have predicted the scene at their campus.

NORMAN FEIRSTEIN

Westminster