Kerry's wartime record influences Vietnamese voters (link)

A whopping 71 percent of the Vietnamese-American community plans to vote for President Bush in the upcoming election, according to a recent national poll by the multi-ethnic news agency New California Media.

Dan Tran, a member of Vietnamese Americans Against John Kerry, isn’t surprised. Instead he anticipates an even higher percentage, predicting Vietnamese will virtually vote unanimously for Bush.

“I think 90 percent of the Vietnamese in America will vote against Kerry,” he said.

Amid an already heated election littered with issues surrounding Iraq and the economy, in the eyes of some Vietnamese the sole factor determining their vote has been their resentment of presidential candidate John Kerry’s record with their homeland.

For anti-communist Vietnamese who fled the country, Kerry’s anti-Vietnam war stance and policies on current relations with Vietnam have only evoked anger.

This has fueling their hostility to his candidacy and helping to sway an overwhelming proportion of votes to Bush, leaving only 11 percent backing Kerry as indicated by the poll, conducted by national polling organization Bendixen Associates.

While the number of Vietnamese registered to vote in 2000 was near 325,000 according to U.S. Census reports, Sergio Bendixen, president of Bendixen Associates, said the number of Vietnamese registered voters now could be as high as 600,000.

and those 11% prolly love vietnam right now, they just live here because they can't share the power of it. they'd be nothing more than common people there.