John Kerry's Vietnam War record carried little weight with many of the roughly 1.5 million Vietnamese Americans expected to vote on November 2, 2004. Community leaders anticipated most would back incumbent George W. Bush.
Two grievances drove the sentiment. Kerry came home from combat to publicly condemn the U.S. war effort, a position widely seen by South Vietnamese refugees as undermining their cause. He also blocked Senate passage of a House-approved bill that would have tied U.S. aid to improvements in Vietnam's human rights record. The House passed it 410 to 1, then again 323 to 45, but the Senate did not act before recessing for the election.
At the Eden Center mall in Falls Church, Virginia, a hub for the area's Vietnamese community, Bush-Cheney signs filled shop windows and Kerry campaign workers were unwelcome. Dan Hoang of the Vietnamese American Public Affairs Committee said the human rights issue was far more decisive than Kerry's antiwar history.
Older community members who fled after the fall of South Vietnam in 1975 were largely opposed to Kerry. Younger Vietnamese Americans were more open, and some were expected to support him, though overall voter registration in the community remained predominantly Republican.
Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in October 2004, in its own words.