Terror in Little Saigon
November 4, 2015 6:56 AM   Subscribe

The journalists were assassinated on American soil, one after another.
All together, five Vietnamese-American journalists were killed between 1981 and 1990. All worked for small publications serving the refugee population that sought shelter in the U.S. after the fall of Saigon in 1975. At least two other people were murdered as well.

FBI agents came to believe that the journalists’ killings, along with an array of fire-bombings and beatings, were terrorist acts ordered by an organization called the National United Front for the Liberation of Vietnam, a prominent group led by former military commanders from South Vietnam. Agents theorized that the Front was intimidating or executing those who defied it, FBI documents show, and even sometimes those simply sympathetic to the victorious Communists in Vietnam. But the FBI never made a single arrest for the killings or terror crimes, and the case was formally closed two decades ago.

Violent attacks on journalists often function as a brutal form of censorship, and as a result often stir public mourning and outrage. In the months after Arizona reporter Don Bolles was murdered in 1976, a group of nearly 40 reporters from around the country dedicated themselves to continuing his reporting on organized crime and making a statement about freedom of expression. Suspects in the murder were ultimately identified and convicted. The mass slaying of staffers at the French weekly Charlie Hebdo sparked vigils and protests around the world.

Last year, when fighters from the Islamic State Group executed war correspondent James Foley, President Obama praised him as a man “who courageously told the stories of his fellow human beings,” and promised to hunt his killers.

“Our reach is long,” Obama said. “We are patient. Justice will be done.”

The families of the murdered Vietnamese-American journalists long ago gave up hope of seeing justice done. They remain disappointed and confused. They expected more of the government they had adopted as their own, excited by its promise of liberty and convinced of its fearlessness in seeking the truth.

Early in 2014, ProPublica and Frontline reopened the investigation. We obtained thousands of pages of newly declassified FBI documents, as well as CIA cables and immigration files. We uncovered additional leads and witnesses not previously interviewed by either the FBI or local authorities — including former members of the Front who told us the group had operated a secret assassination unit in the U.S. It was a tip the FBI had chased for years but had never conclusively proved.
The Frontline documentary on the investigation.

Inside the Making of "Terror in Little Saigon."
posted by Rustic Etruscan (5 comments total) 20 users marked this as a favorite
 
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I remember that back in the 80's I read a news story in one of the local tabloids concerning physical attacks on members of the Vietnamese community by sympathizers and maybe even former members of the old South Vietnamese government. I don't think many arrests were made, if any.
posted by King Sky Prawn at 8:14 AM on November 4, 2015


The FBI have always been political in their choice of which targets to expend their time and energies on.

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/mar/30/enemies-fbi-history-weiner-review

About the time everyone responsible is dead, we might learn what happened.
posted by bert2368 at 8:22 AM on November 4, 2015 [4 favorites]


There's a similar story in the Taiwanese community. A journalist was murdered on American soil and a professor died under mysterious circumstances in the early '80s, both of whom were critical of the Nationalist government in Taiwan. This has been adapted into a movie, Formosa Betrayed. Cold War anti-communist exiles were often military men who dreamt of reviving authoritarian regimes; with ties to the American intelligence community, it's little wonder they would go on to commit crimes such as this.
posted by Apocryphon at 9:51 AM on November 4, 2015


I remember living in Orange County about the time the US Normalized relations with Vietnam. Garden Grove was torn apart by varying factions within the community. Protests and counter protests, flags torn down, etc...

The dreams of expatriate SE Asian bigwigs still are attempting to bring their ideas of restored regimes. A former Hmong General in Sacramento was arrested only 8 years ago for plotting to overthrow the Laotion government.

Charges were later dropped.
posted by Badgermann at 10:13 AM on November 4, 2015


I vaguely remember some of these murders from the '80s; it's depressing to realize how little attention was paid. Thanks for an excellent post.
posted by languagehat at 5:26 PM on November 4, 2015


« Older Election Day 2015 Results   |   The Economics Behind Grandma's Tuna Casseroles Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments