New documentary recalls wave of violence – and impunity – in Little Saigon communities throughout 1980s [OC Register]

By [COLOR=#0000FF]CHRIS HAIRE[/COLOR] / [COLOR=#000080]STAFF WRITER[/COLOR]

[I]Nov. 18, 2015 Updated 11:00 a.m.[/I]

[QUOTE][IMG]http://images.onset.freedom.com/ocregister/nx96nj-b88557171z.120151103110904000gutcunn8.10.jpg[/IMG]
[COLOR=#800080]A street marker in front of Asian Garden Mall marks the heart of Little Saigon. April 30 marked the 40th anniversary of the fall of Saigon. Little Saigon boasts the largest enclave of the first-generation Vietnamese and their descendants outside of Vietnam.[/COLOR] [COLOR=#000080]ANA VENEGAS, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER[/COLOR]

One died of smoke inhalation – after his apartment was firebombed.

Another was shot seven times with a handgun.

And a third got hit with a single bullet to the pulmonary artery.

They all had three things in common: They were Vietnamese-Americans, they were journalists, and their killers were never brought to justice.

In “Terror in Little Saigon” – a new documentary by PBS’ Frontline and an investigative news website, ProPublica – reporter A.C. Thompson re-opens an investigation into a violent moment in the Vietnamese-American story:

Between 1981 and 1990, five journalists were murdered – perhaps by a radical Vietnamese organization dedicated to restarting a war in the homeland to overtake the Communist government.

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[COLOR=#800080]Death threats, protests and lawsuits: Little Saigon newspaper war is about ideology, not just circulation[/COLOR]

The journalists, living in Little Saigons from Houston to Orange County, were critical of the organization, known as the Front (The firebomb victim was a Garden Grove resident).

“Terror in Little Saigon” first airs at 10 p.m. Tuesday on PBS.

According to “Terror,” the Front created a wave of terror in the new ethnic enclaves, allegedly murdering with seeming impunity, silencing dissent and extorting money from the new immigrants to fund its war.

[IMG]http://images.onset.freedom.com/ocregister/mycapture/nnbwzz-web.vietchange2.jpg[/IMG]
[COLOR=#800080]How they became us: Orange County changed forever in the 40 years since the fall of Saigon[/COLOR]

Thompson, an investigative reporter for ProPublica, spent months poring over police and FBI records, interviewing the families of the victims and former members of the Front.

Besides the Frontline documentary, ProPublica has also published an article that went online Tuesday morning.

Thompson reports on a group that many, including the FBI, believe existed: K-9, an alleged secret group of assassins who potentially acted as the Front’s enforcement wing.

Thompson writes in the ProPublica article that a former FBI agent who investigated the murders is “convinced that the Front and its death squad were responsible for killing” at least some of the journalists, if not all of them.[/QUOTE]