Three years and $1 million spent, the promise of a Vietnam War memorial at Mile Square Park remains unfulfilled, and now First District OC Supervisor Janet Nguyen is pushing for the demolition of what has been built.
“It’s shameful, it’s a disgrace. This is not how we honor our veterans at all,” Nguyen said Monday, Nov. 10, as she stood in front of the incomplete memorial at a press conference she called. “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.”
In 2023, former OC Supervisor Andrew Do allocated $1 million in First District discretionary funds toward the design and construction of the memorial. The project was contracted out to Viet America Society.
Viet America Society, along with another local organization, was also contracted by the county for nutrition programs for seniors and people with disabilities funded by millions more in First District discretionary money, which authorities now allege were largely not spent on feeding community members but instead used for personal gain. Do has since pleaded guilty and is serving prison time for taking bribes to direct funding and contracts to Viet America Society, and Peter Pham, the founder and president of the nonprofit, has been indicted on multiple charges of wire fraud and concealment of money laundering. There is also a civil lawsuit the county has brought that is making its way through the court system.
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