Column By Mike Bibb
“Don’t let people tell you Socialism is awesome. Communism isn’t an economic system… it’s a death machine. More than a hundred million people slaughtered in less than a hundred years. If you’re well-educated, you can’t be controlled. If you’re well-fed, you can’t be controlled. And if you’re well-armed, you definitely cannot be controlled.”
— Arizona State Representative Quang H. Nguyen (R-Dist. 1), speaking at EAC’s Constitution Day ceremony, Sept. 17, 2026.
Arizona State Representative Quang H. Nguyen (R-Dist. 1) probably opened a few ears and eyeballs with his speech detailing his experiences under Communist domination during Eastern Arizona College’s Constitution Day ceremony, Sept. 17, 2026.
If for no other reason, then he survived this part of his life in South Vietnam — in the 1960s-70s.
At 12 years of age, he escaped the sorrows and bloodshed when Saigon (then the capital of South Vietnam) capitulated to Hanoi (the capital of North Vietnam) and the North Vietnamese army in 1975.
Today, the combined countries are known as Vietnam.
The United States’ active involvement lasted from 1960 to about 1973, when it had withdrawn most troops. Saigon collapsed on April 30, 1975, signaling the end of major hostilities.
Approximately 58,200 U.S. military personnel perished in the war.
Now, 51 years later, the war is a distant memory, and the reasons for our involvement are nearly erased from public consciousness, or not accurately portrayed.
It’s certainly an infrequently discussed subject in most contemporary high school and college classrooms.
Instead, the acclaimed glories and benefits of Communism and Socialism are spewed through the ether by social media meatheads and corporate news sympathizers, with little mention of the universal miscarriage of these fraudulent government schemes.
Even our own Democratic Party is rapidly transitioning into the Democratic-Socialists of America, disseminating the same tried-and-failed communist-socialist gibberish of the past 150 years.
Still, all the bogus crap of Socialism can’t camouflage the reality of Mr. Ngyuen’s warnings — he’s been there, experienced it, and got out to tell the story.
“Nguyen emphasized the First and Second Amendments as the fundamental pillars protecting American life, describing the Second Amendment as the essential shield for the First. He urged students to take personal responsibility for their civic duties, particularly by reading the Constitution and participating in elections.” — “I Bleed Red, White and Blue,” Gila Herald, Sept. 18, 2026.
It seems odd, but it really isn’t: foreign-born citizens seeking more freedoms and opportunities, who’ve traveled here legally from oppressive regions of the globe, often seem to have a greater sense of patriotic responsibility in striving to maintain these concepts than many people born on U.S. soil.
Maybe because most Americans have no idea how a large portion of the world’s population lives, or the depressed economic and harsh political conditions they face.
In contrast, we can speak our minds on topics of concern, attend the church of our choice, get upset if the electricity goes off for a few minutes and the AC blows hot, the grocery store is low on cottage cheese, so we go to another store, ask AI for answers to our problems, Congress bickers back and forth over which state is going to receive more federal aid, and bet on next year’s Super Bowl winner.
Ordinary routines in the United States.
Yet many countries don’t have these options because they lack the opportunities, financial incentives, or manufacturing facilities to produce commercial products that sometimes malfunction and cause inconvenience.
Generally, we simply fix or replace them, or order a substitute part online.
Discomforting, but not life-threatening.
The same basic principles apply to our political structure. Together, we elect and replace leaders we’re not satisfied with. Sometimes, it takes a while.
Sure, we make mistakes, but try to correct them the next time around.
However, with a Communist or Socialist government, nothing changes unless the ruling elite decides it should.
If a person complains too loudly, they are often never seen again — Rep. Nguyen found out when his cousin was executed at a North Vietnamese prison camp.
That is probably one reason Rep. Nguyen reminded us that “the Second Amendment as [is] the essential shield for the First.”
He speaks from knowledge and experience because, we’re reminded, it takes a “good guy with a gun to stop a bad guy with a gun.”
Even on a global scale.
The opinions expressed in this editorial are those of the author.
