I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

For more than 200 years, the American flag has been the symbol of our nation's strength and unity. It's been a source of pride and inspiration for millions of citizens. And it has been a prominent icon in our national history. Here are the highlights of its unique past.

Flag of the United States, popularly called the American flag, the official national flag of the United States. It consists of 13 horizontal stripes, 7 red alternating with 6 white, and in the upper corner near the staff, a rectangular blue field, or canton, containing 50 five-pointed white stars. The stripes symbolize the 13 colonies that originally constituted the United States of America. The stars represent the 50 states of the Union. In the language of the Continental Congress, which defined the symbolic meanings of the colors red, white, and blue, as used in the flag, “White signifies Purity and Innocence; Red, Hardiness and Valor; and Blue, Vigilance, Perseverance and Justice.” Because of its stars, stripes, and colors, the American flag is frequently called the Star-Spangled Banner, the Stars and Stripes, or the Red, White, and Blue. Another popular, patriotic designation, Old Glory, is of uncertain origin.

United States of America

In 1971, Mrs.Mary Hoff, an MIA wife and member of the National League of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, recognized the need for a symbol of our POW/MIAs. Prompted by an article in the Jacksonville, Florida TIMES-UNION, Mrs. Hoff contacted Norman Rivkees, Vice-President of Annin & Company which had made a banner for the newest member of the United Nations, the People's Republic of China, as a part of their policy to provide flags to all UN member nations. Mrs. Hoff found Mr. Rivkees very sympathetic to the POW/MIA issue, and he, along with Annin's advertising agency, designed a flag to represent our missing men. Following approval, the flags were manufactured for distribution.

The flag is black, bearing in the center, in black and white, the emblem of the League. The emblem is a white disk bearing in black silhouette the bust of a man, watch tower with a guard holding a rifle, and a strand of barbed wire; above the disk are the white letters POW and MIA framing a white 5-pointed star; below the disk is a black and white wreath above the white motto YOU ARE NOT FORGOTTEN.

American POW

The Vietnamese flag has a yellow background and three horizontal red stripes along its entire length. The "golden yellow" has been the traditional color of Vietnam for over two thousand years. It is also the color of earth, as understood in universal scheme of five elements in Oriental cosmology. The three stripes represent three regions of Vietnam: North, Central, and South Vietnam as united in a national community. The vibrant red color of the stripes is the color of blood flowing through one's veins-symbolic of Vietnam's unflagging struggle for independence throughout its recorded history.

The flag championed by free Vietnamese everywhere was flown for the first time at a ceremony marking the official recognition by France of Vietnamese unity and independence. It is a new version of a similar flag ("Co+` Que? Ly") first flown in March 1945 when Vietnam under Emperor Bao Dai reclaimed its independence from France. The three-redstriped yellow flag continued to be the official flag of the Republic of Vietnam, which was recognized by the United Nations from 1950 to April 1975.

Republic of Vietnam

The National Front for the Liberation of Vietnam or National Liberation Front was known to American soldiers in Vietnam as the Viet Cong. The Viet Cong flag dates back to 1954, when founders of the National Liberation Front, the political arm of the Viet Minh, designed the red, blue and yellow standard. The flag is divided horizontally into two equal parts with a five-point star in the middle. The upper section is red and stands for blood spilled by the people in their alleged fight for peace, represented by blue in the lower half of the flag. The yellow star stands for the Mongoloid race; each point represents a separate class. The top point symbolizes the students. The other points moving clockwise represent farmers, industrialists, merchants and soldiers.

National Liberation Front (Viet Cong)

The "yellow star on red background" flag of communist Vietnam called the Social Republic of Vietnam (SRV) first made its official appearance in September 1945, when Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the independence of Vietnam. As the SRV is now recognized by the United Nations and many nations in the world including the Unites States, its flag is questioned by all free Vietnamese around the world, including Vietnamese Americans.

Firstly, it is the symbol of a party imposed on the Vietnamese since August 1945. It was the official flag of the Indochinese Communist Party (1930-1945).

Secondly, it is an international flag, not a national flag. each point of the yellow star represents one of the five protectorates of the Union of French Indochina: Tonkin, Annam, Cochinchina, Cambodia, and Laos. By maintaining this flag, communist Vietnam on the one hand, harks back to a period of French colonialism, while on the other hand, keeping alive the imperialist ambition of an Indochinese Federation under Hanoi's thumb.

Thirdly, it is a communist flag. The blood red color of the background refers to the violence of class struggle and the ultimate victory of the proletariat revolution throughout the world, as proclaimed by international communists. But international communist is dead with the downfall of Soviet Union in 1991. In brief, the Vietnamese communist flag symbolizes an antithesis to the very idea of freedom and peace that Vietnamese Americans and free Vietnamese around the world want to foster in our community and in generations of younger Vietnamese.

Socialist Republic of Vietnam