Jeff LeTourneau pictured left. Photo via Facebook.
A vice-chair of the Democratic Party of Orange County is under fire after he re-shared a post praising Ho Chi Minh, the late leader of Vietnam, on Monday, The Orange County Register reports.
Jeff LeTourneau, re-shared a Facebook post written by Mesbah Islam, who in 2016 had an unsuccessful bid for a south county state Assembly seat. Islam’s post praised Minh for being a political force despite being small in stature.
“Ho Chi Minh may be considered some sort of pariah or socially awkward,” Islam wrote in the post. “Instead, Ho Chi Minh liberated an entire poor, colonized nation from 2 of the most powerful imperial military forces in the world (the US and France) and won full independence for the people of Vietnam.”
LeTourneau removed the post after 90 minutes and apologized, according to The Voice of OC, but the post had already been screenshotted and shared widely on social media.
Democrats and Republicans alike condemned LeTourneau’s decision to re-share the post. They say that many Vietnamese Americans who now live in Orange County suffered because of Minh’s leadership. Garden Grove Councilwoman Kim Nguyen on Tuesday told The Voice of OC that Ho Chi Minh is a man who “rings synonymous with Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini or Castro for many in the Vietnamese community.”
“My father, like so many others, left everything and everyone behind. Although many have created wonderful lives for themselves and their families in the U.S., the impacts of the war and their journey to freedom is forever ingrained in their minds and hearts,” she said.
Former state senator Janet Nguyen, also issued a statement recalling the pain Ho Chi Minh caused her father.
“My father fought against Ho Chi Minh’s communist forces and my uncle was murdered by Ho Chi Minh’s violent thugs,” Janet Nguyen wrote. “Many Vietnamese Americans have direct relatives who gave their lives fighting for freedom against Ho Chi Minh. For a leader of the Democratic Party to praise communist Ho and label America’s military as imperialist is both highly offensive and historically wrong.”
Janet Nguyen is Vietnamese American Republican who’s running for the 72nd Assembly District seat. In her statement she also called on her Democratic opponent in the race, Diedre Nguyen, who’s also Vietnamese American, to denounce LeTourneau’s comments and reject the party’s endorsement and money.
Diedre Nguyen appeared at a press conference on Tuesday at Westminster’s Freedom Park, a Vietnam War memorial, to denounce LeTourneau’s comments, according to The Voice of OC.
“Let me be very clear … We condemn any communist propaganda and any communist sympathizers .. as Democrats, we fight for every human right, for democracy in Vietnam,” Deidre Nguyen said.
LeTourneau issued an apology on Monday night shortly after removing the post. He explained to The Voice of OC that he re-shared the post because he thought it was meant to appreciate how Minh “was able to get his country free from colonialism and military occupation” despite his stature and lack of wealth. However, he now recognizes that in doing so he ignored the pain and trauma of the Vietnamese community.
“I spoke with several members of the Vietnamese community about the power and trauma of the words that such statements cause,” LeTourneau said in the apology. “These memories of atrocities and pain come fresh to mind, and I want to let the Vietnamese community that I’m not insensitive to their pain.”
Many are calling for LeTourneau to step down. Leaders in the Democratic Party of Orange County told The Orange Country Register late Tuesday that they intend to call for his removal.
“It is with a heavy heart that I am calling a special meeting of the Executive Committee to discuss further action,” Ada Briceño, chair of the DPOC, said in a statement.
LeTourneau, however, told The Orange Country Register that he does not want to step down.
“I know people want me to resign,” LeTourneau said. “But I’ve been fighting for social justice and LGBTQ rights for 40 years. And as a matter of principle, this is not how the Democratic Party should react to unpopular political opinions.”
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