Flag of South Vietnam

"So entrenched is the flag of the fallen country that in Orange County — the capital of Vietnamese Americans overseas — it won formal recognition as the symbol for the immigrant community. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger later granted the state’s blessing to the flag."

"The yellow flag is an emotional and integral part of the identity of some 70,000 Vietnamese living in Washington. It symbolizes where we came from and our fight for a free society."

"All of you here are free to attach your own meanings to the flag. It is your right in a democracy. The city council, however, as the city’s highest elected body, has a duty to not uncritically endorse these projections and interpretations in the name of the entire city without a fuller understanding of the history of the flag. I personally believe that it is a mistake for the city council to endorse the flag of the former South Vietnam, a flag that is highly controversial and painful to many. When it comes to democracy, the former South Vietnamese government was also a dictatorship..."

"Communist authorities view the flag and the people who fly it overseas as linked to campaigns aimed at undermining or even toppling its rule."

"I have fond memories with this flag. We hung it in our home when my dad hosted political meetings. My mom placed a miniature version of the American and Vietnamese flags together on a little stand above our giant 1980s stereo system. At a Vietnamese event, that flag was displayed next to ."

"The fall of Saigon was the turning point of the Vietnam War, which caused over 1 million North Vietnamese deaths, military and civilian, and a quarter-million South Vietnamese casualties. The war killed nearly 50,000 American troops and displaced about half a million people. Many Vietnamese refugees sought asylum in the United States. Today, they invoke the ongoing cultural value of this “fallen” regime by flying the South Vietnam flag at Lunar New Year parades and musical concerts."

"The flag represented South Vietnam for its entire existence, from 1955 to 1975. After the Fall of Saigon, it became a symbol of national pride and identity for members of the Vietnamese diaspora who fled the Communist regime. Today, the flag is common not only in Vietnamese communities in the U.S., but also in Canada, Australia, France and western Germany."

"The yellow-and-red-striped banners of the former South Vietnam flew above crowds of rioters all over the Capitol grounds. Many of the flag carriers were Vietnamese Americans who, in support of President Donald Trump, have often used the emblem to express nostalgia for a lost home and opposition to communism."

"The Yellow Flag is a historic symbol of Vietnamese refugees in Australia. It’s not just a normal property of someone, so when the boy pulled down the flag, it insults all Vietnamese refugees."

"Many Vietnamese immigrants have used the flag to express hatred for a communist regime that ousted them from their country. …“Since I was born, I’ve always seen the yellow flag with three red stripes everywhere, and I know that it is the flag of the Vietnamese people,” 23-year-old Phuong Anh, born and raised in southern California, told RFA Vietnamese."