A Vietnam War Memorial located at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley remains unfinished almost three years after the project was first funded. Two 20-foot-long walls and a statue of the eternal flame were erected in 2024, but now the walls are cracked, dirty and the names of the soldiers were never etched on.
The memorial is surrounded in controversy because its benefactor, former Orange County Supervisor Andrew Do, is serving a five-year prison sentence for bribery. Do pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bribery in October 2024 and was sentenced on June 9.
Janet Nguyen, First District Supervisor, held a press conference in front of the memorial on Nov. 10, proposing the demolition and relocation of the memorial.
“It’s shameful, it’s a disgrace. This is not how we honor our veterans at all,” Nguyen said. “We are now looking at removing this, and we’re gonna replace it. We gotta do it right, because we owe it to these veterans.”
Do was charged after it was revealed that he had accepted over $550,000 in bribes to vote in favor of the non-profit charity Viet American Society (VAS) and to direct nearly $12 million in COVID relief funds to them.
Peter Pham, founder of the VAS, was indicted for bribing Do. In December 2024, Pham left the country for Taipei, Taiwan, and has not returned. He is considered a fugitive.
The funds directed to the VAS were used to pay property taxes on properties owned by Do and his wife, to purchase a house for his daughter, Rhiannon Do, and to pay VAS insiders. The funds directed to the VAS were meant to feed seniors and people with disabilities.
“Elected officials have a sworn duty to put their constituents’ interests ahead of their own,” United States Attorney Bill Essayli said in a press release. “Public money intended to assist aging and ailing pandemic victims instead filled the coffers of Do, his family, and insiders. I commend our prosecutors and law enforcement partners for their work on this important case and for helping to remove a corrupt politician from his seat of power.”
In 2023, Do allocated $1 million in discretionary funds to the VAS to design and construct a memorial that would be dedicated to the South Vietnamese army and allies. At the time, Do’s daughter was a UCI law student and was serving as an officer for the VAS. The memorial was supposed to be completed in October 2024.
In August 2024, the LAist questioned the alleged cost of the memorial. Their estimates put the cost at around $185,000. The county did receive $150,000 of the initial $1 million back as a result of the LAist addressing the cost.
Nguyen mentioned that it would cost $168,000 to $420,000 to repair the granite walls and an additional $30,000 to $40,000 to finish engraving all the soldiers’ names. In contrast, it would only cost $25,000 to $30,000 to demolish it.
“There’s not a lot of documents on this site. We don’t know what was spent, we don’t know what materials were used, we don’t know anything,” Nguyen said.
Nguyen said the planned veterans cemetery in Gypsum Canyon could be the home to a new memorial. However, decisions are still up in the air.
Alejandra Rodriguez Zepeda is a News Staff Writer. She can be reached at alejar16@uci.edu.
Edited by Julia Kremenetsky