The New Power Party (NPP) and civic groups would seek help from the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) in their efforts to protect a Vietnam War-era US military compound that the Taichung City Government is seeking to dismantle.
NPP Legislator Chen Jiau-hua (陳椒華) yesterday said the administration of Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen (盧秀燕) is showing disdain for local cultural history and is seeking to erase the memory of the close Taiwan-US military partnership at the time of the Vietnam War.
Together with civic groups, she has over the past few years been fighting against the planned demolition of the US Military Assistance Advisory Group Officers’ Compound (台中美軍招待所) on Meitsun Road, Chen told a news conference at the legislature in Taipei.
The US Veterans of Foreign Wars group and individual former US service members stationed in Taiwan at the time are also campaigning for its preservation, she said.
The Taichung City Government has reportedly allocated NT$1.2 billion (US$42.2 million) for a 10-floor building to be built at the site after the compound is torn down.
Taichung Hometown Community Culture Association director Chiang Ching-chou (江慶洲) urged Lu to hold public hearings on the issue.
His group would invite AIT officials and US veterans to visit the site, he said.
“We will invite top AIT officials and US military members stationed in Taichung during the Vietnam War to visit the compound,” he said, adding that he hoped they would support the campaign.
Chiang said the compound was inaugurated in 1962 and housed US military officers, affiliated clubs and recreational facilities.
It was handed back to Taiwan when the US broke formal diplomatic ties with Taipei in 1979 and was then managed by the Ministry of National Defense’s Armaments Bureau, he said.
Chiang also urged the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Culture to help preserve what he called an “important chapter in the friendship between Taiwan and the US.”
The compound should be designated as a national cultural heritage site, he said.
“The compound and other US facilities across Taiwan played an important role in protecting our freedom at a time of Chinese communist aggression. Many Taiwanese have fond memories of those times,” he said. “It is a reminder of the importance of national defense, especially in light of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”
Chiang said he started his campaign five years ago after he learned of the plan for a new building, adding that he immediately informed his friends in the US.
One of them, Scott Ellinger, who had been stationed in Taiwan during the war, organized a trip for a group of veterans to the site in December 2019, Chiang said.
“Preserving the compound would keep history alive,” Chiang said. “Should it be torn down, this part of history would be lost.”
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