IvanTheTerrible wrote:K Hale wrote:Related question. Is there really a Little Saigon somewhere in Honolulu, or was that made up for the show?
Nope, there's no Little Saigon. Just plain old Chinatown. In fact I was surprised to hear there were Viet Cong living in Honolulu, as mentioned by the OP. If there are it has to be a VERY small number.
Hi Ivan,
When I responded to Seattle Magnum's post years ago, I wrote:
" I recall listening to a Canadian radio show and they pointed out the surprising number of ex Viet Cong living in America, especially Hawaii, in its Chinatown etc"
That info took me off guard as how could we take in ex enemies(soldiers!) while people from friendly nations wait to arrive here? If it was 50, 500, 5,000 or 50,000, I don't know, but any amount 'surprised' and annoyed me, as I explained in a later post wherein in response to Bob I drew a picture of how unfair it would be to let ex NVA enjoy the USA/ Hawaii while American soldiers they killed(in this case a Honolulu kid) were buried nearby.
Especially when they belatedly realized they were in fact on the Bad Guys Team all along, YET still gave Seattle Magnum garbage.
So if one embraced Bobs thinking lets go all the way and throw them a parade.
The ex Communist officer in the Canadian radio story, telling of ex NVA/VC in the US and Canada, I recall very well because of his historical importance. His name is Colonel Bui Tin and when the NVA tanks rolled into the presidential palace in Saigon, in April, 1975, he was the senior officer present and took the surrender of the last South Vietnamese president, Big Minh. Tin was the guy who officially ended the war on behalf of his masters back in Hanoi.
So where does Tin wind up? he flees to the West, denounces Hanoi and talks warmly of numbers of his ex fellow soldiers living in Toronto, Australia, Hawaii, California etc.
I can understand how ex VC(but not NVA), being South Vietnamese, could sneak in by lying about who their war time service was for and then stay on
the down low.
But openly giving Seattle Magnum guff once they settled here, that irked me. Bygones should be bygones, once enemy states are now our vital allies, but the circumstances of what Seattle Magnum described hit a nerve.
NYC Homicide cops say "we speak for the dead" when they are asked why they go all out solving the death of some forgotten person with no family.
I felt the same thing about our seemingly forgotten guys - by Bob and his ilk - who died in that war, and tried in my own small way to wake up Bob about his comments.
It was little enough, a few minutes to pen some lines, as I thought it was an injustice to the memory of our guys, who are now buried deep, forever more buried deep.
If people have a problem with that, so be it.