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| This image shows detail of the Vietnam veteran's monument planned for the Capitol grounds. |
There was a Wednesday (Aug. 29, 2012) meeting "fairly confrontational at first," I'm told involving the folks who decided to take the South Vietnamese soldier off the planned Vietnam Veterans Monument at the Capitol and the folks who want it restored.
The bottom line, it seems, is that despite declarations that the decision is final, the people who want the Vietnamese soldier restored — including some potentially influential ones — are not giving up.
I've told you about the flak caused by the Texas Capitol Vietnam Veterans Monument Committee's decision to alter the original design by replacing a South Vietnamese Ranger with an Asian American U.S. soldier. Committee chair Robert Floyd said the change was made for diversity's sake on the statue that also includes U.S. soldiers of other ethnicities.
State Rep. Hubert Vo, D-Houston, and other Vietnamese Americans are upset about the decision, saying the Vietnamese soldier is a reminder that U.S. soldiers were there to help the local people, not as an invasionary force. Removing the Vietnamese soldier, Vo told Floyd in a letter, removed "an important symbolic element concerning the suffering of the Vietnamese, the kindness and heroism of the Texans who came to their aid and the friendship between these two great peoples."
In response to Vo — and in advance of the Wednesday meeting — Floyd said the change came in July 2011 when the committee voted unanimously "to change the focus of the monument from an emphasis on the Vietnam War to one that pays tribute to Texans who served in the fight for liberty and self-determination for the people of the Republic of Vietnam."
The change also came after some donors insisted on it.
Floyd also told Vo in a letter that the statue will include "Vietnamese dragons surrounding the Lone Star on the front panel and a panel depicting Vietnamese civilians."
"We have now actually begun the casting and final development process and with God's blessing we hope to be able to dedicate the monument in November 2013," Floyd told Vo.
Prior to Wednesday's meeting, Floyd told me, as he tells anyone who inquires, "The monument process is moving forward at the foundry, and we are not changing our decision."
Nevertheless, after the Wednesday meeting, Floyd said he'll bring the concerns of Vo and others to his full committee.
Vo didn't have much to say after the meeting, indicating it's an ongoing process and he remains in favor of restoring the South Vietnamese soldier.
"That's not only my wish, but a lot of people's wishes," Vo said.
Here's a twist I found interesting: Siding with Vo at the meeting was Jay Kimbrough, a longtime confidante of Gov. Rick Perry and a Vietnam veteran who is active in veterans' circles.
Kimbrough said he attended in that latter capacity, not representing Perry, with whom he has not discussed the matter. Kimbrough, interim director of the Texas Juvenile Justice Department, was invited by a Military Order of the Purple Heart official who also attended.
Kimbrough, who's grateful for the work Floyd and others have done on the project, wants the Vietnamese soldier restored "because that's who we fought for."
"We went over there for the South Vietnamese to help them and defend them, and I believe they should be a part of that monument," Kimbrough told me after the meeting.
That's his opinion, he said, "as a boots-on-the-ground machine-gunner."
Is the committee's decision to remove the Vietnamese soldier as final as Floyd has indicated?
"I have learned never to say never," Floyd said after the meeting, "but I think it's fair to say that those who were arguing for the return of the Vietnam Ranger seemed to have little interest in recognizing Asian Americans."
It'd be a shame if this comes down to one or the other. Can we include both the Vietnamese soldier (who in the original version was getting a transfusion from an American soldier) and the Asian American?
Stay tuned.
Ken Herman
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