The narratives of vietnamese americans’ personal experience in support of trump in the 2020 u s election
INTRODUCTION
Background and Rationale
―Ta hãy nhớ tháng 11 cùng nhau bầu cho Tổng thống Trump, Donald Trump Người xứng đáng cho chúng ta trao lá phiếu bầu, Donald Trump
USA, USA, make America great, great again…‖
(―Remember November, together we vote for President Trump, Donald Trump
The one deserving our votes, Donald Trump
USA, USA, make America great, great again…‖)
Hợp ca Hồn Việt - The Viet Soul Choir One day in October, 2020, a music video was shared among my class, causing a commotion It was the music video of a song for the vote-for-President- Trump campaign of a body of the Viet diaspora in the USA Thanks to Facebook‘s algorithm, I was recommended with so many more posts showing Trump's supporting events organized by the Viet including rallies, fundraising, etc ―Waving U.S and the Republic of Vietnam flags, the men and women wore Trump hats and bright red T-shirts Some wore face masks with the stars and stripes of the American flag and the yellow and red stripes of the RVN flag‖ (Taft, 2020) It turned out the Vietnamese Americans support communities of Donald Trump were thriving throughout the year of the U.S.‘s government transition According to news reports, this is a rather surprising phenomenon
For many years, voting for the Republican has been a tradition in the Viet 1 community in the US A shift in political support was seen as it was reported in an NBC article that during the last seven election cycles, Asian Americans in general and Vietnamese Americans in particular have moved toward the Democratic presidential candidate (Yam, 2020) In the 2016 Election, Vietnamese voters were more likely to register as Democrats than Republicans with the average proportion of votes casted for the Republican was approximately 25,3% of the Vietnamese
1 In this research, the interviewees occasionally mentioned ―Viet‖ as a part of their identity; therefore, I would like to use this word in representing the connection of the refugees and immigrants with their homeland - Vietnam
2 registering votes (Levin, 2016) However, the tradition seems to have revived in the
2020 Election A research released in September, 2020 revealed that Vietnamese Americans were the most right-leaning Asian American subgroup, with 48 percent saying they would vote for Trump versus 36 percent for Biden (AAPI, 2020) Most of Trump's supporters are first generation immigrants (Vietnamese-born American) While the Asian diasporas have been experiencing abhorrent consequences coming from the 45th U.S president and second-term candidate Donald Trump‘s xenophobic and discriminatory remarks regarding immigrants and the pandemic COVID-19 which marked a surge in anti-Asian sentiments, there are some factors propelling a body of the Viet diaspora to support him
According to what has been reported in the press, as Vietnamese, they are anti- China due to the thousand-year colonization since the predecessor's time In recent years, the dispute rises again for the South China Sea territory, along with their rise as a major power of the world This may go hand in hand with the hostility toward communism (Nguyen, 2020) Beside its connection with China, communism is tied with the fall of Saigon in 1975, making many having to leave their homeland to refuge in the U.S The love for Trump is also said to be ascribed to the debt to the Republican Party as it holds a significant role in the formation and the collapse of South Vietnam, as well as the rehabilitation of Vietnamese refugees after the 1975 event
News, media and language mode and literacy are also considered to be a factor With the advent of the internet and social media, it has created a new space for diasporic people and diasporic media to intersect (Cohen, 1997; Tsagarousianou,
2001, 2004), creating the term ―digital diaspora‖ Therefore, it has become a platform for Trump‘s supporters to connect with the support community especially on Facebook - the most used social media of Vietnamese There were many online groups introduced on this platform in early 2020 to support Trump besides some groups that were created in the 2016 U.S Election However, the online activities of these for-Trump groups were deemed to be circulating around fake news due to the low language proficiency of some older Vietnamese (Duong, 2021)
The portrayal of Trump‘s supporters put me in confusion How come the
3 motivation behind this phenomenon can be so universal? Political stance is often created by personal experience through social capital, and it seems that the above mentioned general motives are just the tip of the iceberg Out of curiosity, I took a chance to connect with a member of #Cahuvi (Cánh Hữu Việt), who appears to have actively participated in the advocacy activities for Donald Trump In the 2020 U.S Election, only 6 newspapers endorsed Trump On the surface, it can be seen that the way Trump‘s supporters were described by the opposite party and the way many showed themselves on social media are somewhat distressing They are portrayed and appear to be chaotic, having disrespectful rhetoric and using false information against the opponent Many were reported to blindly support Trump, and they were accused to have prompted the riot / protest at the Capitol in early
2021 On the other hand, these supporters were described in a milder tone or regarded one another as patriots In the interviewing process, it dawned on me that besides some general motives, including anti-China, anti-Communism emanated from the Vietnam War and anti-immigrants, the support for Trump can be attributed to her sense of belonging As I got to know more Vietnamese Americans supporting Trump, the more stories I got to see Chaotic as Trump‘s program was (Grossberg,
2019), it is clear that the personal experience of one plays an important role in their decision to support Trump These experiences surround the notion of power, sense of belonging and link to nationalist spirits
It is apparent that the factors affecting one‘s motivation to support Trump can be diverse as each and everyone has different interpretations of their own experience The people I have got to get in touch with offer a new perspective of how the support for Trump is connected with their notion of the host land, sense of belonging and thus incites nationalism The reasons for their faith in Trump are more varied and concrete than what the media and many have speculated and portrayed Not every Trump supporter used fake news as a motive to support Trump, and their reasons for supporting hold great meaning to the personal self due to their own context interpretation A variety of context provides different takes on many personal factors including the making of an identity, social capital and
Problem Statement
In this research, I would like to make clear the meaning behind the motives for why many Vietnamese Americans support Trump through identity reconstruction to unveil layers of connotations in the context of people‘s lives The research is expected to clarify what has been portrayed by the media and show the personalized difference from what has been presented by Trump‘s support communities about the meaning behind the support for Donald Trump of many Vietnamese Americans during the 2020 U.S Election.
Methodology
Due to the individualistic characteristics of this research, all questions are open-ended on the basis of some general issues leading up to their motives of supporting Trump I interviewed five Vietnamese Americans and did open-ended questionnaires with three Vietnamese Americans of different ages ranging from 26 to 51 In order to get deeper into each story, follow up information was acquired via text messages and email contact Due to the lack of depth, 1 interview was not qualified and neither did the questionnaire‘s participants The participants are mostly of the middle-class and one is of the upper-class The interviewees were found through manual search on different Trump‘s online support groups (#Cahuvi (Cánh Hữu Việt) and Vietnamese for Trump) and through the snowball method by having the respondents introduced me to their friends or colleagues for more interviewees For each interviewee, the duration of the interview was around 30 to
45 minutes The reason why I chose these participants is because they are more open to give me an insight of their life, while many others I have got in touch with provided vague information and rejected for ―Vietnamese Americans here don‘t like others getting too deep into their lives‘ stories‖ (quoted from a man who rejected my request) The major reason for the refusal, I believe, is because they do not want to relieve a piece of their traumatizing past Among the chosen interviewees, three are refugees migrated post Vietnam War, and 1 is a recent immigrant The analysis is conducted through narrative inquiry in order to make meaning of one‘s personal
During the 2020 U.S Election, the discourses on Trump‘s supporters were not positive It received huge backlash as seen from the press as well as the online community In the broad view, the motives leading to the support for Trump are irrational However, given the power of narrative inquiry, the story of one can speak for itself and rationalize the motives through one‘s life experience In the theoretical rationales of narrative inquiry, there are four main theories: constructivist, humanist, hermeneutist and feminist Constructivism creates two separated worlds - the real and the constructed In this theory, plural truths are produced, but it holds the risk of producing false truth (Schafer, 1981) The humanist theory focuses on the reciprocality of perception of one to his experience and the knowledge taken out of the experience (Polanyi, 1958) In this direction, the researcher is expected to withhold his/her assumptions and let the voices of the participants be heard (Britzman, 1990) To hear the silent voices has much to do with the feminist theory Narrative inquiry, in this sense, is said to empower by having dialogues to hear the voices However, having dialogues challenges researchers to distinguish the truth while keeping the experience however complex and conflictual it is (Schaafsma,
1993) Lastly, the hermeneutic approach conveys life as human experience The interpretation of life must come from the story and vice versa (Widdershoven,
1993) The life and the story are then analyzed in different contexts In this approach, the researcher‘s fore-knowledge and prejudices are allowed to be taken into account in the process of constructing ―reality‖ (Eisner, 1991)
In this sense, the researcher and participants both have a role in the reconstruction of participants‘ experience (Packer, 1985) Overall, for this research,
I believe the hermeneutic approach is the most suitable as it allows the researcher to join in the interpreting process with his/her own knowledge into multiple contexts, be it historical, traditional, political and so on At the same time, the participants‘ self-interpretation is included Due to the sensitive characteristics of the topic of research and interview, the data provided by the participants is inadequate to create an autobiography or a narrative coming from the subject‘s point of view For that
6 reason, the narrative in this research is recreated to make sense of an individual‘s life with both the subject and the researcher‘s interpretation
In addition to interviews, archival works on the Vietnamese diaspora are included to understand the people‘s general lives, as well as works on nationalism in order to create comprehensive narratives.
Significance of the Study
In the U.S., the diverse sources of news allow people to have multiple perspectives of an event with different representation in right-wing, left-wing and neutral media However, it risks making the core of the event to be either exaggerated or oversimplified in grand narratives that may hold negative connotations This consequence can be seen evidently in the 2020 U.S Election as some of my interviewees claimed that many Trump‘s supporters were assaulted and cursed at during their rallies While the rise of Trump‘s Vietnamese American supporters seems to be a temporal event marked by few general justification, the story of each person showing how they perceive their experiences contributes to the meaning of the act of support In addition, it links to their own political identity as being the minority in the host country of the U.S
In recreating personal experience through narratives, this research aims to humanize the supporters and their motives, seeing them more complexly and further from the existing discourses on the characteristics of Trump‘s supporters as portrayed by the press or assumed through online activities This research is expected to illustrate the lives of Vietnamese Americans of different age groups, background from when they were in Vietnam, the process of coming into America and their current life, and interpreted in relation to the unique cultural-historical background of the Vietnamese diaspora in America Therefore, the meanings drawn out will be distinct and open-ended as the narrative only shows what they have become and not what they will become In addition, this research aims to portray the humanity and how the Vietnamese Americans supporters for Trump were also attracted by the ―goodwill‖ and humane emotional values from Donald Trump‘s rhetoric and policies
MAJOR DISCOURSES ON THE SUPPORT FOR TRUMP
Before getting a glimpse of the major discourses, it is best that we take a look of the refugee and immigrant waves of the Vietnamese to understand the participants‘ background which contributes to their experience
The Vietnamese are the fourth largest Asian American ethnic group in the U.S Although it is a newly established ethnic minority, the Vietnamese have been one of the fastest growing populations in the U.S
The number of Vietnamese immigrants was minimal until the Fall of Saigon The Fall of Saigon marked the first wave of refugees with many of those being affluent and educated The second wave was marked in the late 1970s when the humanitarian crisis of ―boat people‖ peaked The third wave of refugees was in the early 1980s as people were sponsored by their family members under the U.S Orderly Departure program It was followed by the refuge of Amerasian children of the U.S Homecoming Act in 1989 and other refugees in the Humanitarian Operation program in the early 1990s After 1996, the number of refugees decreased, and it marked a new wave of immigrants from Vietnam via regular family-sponsored immigration
In this research, the term ―first generation‖ is used to refer to people who are residing in the U.S but was born in Vietnam and/or previously had Vietnamese nationality Although they come from different timelines, many of these first- generation Vietnamese Americans are reported to have the following motives when voting for Trump
To explain the rise of Trump, many discourses were speculated As regards to the Vietnamese Americans, the discourses were narrowed down into the following categories
Anti-Communism and anti-China
First of all, they are anti-China, haunted by China‘s imperialist agenda spanning thousands of years in Vietnam, as well as its rising power in the South
China Sea and the World This explains how some ―parrot the phrase ‗Chinese virus‘ or ‗kung flu‘ uncritically‖ (Nguyen, 2020) As a part of the Vietnamese cultural identity, this nostalgia is the anti-China sentiment encrypted in their mind Since before the first century, Vietnam and China had been in dispute for land territory, which resulted in Vietnam being colonized by the Chinese for a thousand year In recent years, the dispute rises again for the South China Sea territory, raising a red flag for anyone who is of Vietnamese heritage including these first generation immigrants In addition, China is slowly rising to one of the major powers of the world, which implies possible scenarios of their beloved homeland being occupied by the Chinese 2 , as well as the spread of communism and socialism
Due to historical background, many ascribe their unwanted separation with their homeland to communism When the country of South Vietnam fell under the attack of the military of North Vietnam communists, thousands of South Vietnam personnels and officials fled because they were scared of how they would become the first to be charged in the hand of the communists for their affiliation with the fallen regime Many staying behind were forced to attend reeducation, tortured, and some former South Vietnamese military personnel and U.S affiliates were executed (Espiritu, 2014) These policies were said to lead to a new humanitarian crisis, forcing many to take refuge as ―boat people‖ This journey deprived them of their home and for many years later, some did not have a national identity, which has become a grief they bring along until today
The debt to the Republicans and its gift of freedom
The love for Trump is also said to be ascribed to the debt to the Republican Party To understand, it is best that we trace back the time into the history of the Viet refugees in particular and Vietnamese in general
On April 29, 1975, the United States ordered the immediate evacuation of U.S personnel and several thousand South Vietnamese military and diplomatic officials as communist North Vietnamese troops closed in on the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon The swift fall of South Vietnam in 1975 signaled the end of
2 Nhi Hoang Thuc Nguyen, ―Anti-Chinese Sentiment in Contemporary Vietnam: Constructing Nationalism, New Democracy, and the Use of ‗the Other‘‖, p.11
America‘s failed military intervention in Southeast Asia, prompting the first large- scale wave of immigration from Vietnam to North America in general and America in particular One of the first countries to open its arms for the Viet refugees was no other than the US, with the decision made by the 38th president of the United States Gerald Ford, who was coincidentally a Republican In that year, President Gerald Ford signed the Indochina Migration and Refugee Act, granting refugees special status to enter the country and established a domestic resettlement program After that, Vietnamese refugees were admitted into America through four entry points— Camp Pendleton in California, Fort Chaffee in Arkansas, Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, and Fort Indiantown Gap in Pennsylvania Over the next two decades from
1975 to 1995, the second wave began as a result of the new Vietnam communist regime's enactment of policies to govern the economic, political, and agricultural life of the reunified country (Espiritu, 2014) Among other revised policies catered to the South‘s reform, the seizure of land and property of former South Vietnam regime personnel, and closing of businesses of ethnic Chinese entrepreneurs which was a factor for the 1979 Chinese invasion in Vietnam They had no choice but to flee the country In order to lessen the social and economic impact of Vietnamese refugees on any given region of the country, the U.S government created the Dispersion Policy Despite the U.S government‘s effort, by the 1990s, large numbers of Vietnamese migrated from their initial resettlement locations to reunite with family and friends in metropolitan areas that were beginning to establish Vietnamese American communities in California and Texas 3
Texas and California for a long time have been known to be the GOP lands Many refugees went with the norm and supported the Republican as well Another factor to be considered for the Vietnamese loyalty to the GOP is the belief that they are indebted to the gift America, or the Republicans in particular, grants them (Mimi Thi Nguyen, 2012) regarding the founding of their lost home - South Vietnam and the resettlement in their new home
From the view of Linda Vo, a professor of Asian American studies at UC Irvine published in an article of Vox, ―The issue of anti-communism or anti-China
3 Isabelle Twee Pelaud, This is all I choose to tell, p 12
10 weighs heavily on the minds of the first generation Many became politically engaged when there were Republican presidents, which is what interested them in politics They see the GOP as socially conservative and anti-communist, which aligns more with their values.‖ (Nguyen, 2020)
Media literacy and mode of language
As a matter of fact, digital communities did thrive significantly during the
2020 U.S Election It was divided into 2 sides: left-wing and right-wing From right-wing community with an example of Sự thật lề đường (Sidewalk Truth), participants claim that the left-wing support constitutes of fake news and conspiracy In addition, some of them believed that left-wingers consuming information from Vietnamese-language sites that are not official hold the risk of coming across misinformation and nationalistic propaganda The fake news was often biased to Trump, and disparaging Biden as well as the Democrats, leading people to be more favored of Trump In addition, democratic scholars have claimed that digital connection propels the spread of ‗new‘ nationalist ideology stemming from Trump to people, and it hinders liberal democracy (Norris & Inglehart, 2019) Many speculate that the language barrier, and even low level of education are what impede conservative Vietnamese Americans from getting credible news Moreover, the image of Trump‘s supporters was attached to bigotry and racism This, in a sense, vilifies their motivation
Many of these Vietnamese people make a living from doing small and medium businesses and their opinions were often based on the economic aspect Trump himself is a businessman and from that perspective, it is clear to them who was the better one to lead America‘s economy Trump with his experience could run the country effectively as if he was running his own business Trump would know how to create prosperity for the country and allow people who are American citizens, especially businessmen to keep the wealth with his proposed tax policies
In addition, Trump‘s businessman ―talk the talk, walk the walk‖ manner also won him the trust of many Vietnamese Americans
In general, the motives of Vietnamese Americans were portrayed through 4 big categories relating to their ethnic and refuge history - anti-Communism and anti-China, the debt to the Republicans and the gift of freedom, as well as their current social capital as regards to their media literacy, language proficiency and their economic status
PERSONAL EXPERIENCE IN SUPPORT OF TRUMP
N‘s story - Contested political participation
N is a 27-year-old owner of a newly opened nail salon currently residing in Illinois, Chicago Only 6 years ago did she come to the U.S with her parents and her siblings She is a legal immigrant via the F4 Visa sponsored by her uncle on the father‘s side of the family who had migrated earlier Her support for Trump embodies connection between her transnational ties with her homeland, Vietnam and the nationalist spirits for her current home, America
She lived in Vietnam for the first 20 years of her life N recalled her past life in a nostalgic manner She was born into an intellectual family with both her parents being high school teachers – a prestigious occupation in Vietnamese society Her family also worked in the sugar business and owned a sugarcane mill, so it can be said that her family was a well-off family of the middle class As affluent as her family was, they could not find the happiness they wanted In a condescending tone, she revealed that during the time working as teachers, her parents found it difficult to climb the career ladder because they refused to become members of the VCP (Vietnam‘s Communist Party) According to Vu (2013), the economic resources and employment opportunities granted by the free-market economy foster the rise of a new middle class who were less dependent on the Party and it increased their independence from the VCP This couples with the reality that the number of young people joining the VCP since the 1990s has been declining (Thayer, 2003), a trend N‘s parents were a part of In the case of N‘s family, this independence allowed them to have a side business, but it, in a sense, hindered their career path as teachers in public schools In addition, N also revealed that where her parents worked, the
13 jungle law of bribery and flattery was a thing, but they didn‘t go along with it This injustice slowly escalated and affected Nhi herself The anti-Communism or anti- regime ideologies are something that have been seen and discussed for many years This story is not unique to N, but it is relatable to many Vietnamese overseas, not only those escaping the country after the Vietnam War (Espiritu, 2014; Nguyen, 2016), but for the nationalists during the new nationalist movement 4 as well (Vu, 2014)
Living in a land as peaceful as Vietnam, but her family did not see themselves aligned with how the regime was running N and her father were supportive of the freedom of demonstration and liberal press In the new nationalist movement (Vu, 2014) back in the 2000s and early 2010s, the unofficial media had the upper hand in spreading news compared to official channels as they were subject to institutional censorship (Nguyen, 2014) People were also restricted from expressing their public and political concern (Bui , 2016) Hence, seeing how the protests against injustice and China-related issues were cracked down, and the reports as well as dissenting discussions on those events vanished from the Internet one by one by the government, the family started losing faith in the regime The disappointment reached its climax in 2015 when the protest of Saigonese against China‘s actions at the South China Sea in the event of Xi Xinping‘s visit broke down 5 The people‘s voice was not heard, meaning the people were not prioritized Therefore, despite having a stable and prosperous life in Vietnam, the family still decided to emigrate because the U.S has what their children need for a better future
Trump‘s policies on putting America first also won her heart N has been in the nail business since her arrival to the U.S and recently opened her own nail salon Being a small business owner, she saw that the economic policy of Trump would be very beneficial In addition, she approved of Trump‘s decision to retreat from multiple organizations and reduce subsidies to many allies of the U.S This is because she does not see it as a rational way to spend the tax people have to pay,
4 The new nationalist movements occurred in five Southeast Asian countries in the 2010s, in which their discourse frequently sought to appeal to traditional patriotism (Vietnam, Cambodia) as well as anti- colonialism and anti-western sentiments (the Philippines, Indonesia) For Vietnam, patriotism was attached to the anti-China sentiment
5 https://www.rfi.fr/vi/viet-nam/20151104-viet-nam-200-nguoi-bieu-tinh-phan-doi-tap-can-binh-o-saigon
14 and it was visible to her that China was slowly expanding their power in those international organizations
The image of China to her is attached to the pain of her brethren Vietnam and China have a history of fighting with Vietnam being suppressed for almost a thousand years Into the modern time, the territorial dispute continues with the fight for the Paracel and Spratly Islands, and it has been going on for decades However, the most vivid memory to her is the 2016 Formosa incident which poisoned and caused tons of fish deaths, as well as human lives N bears the same concern as many other Vietnamese Vietnamese Americans fear that soon, Vietnam will be swallowed by China unless a strong leader steps up (Vo, 2020) In response to China, it was obvious that Trump was tough and direct with his words and actions, while it was ambiguous in regard to Biden for there has been evidence on the business he has with China
The rise in China‘s power may cause the people of Vietnam to suffer again and she does not want that to happen to her homeland and America as well In a specific post on her social media in early 2021, N expressed that the situation of Trump‘s supporters being oppressed for speaking up happening in America in 2020 was the same as a Paracel and the Spratly archipelagos incident happening a few years back where patriots were forced quiet in Vietnam She believed that it was understandable in a land where socialists and communists govern, but it could not happen to her second home, the land of democracy
Being in America for N is a blessing - to be free and granted with opportunities, from a nail technician to a small business owner For that, she is indebted to the United States of America From her point of view, it is obvious that the Americans do not understand what it is like to lose freedom and democracy, at least to China, and how important it is to protect the core values of America Therefore, if they do not stand up and raise their voice on the road, she will do it for her second home Aside from the sense of belonging ignited by the emotional attachment (Yuval-Davis, 2006) to America, her belief can be regarded as a form of contested nationalism This contested nationalism is a hybrid between her sense of
15 belonging in the land of the U.S and her Viet ethnicity As a Viet, the anti-China sentiment has ingrained into her mind This sentiment was also what propelled N and her family to join in the ―new nationalism‖ movement Now that America is having the same crisis, she felt a responsibility to protect the country that allows her to prosper like today from having to experience what her ancestors had to go through This marker of ancestry, while subtly constructing the sense of belonging (Kiely et al 2005; Zimmer 2003) of N, it also fuels the motive of nationalism, for now she has deemed herself as a member, a citizen of the U.S In her voice, I could hear the sense of pride and fortune to be a citizen of America By getting to rally and demonstrate, she could truly feel the practice of civil rights, which she did not get back in Vietnam N holds a naive belief that she has the ability to contribute to the protection for America from the rise of China by raising her voice and it is
―freedom or death‖ for her if the freedom, the democracy of this land is lost This act can be deemed as a nationalist reaction to the threat she saw the U.S was having, and it greatly enhanced her sense of identity and belonging in the U.S She expressed her happiness to finally be able to speak up for what she believes was right for her country All in all, N‘s sense of belonging to the U.S goes beyond the idea of identity and membership, and involves the notion of nationalism and her exhilarating passion for democracy
As a newcomer to the U.S., social media has become a practical tool for N to get updated and connected with her old friends in Vietnam, as well as the Vietnamese American community Online groups are the bridge leading her to meet her fellow Vietnamese, especially those who also support Trump during the 2020 U.S Election Joining these platforms, she got the chance to connect to like-minded immigrants to receive information on the election progress as well as support rallies in the Vietnamese language It is obvious that her English proficiency falls short compared to her mother tongue; therefore, most of the time she would reach out to the Vietnamese language news to get updates Due to the characteristics of her profession, it is hard for her to make time to catch up on official media She said that eventually she turned to other unofficial news channels on Youtube where they
16 summarized the news by Vietnamese Americans, namely Trần Maico - a page dedicated its news to Trump and Trần Nhật Phong - an anti-Communist news channel From those channels, she can catch up with the news during the election while preparing for the young business to take off
It took her family 12 years to pass the visa scanning process and become legal immigrants To her belief, to be a lawful resident is to repay the country that took them in By being a lawful resident, it means the person will have to lawfully contribute to the country and its society by paying tax and at the same time, that person is protected under the law of that country To her belief, if one is wealthy and successful, he would not leave his country or would find a legal way to go, and only one who is poor, poorly educated, or a criminal would take refuge as his last resort in this day and age For that reason, she despises illegal immigrants and Trump‘s rhetoric on illegal immigrants speaks to her During his presidency, Trump continuously referred to immigrants, especially Mexican ones as criminals, drug dealers and rapists This belief is further propelled by the current situation of her city, Chicago According to a report in 2014, Chicago was the second most popular city to Mexican immigrants due to historic reasons (Misra, 2014) Living there for 3 years, N has witnessed many Mexican families that have a big number of children while cannot afford to take care of the kids and having to rely on welfare to live by She expressed that it is unfair that those immigrants could get into the country and receive welfare so easily while it takes years for legal immigrants N‘s perspective revolves around the notion of the ―model minority‖
Many Vietnamese Americans that N knows are all very financially successful and law-abiding Beside appearing to be good citizens who abide by the rule of the land, these people are said to have successfully assimilated to the ―free world‖ by having triumphed financially Therefore, in a sense, being a ―model minority‖ can help people to blend in with the way of living in the U.S better Having this notion in mind, N was completely opposed to the Democrats‘ idea to end the Trump administration‘s Migration Protection Protocols policy against Mexican immigrants From press report, many Vietnamese Americans regarded
T‘s story - Individualism and the lens of capitalism
T is a 49-year-old federal government employee of the U.S Department of Homeland Security He was one of the third-wave immigrants, immigrated to the U.S in the 1990 when he was 16 The journey of T to Trump trails from his childhood‘s sense of poverty to the man of capitalism
He was born into an upper-middle class family His father was a lieutenant colonel of the Tan Son Nhat airport As a lieutenant colonel, his dad was able to flee from Vietnam before April 30th, 1975, but he fled alone and left the family behind
T was only 2 years old when his dad left the country He spent his childhood beside his sister, mother and his maternal grandparents
He spoke of his grandparents on his mother‘s side and their legacies with pride They were very successful businessmen in South Vietnam With their relationships with the American, his maternal grandmother was able to set up souvenir kiosks in many U.S military airports before 1975 Their business expanded to other fields as well His maternal grandfather was one of the insurance providers in Nha Trang and the contractor for road maintenance in the Lam Dong and Nha Trang area Back in the day, they also owned a plantation in Bao Loc, next to one of the former prime minister of the Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Cao Ky The plantation in his memory was drop-dead gorgeous with lines of red tractors in the yellow field That picture was the embodiment of peace to him
Everything changed when 1978 arrived As he recalled, it was the first ―bourgeois‘ property foreclosure'' in the South After 3 ―property foreclosures‖, all his grandparents‘ assets were confiscated, including the newlywed house they bought for their only daughter - T‘s mother T‘s family turned from the rich to the poor overnight They had to put up provisionally at a relative‘s house The family was left with no choice but to escape and migrated to the U.S His grandparents went first, then in 1990, under the sponsorship of his grandmother on his mother's side, T
19 with his mother and sister stepped on the land of the U.S Compared to the earlier refugees, his family only had to camp in Thailand for 2 weeks before receiving asylum and immigrating
Speaking of the time he had just arrived, he expressed the hardships that he had to face Coming to America with bare hands, he had to work part time in a McDonald‘s restaurant to help his family out and received social welfare Thankfully, he was able to well-integrate with American life There, he was able to reunite with his dad after a long time having no contact When he met his dad in Washington D.C., he said it was not a joyous moment of meeting a long separated loved one with hugs and kisses, but a bittersweet handshake between two alien men having no memorable connection but blood ties Living with his father, he got to meet other South Vietnamese veterans The veterans, including his dad, would gather on weekends and demonstrate on the road asking for the U.S government to take action against Communism, as well as recognize and accredite South Vietnamese who fought in the Vietnam War amidst the ―forced disappearance‖ 6 invoked by the authority This reality pushes them to practice the act of remembering and remembrance themselves to, in a sense, prove their existence in the land of America (Nguyen, 2012; Pelaud, 2011; Espiritu, 2010; Bui, 2018) Despite the U.S government‘s negligence of the South Vietnamese veterans, they are greatly loyal to the Republicans as they are loyal to their long lost country Surrounded by those people, but the young T would just listen to their conversation casually
After graduating high school, he got into a university and studied auditing and accounting The Democrats led the White House from 1993 to 2001 with Bill Clinton as the president He fell in love with the Democrats Education has been stressed as one of the Democratic Party‘s priority 7 He recalled back when he was a poor student, the education credits and student loan cancellation policy of the Democrats appealed to him greatly He believed if the policies were made real, he and many aspiring young immigrants could remove a noose around their neck However, after he graduated and had a job in the Navy, none of those policies were
6 Yen Le Espiritu, Body Counts, p 108
7 https://www.ontheissues.org/celeb/democratic_party_education.htm
20 realized As a white-collar worker, he started to see what he called the ―fraud‖ in the Democrats‘ orientation Getting into the labor world means one has to pay tax as a responsibility of a citizen However, free college education would mean turning America into a ―Robinhood Society‖ In this scenario, the authority will tax the rich or the people in the labor market higher and reduce tax for the poor and those unable to contribute to the society to aim for economic equality 8 Seeing his blood, sweat and tears money taken away bit by bit, he was reminded by how his family was pushed into poverty back in his childhood when he was in Vietnam and the hardships he faced due to the lack of money in the beginning of his life in the U.S The poverty led him and his family to face isolation and hardships His sense of poverty was perpetuated by one of his early life romantic relationships He used to date a Catholic girl who would then take him to the church with her on weekends When there was a catastrophe or calamity, the church would raise donations by asking people attending service to pass the donation box round and round and put the money in as many rounds as possible He said if one stopped early, that person would be looked down on by the surrounding people Now he has done much better, even has a proportion to set aside, he can talk lightly about the situation However, when recalled there was still a hint of anger in his voice because as a man carrying the debt from university and having hardly enough to live by, he was one of the disregarded in those kinds of events This experience became a threat to his belonging and he might have managed that threat by escaping from situations where he perceived he might be judged unfairly (Golden et al., 2006; Kaufman & Johnson, 2004; Herek, 1999) The sense of poverty hurted his ego, leading him to turn his back on Catholics and the Democrats
Then, he started to realize the virtue of the Republicans Their policies in general help the people keep their money The Democrats have been trying to increase the power of the government and regulate the economy over the years and hence referred to as socialism although the Democrats‘ practice is not the correct
21 definition of the term 9 In T‘s belief, when one has created a profit for himself, especially after paying off the debt of his youth, he would want to keep prospering instead of staying at the same place where he is at the beginning In other words, capitalism, not socialism, is the only way for a country to develop This value was also one that Donald Trump was striving for to make America great again Trump‘s policy helps people keep their tax, meaning allowing the citizens to increase their assets The greatness was also represented in America‘s status on the political world map Trump was the man who was able to extend American exceptionalism to the world stage, helping the Americans when traveling abroad to have more respect since the image of the United States has always been presented as a land of opportunities, prosperity and refuge at home and abroad (Hirschman, 2005) In addition, with great status under Trump‘s presidency, it is possible that the U.S would be able to prevent the rise of China With the introduction of COVID-19, China has been accused of applying ―debt-trap diplomacy‖ in many countries of Africa, threatening colonizing these countries in recent years 10 These events deemed the power of China as detrimental and destructive With the firm stance and action of Trump in the name of America‘s power, peace and autonomy in those nations can be restored Besides, the rise of China means the increase of Vietnam‘s dependence on China due to the proximity of the two nations As a Vietnamese descendant, he deemed the close diplomatic relationship between Vietnam and China as ―wrongful‖, yet he understood the situation Vietnam is in Vietnam and China have been in dispute since forever and as China is rising, Vietnam is once again under threat He admitted this concern stemmed from the fact that his ethnicity is Viet, and it has nothing to do with South Vietnam South Vietnam has gone into the past, now his home is the United States From this statement, it can be seen that his reasons for supporting and voting for Trump can be translated to nationalism
9 NPR, Republicans blast Democrats as Socialists Here's what socialism is, 2020
10 Quartz Africa, Is Uganda‘s Entebbe airport at risk of seizure by China?, 2022
Being a federal employee, it is restricted by the Hatch Act of 1939 11 that he cannot join rallies or any political campaign to avoid controversy, but it does not stop T from showing his Republican identity He believed that he should be vocal about his stance, but instead of being in the rally and violating the law as some have done (Niedźwiadek, 2021), he would participate as a volunteer supporting people who were going to rally By doing so, he was able to connect and update information on political campaigns besides joining online communities T is fully aware that online communities are ―one-sided‖ Just like groups supporting other candidates, the members would only post information beneficial to the person whom the groups support Therefore, he deemed the online group as a means to connect and get updated on activities because he has already been updated with news from his work as a federal employee already.
E‘s story - Freedom and Peace through strength
E is a 40-year-old business owner and investor living in the state of Florida
He came to the U.S over 30 years ago by crossing the borders in the second immigration wave and now he has become a lawful U.S resident In E‘s eyes, the U.S is the land of the free filled with opportunities and of power that helps him stand on his feet today
He was born into a Catholic and business family in Vietnam His parents were Catholic refugees fleeing to the South after the Communist Party took over the North in 1954 After the fall of Saigon in 1975, his family decided to illegally cross the border to the U.S instead of coming back to the North partly due to the religious dispute they have experienced in the past In America, although it has become more religiously diverse, Catholicism dominates the majority of states with 22% 12 As a Catholic, E believes that the Democrats are trying to take religious freedom away by liberating doctrines In the research of PDES (Perry et al., 2020) in Wave 6 - November, 2020, the probability to vote for Trump of American voters who prioritized ―religious freedom‖ were extremely high The Democrats also in a way
11 The Hatch Act of 1939, An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities, is a United States federal law Its main provision prohibits civil service employees in the executive branch of the federal government, except the president and vice president, from engaging in some forms of political activity
12 https://www.prri.org/spotlight/top-three-religions-in-each-state/
23 violate his belief as the party has set up laws on using national budget which comes from the people‘s tax to finance abortion activity, while Trump was vocal about eliminating abortion rights It is said that the Catholic Church‘s position on politics has been surrounding the problems relating to abortion for 45 years (Gerth, 2020) While the anti-abortion promotion shrunk in the White Christians community 13 , this pattern was reported by many press from the left wing to the right wing to have stood strong in the Vietnamese Catholics‘ ideology
Another reason for E‘s support for Trump lies in the freedom that the former president advocates Freedom is a beacon representing the U.S When his family came to the country, it was freedom that gave them the opportunities and guided them to their success, not the government This freedom and the opportunities are not only for them, but for their children and the future Vietnamese who choose to come to America To E‘s belief, it is the freedom that makes the U.S exceptional If that freedom is gone, then America would be no different than other countries Preserving the people‘s freedom is generally the rule of thumb of the Republicans in general and Trump in particular, whereas the Democrats do the opposite E sees that the policies envisioned by the Democrats show that this party wants the country to center around the government
The U.S in E‘s eyes represents strength To his belief, ―peace through strength‖ is inevitable and it is the key to actual peace To understand this notion, it is best to know what he has gone through back when he was young E‘s first days coming to America were difficult As a 7-year-old child, he experienced culture shock and language barrier What was worse was that at school, he was bullied for being the one of the few Vietnamese among a White community At first, he withstood the fight because he was in a disadvantaged situation However, obtaining peace through passive resistance did not work for him as the bullying continued At the peak of the pain, he decided to use force The bullying only ended, or in other words, peace only came to him when he stepped up, fought back and escaped from being the weak one ―Peace through strength‖ is a notion suggesting the use of
13 Pew Research Center, White Christians continue to favor Trump over Biden, but support has slipped, 2020
24 military power to preserve peace It is also defined as a political strategy which
―seeks to create negative peace through preparing for and sometimes starting war‖ (Wood, 2015) The military is now used as a means to negotiate or coerce the outside world As an example, the Vietnam War was a product of this doctrine Many people support this doctrine because they believe for a country to be regarded as strong, its capability should tick the physical force, coercion and even violence boxes (Fellman, 1998) The Republican presidents have long been known for advocating ―peace through strength‖ with the prominent example of President Ronald Reagan Through the performance in his presidency, E has more trust in Trump as he was the one with the big talk and big action E believes to be in the real leadership position, no violence should be irrationally used, but when it comes to the safety of one‘s people, strength should be utilized Different from other previous presidents, in the four years that Trump was in the White House, no war has been inflicted This is also why E is supportive of gun ownership He said by owning a gun, he is more assured of his family‘s safety as he can use it to defend in unwanted life-threatening situations Trump in his presidency was able to set up, not only a military force, but the overall foreign policies strong enough to deter other nations from making a move As one of the major powerhouses of the world, having Trump as the president will put America in a position of strength where other countries will have to think twice about creating any conflict After Biden won the chair, E is more assertive of his belief
China is also rising as a major power going head to head with the U.S Through the international media, E can see what China is doing, what that country is capable of, and so he is afraid of what China may do to Vietnam He expressed that he knew that the information Vietnamese could access is not as abundant as in the U.S., so the Vietnamese, including me, might not know what is happening to the weaker countries which are already under China‘s claws Using the ―peace through strength‖ ideology, it is obvious that Vietnam is the weak one compared to China It can be seen that Vietnam is already and will suffer from its strong neighbor After all, Vietnam is still his birthplace which contains memories that he holds dearly
The majority of his relatives are still in Vietnam His transnational ties are strengthened as now he got married with a woman coming to the U.S from Vietnam Now that he has a family for himself, his in-laws are also in Vietnam E believes the government where Trump leads will become an extended arm to help Vietnam stand up against China by putting embargoes and making firm statements regarding the South China Sea as he did during his presidency
In the era of IoT, E understands the strength of social media Beside using it to help fellow immigrants to come through the arduous documentation process, he finds it valuable in finding and expanding connections with people having the same interest and vision He appreciates the openness of the online communities as it allows him to see others‘ opinions and to bring his own opinion to the table In the communities, both online and offline, he aligns himself with the leaders and is an established leader himself Being the leader, he understands his power in leading others to go and do advocate campaigns These campaigns hold the meaning of showing strength, power and influencing Going to rallies in a big number and having campaigns are also acts of embracing people and their decisions ―It helps people to have more confidence in the candidate they have chosen‖ - said E.
Twee‘s story - Nation-state‘s diaspora nationalism
Twee is a 56-year-old politician in Florida She was one of the refugees fleeing Vietnam in the first immigration wave On the exact day of April 30th, 1975 Twee and her family got out of Saigon in an American aircraft carrier
She was born into an affluent family in which her father was a member of the military and her mother was the head nurse of a hospital in South Vietnam During her childhood, she had always been told that the U.S was the best country on Earth
It was the land where richness, glamor and power resided Therefore, when having to board the helicopter to migrate, she was extremely excited When boarding the flight, they had nothing but clothes in their bag on the way to the U.S and were extensively vetted before being allowed into the community Although the process was tough, she described her time in the refugee camp as rather peaceful and she felt very protected After a period of time, her family was sponsored by a church in
26 the State of Florida and they eventually settled down there
She described her time getting accustomed with life in America as smooth and steady Coming to the U.S, her parents had to work multiple jobs to support Twee and her siblings She did not know any English except for the sentence: ―I don‘t speak English‖ She recalled having to use that sentence for a long time before she was able to communicate with friends, but it was not an obstacle in the process of adaptation as well as making friends She lived and went to school in a white neighborhood The people and the friends she met were all delightful and friendly
As a refugee, she had to wear donated second-hand clothes provided by the church
In grade 7th, she was often mocked by the cool girls for having mismatched clothing One day, when a girl went overboard, Twee could not take it anymore, and she soon found a way to peacefully solve the conflict by having a conversation with the girl after school After that incident, her school life returned to normal and she enjoyed every second of it She blended in well with the environment and had a great reputation at school as in the 9th grade, she was voted as Miss Friendliest Going on to high school, she became a model student and held numerous prestigious titles in the school She was the class president for four years and was also the school‘s council president With her grace, in the next few years she did some modeling and pageantry She lived in Florida, a part of Orange County, where back in the day, the citrus industry was the most important and popular She was chosen to participate in the Florida Citrus pageant as sponsored by Ocean Spray After that, she went to an engineering college, but was unable to finish the degree due to financial issues Later on, she finished a degree in Marketing Inspired by the free market under Reagan‘s presidency, she decided to start up in the field of transportation Thanks to Reaganomics 14 , she got $100,000 to start a business without having a payback After only a year, her business blossomed It joined in bidding for multiple projects and won many government contracts for transportation
14 Reaganomics is a popular term referring to the economic policies of Ronald Reagan, the 40th U.S president (1981–1989) His policies called for widespread tax cuts, decreased social spending, increased military spending, and the deregulation of domestic markets These economic policies were introduced in response to a prolonged period of economic stagflation that began under President Gerald Ford in 1976 (Investopedia)
- providing medical transport service (medicare, veteran, handicapped), airport shuttle project She revealed to not care much about politics, but for the business success, she began to feel aligned with the Republican Party When the business started to get in motion, she met her husband and started a family She then semi- retired to take care of her family She stopped her work at her start-up and started occasionally involved in communal activities relating to education
Her political stance was ascertained when she reached the 40s It was when she finally became a citizen of the United States after 5 citizenship applications and
30 years living in the country She then reflected and realized the Republicans‘ values on freedom, opportunity and private economics In the following years, she actively participated in political activities such as working in chambers of commerce as board members In 2016, she ran in Congressional District elections but did not succeed In the same year, it was the race to the White House between Trump and Clinton She said in that year, she did not support Trump but another Republican candidate since Trump was a newbie without any prominent political experience, meaning he was not credible However, her dad and many others showed huge support for Trump and she could not understand the reasons Trump‘s rhetoric appealed to her but she did not think Trump - a businessman - could work in politics, but she voted for Trump anyway because Hillary was not on her list Throughout Trump‘s presidency, he has proven to Twee to be the president that America needed Trump was unlike the previous president for doing what he has promised to do and he took on difficult problems others did not want to do, namely the political conflict in Iraq Also, Trump‘s policies prioritized and protected America and Americans with his tax policies These policies spoke to her as she identified herself as a citizen of the U.S In the promotion video running for the Congressional District, she expressed that throughout her lifetime, she and her family have assimilated into the fabric of American society and America is their home now This is the land where she grew up in and thus, she wants to protect the borders of her home from the big enablers namely Russia, Iraq and China During his presidency, Trump has proven that he was able to protect the country by
28 showing tough acts against threats to the American people, namely the Iraq bombing incident and the sanction against China
In the 2020 U.S Election, she was hired as the Regional Engagement Coordinator for Central Florida of the Asian Pacific Americans for Trump During this time, it was reported that Trump‘s remark on the coronavirus had a connection with the rise of anti-Asian hate According to research from the Anti Defamation League, hate speech and harassment on social networks aimed at Asian Americans has increased 6 percent in 2020 15 When asked about the rising Asian hate due to Trump‘s rhetoric on COVID and China in America, Twee believed it was in no means to harm Chinese/Asian Americans She explained that it was aimed at China only
By having a man like Trump as the president, the people can be rest assured that the position of America is kept Twee herself believes in legal immigration As a citizen, she now had the rights and responsibility to practice her civil rights Coming to the country as a refugee, it took her so much money, time and energy to finally become a rightful citizen of America Therefore, she totally opposes illegal immigrants as she had strived all her life to be a ―good refugee‖ The construction of the term ―good refugee‖ started in April, 1975 in the South Vietnam evacuation and encampment of the refugees at military bases throughout the Pacific archipelago (Espiritu, 2014) The terms are mentioned in many leading works on Vietnamese diaspora referring to the successful attainment of the American dream and life of the minorities (mainly Asian Americans) With Laotians and Cambodians, Vietnamese refugees are either represented as the ―model minority‖ or
―poor people‖ dependent on welfare (Pelaud, 2011) From many instances recorded in previous works on Vietnamese refugees, it turns out that if one is regarded in line with the ―good refugee‖ myth, it is possible that person will receive more favor at work and life (Pelaud, 2011; Espiritu, 2010) Twee herself is an epitome of this notion as throughout her life, she has been adored and has lived her American dream life to the fullest She also shows concern toward terrorism and thinks that
15 Insider, A new study has linked the rise in anti-Asian online hate speech with President Donald Trump's COVID-19 rhetoric, 2021
America is outsourcing too many jobs overseas Building the borders against Mexico was one of the first moves to solve the problem
As the coordinator, she was active on social media and other online platforms It was one of the ways for her to keep up with the news from her acquaintances The other resources are news in the English language from multiple press in the U.S During the 2020 Election, she expressed her disappointment in FoxNews as she deemed the news they were putting out at the time was bad Many recommended One America Channel (OAC) and NewsMax to Twee and she has included those channels into her news sources Both of those channels are conservative and pro-Trump After the 2020 Election, she is taking a break from politics, but she still keeps up with many other politicians as well as her acquainted politically well-connected Vietnamese
On her Facebook page, she revealed that many Vietnamese refugees, including her, disregarded Biden‘s presidency in general and Biden‘s immigration policies in particular not just because it allows illegal immigrants to step in the country, but also because of his past decisions She believed that Biden was one of those who fought against the resettling of South Vietnamese refugees even though they came as legal immigrants under the evacuation program of the U.S This makes her believe that if Biden was elected, the Vietnamese would be disregarded From her insight, I got to know that many Vietnamese Americans voted for the first time for this reason The truth is, before the fall of Saigon, it was true that Biden opposed the Vietnam Contingency Act of 1975 16 as he found an ambiguous bill which might aggravate the war However, after the fall of Saigon, Biden did give his approval to a resolution welcoming the first 130,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos to the U.S 17 Vietnamese Americans in general and South Vietnamese veterans in particular have not been recognized by the government because of the failure in the Vietnam War They are only mentioned as the ―model minority‖ or ―poor people‖ dependent on welfare (Pelaud, 2011) Viet Thanh Nguyen refers to this
16 GovTrack, "Vote record for H.R 6096 (94th): Vietnam Humanitarian Assistance and Evacuation Act," April 25, 1975
17 GovTrack, "Vote record for H.R 6096 (94th): Vietnam Humanitarian Assistance and Evacuation Act," April 25, 1975
30 mode of practice as the ethics of remembering 18
―In the ethics of remembering one‘s own, the simplest and most explicitly conservative mode, we remember our humanity and the inhumanity of others, while we forget our inhumanity and the humanity of others.‖ (Nguyen, 2016, p 95)
Twee and many Vietnamese chose to disregard Biden‘s favored decision towards the Vietnamese refugees and only remembered his seemingly disfavored decision, which can be considered as the act of ―selective remembering‖ This selective memory allows Twee to justify her belief and the motive to support Trump It only concerned the well-being and livelihood of her fellow refugees, and this concern aims at the future of the Vietnamese diaspora in the U.S in particular
18 Viet Thanh Nguyen, ―Nothing Ever Dies: Vietnam and the Memory of War‖, 2016