In January 1999, members of the Vietnamese-American community in the Little Saigon section of Los Angeles held protests outside the Hi-Tek Video Store. Demonstrators were outraged because the store’s owner, Truong Van Tran, a Vietnamese immigrant, had hung a poster of Ho Chi Minh in his window, along with a North Vietnamese flag. To many Vietnamese Americans, these symbols were vivid reminders of the terror and violence inflicted on them and their families by Ho’s regime during the Vietnam War, the trauma they experienced as refugees, and the ongoing repression of their homeland under communism. As one Little Saigon resident, Tony Truong, states, “For the communist flag to be displayed in Little Saigon is not just an insult to our community, it is a rusty nail through our hearts.”

The protesters claimed that Tran&rsquo...