Rally Honors 3 Executed by Government in Vietnam

Nearly 1,000 Vietnamese refugees gathered in Santa Ana Sunday to honor three so-called “freedom fighters” executed in Vietnam earlier this month for allegedly plotting to overthrow the Communist government.

The rally, organized by the Committee for Just Cause of Free Vietnam, drew people from as far away as Ventura and San Diego counties to Centennial Regional Park to condemn the Communist government of Vietnam and to support the resistance movement for the liberation of their homeland.

No less than eight video cameras recorded the solemn salute to Ho Thai Bach, Tran Van Ba and Le Quoc Quan, for the worldwide Vietnamese refugee community. The three were convicted along with 18 others Dec. 18 in the biggest trial on subversion charges in the nearly 10 years since the North Vietnamese army invaded Saigon in the spring of 1975.

“We want to tell the people of the world of the atrocities committed by the Communists,” explained Dang Giang Son, chairman of the coalition of more than 18 Vietnamese groups in Southern California.

“A lot of our people are still in prison,” said Son, 45, who was a major in the South Vietnamese army’s ranger forces, roughly equivalent to the Green Berets.

In the December trial, the government alleged that Thailand and China helped to set up a spy ring of more than 100 soldiers and civil servants of the former South Vietnamese government. The United States was accused of indirect involvement in the plot.

Ho Thai Bach, son of the leader of the Cao Dai religion; Tran Van Ba, leader of French-based Vietnamese student organization, and Le Quoc Quan, a former South Vietnamese military officer and brother of the alleged mastermind of the plot, allegedly operated out of a secret headquarters in Bangkok, planning terrorist attacks on targets in Ho Chi Minh City, including murder or kidnaping of Soviet and French consular officials.

They were executed Jan. 8. Sixteen others were given prison sentences ranging from five years to life. Ninety-three others face trial on spy charges.

“Most Vietnamese would like to go back--I am ready to go back,” Dang said.

When the U.S. national anthem was sung, the crowd stood at attention under saffron and red banners, the men with their hands clasped at the wrist behind their backs, cupped around lighted cigarettes. When the South Vietnamese national anthem was played, they sang along, softly at first, then more fervently.

One of the three wreaths for the dead men was donated by Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), who did not attend.

Circling the perimeter of the crowd were about a half-dozen men equipped with walkie-talkies, alert for any sign of trouble. Dozens of photographers snapped photographs.

“We are security, in case Communists come to disrupt the group,” said Le Hung, a 32-year-old Westminster man who described himself as a member of a group called the Volunteer Force for Liberation of Vietnam.

Although organizers said no problems were expected, Hung said, “We are here just in case. We are looking out for the safety of everybody.”

Organizers said the purpose of Sunday’s rally was to mobilize public opposition to the Communist government in Vietnam, to build support for “the liberation of our Fatherland,” as well as to unify refugees in the United States.

The two-hour rally culminated in a march by most of those present, who carried banners and signs in Vietnamese and English condemning communism and praising the spirit of the so-called freedom fighters.

Many of those who carried placards depicting garish photographs from the televised trial of Bach, Ba and Quan were children or teen-agers too young to remember South Vietnam. It was as much for them that Sunday’s rally was held.

“Their death moved me,” said 22-year-old Tranh Tin, a Santa Ana college student who left Vietnam in 1978 at the age of 15. “These are my people. It means a lot to us because they fought for us,” said the young man with a New Wave pompadour.

‘Feeling in Our Hearts’

“We are not political, but we have feeling in our hearts too,” said Huan Bui, a 22-year-old civil engineering student at Santa Ana College and a member of a Buddhist youth group in Santa Ana.

Standing at the side of the bandstand were Trung Phuc and his wife, Hong, of Westminster. “We’re still Vietnamese, even though we are American citizens now,” said Trung.

Phuc, a 35-year-old processing engineer, left Vietnam in 1975 when Saigon fell. Although he and his wife became U.S. citizens a few years ago, Phuc said he would like to return to his homeland someday if the Communist government is overthrown. To that end, he said he has contributed funds to the anti-communists.

“The Communists have made the country poor; they have taken freedom away from the people,” Phuc said. “We must still support the rebels, the anti-communists.”