Tony Lam

Tony Lâm (born in 1937) is a politician from California. In 1992, he won a seat on the Westminster City Council, becoming the first Vietnam-born person to be elected into a political office in the United States. cite news | title = A Vietnamese-American Becomes a Political First | author = Seth Mydans | date = 16 November 1992 | publisher = The New York Times | page = 11]

Prior to being elected, Lam had been living in America for 17 years, and owned the Vien Dong restaurant in Garden Grove.cite news | title = CRIME BY ASIANS, AGAINST ASIANS -- WINNING TRUST OF COMMUNITY IS GOAL OF POLICE | author = LOUIS T. CORSALETTI | date = 25 June 1987 | publisher = The Seattle Times | page = A1] [cite news | title = Sirens evoke memories of another war | author = Diana Griego Erwin | date = 22 January 1991 | publisher = The Orange County Register | page = b01] He was also a respected community leader, secretary of the Vietnamese Lions Club in Westminster, and the first vice president of the Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce in Orange County. cite news | title = Lifeline: Family in Vietnam lives `from package to package' | author = Jeffrey Brody | date = 21 August 1988 | publisher = The Orange County Register | page = K06]

Although Westminster had one of the largest concentrations of Vietnamese immigrants in the United States, Lam was not primarily voted in by his fellow Vietnamese. His winning total was about 6,500 votes, but only 2,000 Vietnamese-Americans in the city were eligible to vote. His campaign had the backing of the police, the Mayor and local mobile-home owners. He defeated another Vietnamese candidate, Jimmy Tong Nguyen, for the Westminster City Council seat.

In 1999, Lam bore the fury of many Vietnamese immigrants when he refused to join in demonstrations protesting against a video-game store that displayed a poster of Ho Chi Minh and a communist Vietnamese flag. City attorneys had advised him to "stay neutral". For this, his restaurant was picketed, and people burnt effigies of him, calling him a "communist sympathizer". At the height of the controversy, the protesters raised the possibility of Lam's recall from office. cite news | title = Protesters target Vietnamese-American official | date = 14 March 1999 | publisher = Associated Press] cite news | title = Days of Rage in Little Saigon; Portrait of Ho Chi Minh Incenses Vietnamese Immigrants | author = Rene Sanchez | date = 5 March 1999 | The Washington Post | page = A02] Even his wife called on him to resign, but he refused. [cite news | title = Department looking into racial slurs during Little Saigon demos | author = LARRY GERBER | publisher = Associated Press | date = 27 February 1999]

Lam served for a decade on the City Council over three terms,cite news | title = Lam on fence over re-election Westminster | author = ANH DO | publisher = The Orange County Register | date = 8 August 2002 | page = 1, A] until he decided not to seek re-election in 2002.cite news | title = `I have done my best' | author = ANH DO | publisher = The Orange County Register | date = 9 August 2002 | page = 1, Cover]

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