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Home | Politically Connected | National Politics | In Congress
Virtual unknown makes history for Vietnamese-Americans
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When Anh (Joseph) Cao was 8 and Saigon was about to fall, his mother asked if he wanted to take a trip to the beach. Cao said he knew the story was a ruse. "I said, 'Mom, we're not going to the beach. We're going to America,' " Cao recalled.
On Tuesday, more than 30 years after that child escaped aboard a U.S. military transport plane, Cao was sworn in as the first Vietnamese-American to serve in Congress.
The Republican attorney's history-making victory came against an 18-year incumbent -- the first black congressman from Louisiana since Reconstruction -- who was considered invincible despite being hobbled by a federal indictment alleging that agents found $90,000 in bribes in his freezer.
Until a few weeks ago, Cao, 41, was virtually unknown outside the Vietnamese-American community in eastern New Orleans. Then came his narrow victory against Rep. William Jefferson, an icon in the mostly black, mostly Democratic district.
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