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"Remember the Americans who fought and died for US.
We may have lost the battle, but we won our freedom"
We may have lost the battle, but we won our freedom"
I took the picture above in Little Saigon 1975/6.
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In a small corner of Westminster, wedged between the city courts the Westminster Rose Center,
there is a small park where, at its center, is a striking pair of
12-foot high bronze soldiers, one American, one Vietnamese. This simple
yet moving memorial sits in the Sid Goldstein Freedom Park; it’s a quiet reflective place with a bit of a rocky past.
In 1997, Westminster City Councilman Frank G. Fry initiated the Vietnam War Memorial Project. A select committee unanimously chose artist Tuan Nguyen to sculpt and design the monument and the immediate surroundings. Tuan Nguyen, born in Saigon, South Vietnam in 1963, tried to escape Vietnam in 1988. Because of his attempted escape, his was captured by communists and put in a reeducation camp, ultimately managing to escape by walking through the Cambodian jungles to the United States. He ultimately made it to the United Stated were he received a fine arts degree from the Art Institute of South California in Laguna Beach, Ca. You can see some of his art here.
This sprawling memorial was designed and sculpted by Mr. Nguyen. The bronze monument is 12 foot high and depicts two soldiers, an American infantryman and a soldier from the former Republic of South Vietnam standing side by side. They stand on a marble base with the flags of their country behind them.
More @ Examiner
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