Vietnamese Americans still favour McCain
Updated
The US election is finally drawing to a close with just over a week to go until Americans decide who their new leader will be.
When Asian American voters step into voting booths, opinion polls suggest they're most likely to be voting for Barack Obama. But there is a big exception to that rule. Vietnamese Americans are favoring John McCain by two to one among decided voters. As refugees, many of whom were allied to the former south Vietnamese government, they say they're deeply grateful to John McCain for his wartime service. And they say they want to repay a debt for the years he spent as a prisoner of war. Many turned out at a recent John McCain rally in northern Virginia, home to the largest Vietnamese population on the East Coast.
Presenter: Joanna McCarthy
Speakers: Sylvia Torrente, Shandon Phan, Paul Van, McCain supporters
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ANNOUNCER: Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome the next president of the United States, Senator John McCain!
JOANNA McCARTHY: From the 'Rocky' theme music that opens up his rallies to the memories he shares in his stump speech, John McCain's Vietnam War experience is a key part of his campaign message.
JOHN McCAIN: My friends, I know what fear feels like. It's a thief in the night who robs your strength. I know what hopelessness feel like - it's an enemy who defeats your will. I've felt those thing once before, I will never let them in again. I am an American and I choose to fight.
JOANNA McCARTHY: These are themes that resonate with many American voters, and perhaps none more so than Vietnamese-Americans, who are among John McCain's most passionate and devoted supporters.
SYLVIA TORRENTE: The reason why I love John McCain and campaign for him because he's a great man, he's a hero, he's someone I can trust and trust comes very hard with the Asian communities. Unless you have done something to prove it and John McCain has done that.
JOANNA McCARTHY: 30 years ago, at the age of nine, Sylvia Torrente boarded a boat and fled Vietnam for the United States with her mother and two brothers. These days she's a small business owner, who's married with a three-year-old child. And she spends every weekend out on the hustings in her local Vietnamese community, organising rallies, passing out flyers in shopping centres, and canvassing door to door for John McCain.
SYLVIA TORRENTE: He's the type of man that, like I said, put his country first and is ready to die not only for his country, USA, but also for Vietnam and therefore we owe him a lot and this is the least we can do to give back the debt that we have owe him so much, his life.
JOANNA McCARTHY: Shandon Phan arrived in the United States as a 12-year-old. He's now in his third year of law school. He's also the national co-convenor of Vietnamese Americans for McCain.
SHANDON PHAN: Both my father and my grandfather fought for South Vietnamese government. Both of them were political prisoners and I think the majority of Vietnamese are migrants who came here. They came here. They came here because they were either former veterans of South Vietnam or political prisoners. When South Vietnam collapsed they were imprisoned and persecuted by the government.
JOANNA McCARTHY: One of those veterans is Paul Van, a former officer of the South Vietnamese army, who spent seven years in a re-education camp before arriving in America in 1990. He's a registered Independent but this year he's voting for John McCain.
PAUL VAN: Yes, I do admire him for his contributions to the right cause and the Vietnam fighting against the communist aggressors and he has principle in is country first, not self-interest, that's what we admire and support him.
JOANNA McCARTHY: John McCain's wartime experience isn't the only thing that appeals to these voters. They see him as one of their strongest champions in Congress. He was a leading player in moving to allow the children of P.O.W.s to reunite with their parents in the US. And he led the push to normalise diplomatic ties with Vietnam although Shandon Phan says that angered some members of his community.
SHANDON PHAN: Some might disagree with his leadership in terms of normalising relation between the US and Vietnam. But because they respect him so much, because they saw how hard he fight for the cause of freedom, they think that he's a very responsible and wise leader.
JOANNA McCARTHY: Sylvia Torrente says this is the first time she's ever been inspired to take part in a political campaign. And as she goes door to door, spruiking for John McCain, she finds there are those who are remain unconvinced.
SYLVIA TORRENTE: But the younger crowd since they got influenced by school, by the media, those are the ones that we need to talk to and very much educate them more about the history of Vietnam and US and McCain and Obama. And I know what it's like to lose a war and McCain is the man and we need someone who's very strong background in military and coming with past experience that's why we've got to support McCain.
JOANNA McCARTHY: And in this battleground state of Virginia, with the polls against him, that's exactly the message John McCain wants to get across to all American voters.
JOHN McCAIN: We never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history. Now let's go win this election and get this country moving again.
JOANNA McCARTHY: From Woodbridge, Virginia, this is Joanna McCarthy for Radio Australia.
