Irvine’s ‘friendship’ program sparks protest

Dung Nguyen is among hundreds of Vietnamese Americans protesting outside the Irvine council meeting over a proposal to establish a “friendship” with Nha Trang, a coastal town in Vietnam. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

April 9, 2014 5:23 PM PT

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Irvine suspends its entire Friendship Cities Program as hundreds of Vietnamese Americans decry its plan to bond with a town in the homeland they fled.

Many demonstrators wave the flag of South Vietnam. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)

People watch a feed of the Irvine City Council meeting on a television screen. At the meeting, a councilman from a nearby city called the friendship proposal an insult to Vietnamese people who were thrown in re-education camps, got separated from their families or had their property seized. (Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)