San Jose’s Viet Museum has been closed for months due to a political power struggle. Now its leaders are suing each other in an attempt to settle the matter for good.
The Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center — the nonprofit managing the old farmhouse in History Park that stores precious artifacts, photographs and art from local Vietnam War refugees — filed a lawsuit Aug. 14 against five people it claims are no longer legitimate board members. Defendants include Hong Cao, the museum’s former director of operations, as well as Cuong Nguyen, Nhut Ho, Tue Quang Phan and My Linh Pham. The nonprofit’s lawsuit alleges Cao and the other former board members are trying to seize control of the nonprofit and museum.
Cao didn’t respond to requests for comment. Pham declined to comment, and the other former board members could not be reached.
“We spent months making painstaking efforts to show understanding and to honor the public standing of these five individuals. But it seems that nothing short of the total control or complete destruction of the Viet Museum would ever satisfy them,” Quinn Tran, president and executive director of the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center, said in a statement.
The dispute ties back to the retirement of Loc Vu, a Vietnam War veteran who founded the museum, which opened a rift between him and the five board members as to who would succeed him as executive director. Vu accused board members of meeting secretly and violating the nonprofit’s bylaws, while they accused Vu of nepotism and making suspicious bank withdrawals from the organization.
As a result, Vu deemed them illegitimate board members and called for a new board election in January — just months after some members were elected in August 2024, according to the lawsuit.
History San Jose, the city’s nonprofit steward of History Park, closed the museum in December until officials could get clarity on the dispute.
“We still do not have any clarity on which group is the official (Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center),” History San Jose President Bill Shroh told San José Spotlight.
Secretary of State records show the Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center changed hands in January, when Tran took over for Vu as executive director. Vu is now in hospice care.
Tran said her organization has since provided History San Jose with proof of the January election results, nonprofit statements filed with the Secretary of State and the organization’s bylaws.
“We presented all that to History San Jose,” Tran told San José Spotlight. “They refuse to accept that we are the legitimate governing board. They said they have information from the other side showing otherwise. The museum is still closed. In my opinion, History San Jose made a great error.”
San Jose has the largest Vietnamese population for a city outside Vietnam — and its Little Saigon community has become one of the most iconic in the U.S.
The lawsuit aims to bar Cao and the other defendants from presenting themselves to the public as decision-makers for the museum.
“The goal of our lawsuit is clear — to determine the museum’s governing entity and reopen it,” Tran told San José Spotlight. “It’s an asset that is of emotional and historical value to the community.”
Story updated Aug. 21 at 4:39 p.m. Original story published Aug. 21 at 8:30 a.m.
Contact Brandon Pho at [email protected] or @brandonphooo on X.
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