Three Vietnamese Americans have requested the University of Southern California remove a Socialist Republic of Vietnam flag that flies on campus, and they are considering protesting if the flag is not removed, according to a report in The Orange County Register.

Hung Nguyen, An Son Tran and Tung X. Nguyen have asked university officials to either remove what they perceive to be a communist flag or to replace it with the red and yellow flag of former South Vietnam.

“The red and yellow flag is the official flag of the Vietnamese American community,” Hung Nguyen said. “The university has hundreds of students from our community, and they should honor our sentiments about the flag.”

The university does not plan to comply with these requests, university spokesman James Grant told the newspaper. “The flags have been in our main building for a long time,” he said. “They were made to conform to state and United Nations standards. We see no need to take them down.”

Irvine Valley College took down its entire exhibit of miniature flags from 144 countries after receiving pressure from Vietnamese American activists. Hung Nguyen said he and others intend to champion their cause at all California colleges and universities.

Nguyen said he hopes that after sitting down with university officials and explaining why the flag is offensive they will opt to remove the flag and avoid a protest. “Our first step is to give them the information,” he said. “The second step is to have a discussion between our Vietnamese elected officials and university officials to see if they will take down the communist flag. Our last resort will be to protest the university’s approach to this issue.”

Click here to post and read comments