500 Mark Saigon’s Fall : Vietnamese Immigrants Protest Communist Rule

About 500 Vietnamese refugees rallied in the heart of Orange County’s “Little Saigon” Saturday to chant anti-Communist slogans and demonstrate that while South Vietnam may have fallen a decade ago, as far as they are concerned, the Vietnam War continues today.

“The war has not ended,” declared Trinh Minh, a spokesman for the rally organizing committee. “It continues and has expanded into Cambodia and Laos.”

Grandmothers in traditional ao dai , men in suits, mothers pushing baby carriages, and teen-agers with punk hair styles came together in the parking lot of the Bolsa Mini Mall, in Garden Grove. They carried placards reading, “Make the World Safe--Destroy Communism,” and “Hanoi, Free Our Fathers and Brothers.”

A succession of speakers delivered nationalistic and anti-Communist speeches, and led the crowd in bitter chants in Vietnamese and English:

“Down with Communism!”

“Down! Down! Down!”

“Hanoi, Stop Killing our Brothers!”

“Stop! Stop! Stop!”

In the crowd were some recent immigrants, such as Tran Thuy Lan, 37, who left Vietnam last November to be reunited with her husband, who fled by boat five years ago.

Lan said she came to the rally because she wanted to “speak to the world.”

“I want to remember our country, which is in the hands of the Communists,” she said. Thu-Huong Nguyen-Vo, 22, of Garden Grove, who came to the United States in 1975, compared her participation in the rally to the political activism of other young people concerned about injustice in the world.

“Just as people gather to protest the present policies of the South African government, we gather to protest the policies of the present leadership of Vietnam,” Nguyen-Vo said.

International Concerns

“I know a little bit more about Vietnam than other countries, so I think my effort would be more effective than if I tried to do something about South Africa, orNicaragua or Afghanistan. But my sentiment is the same to the people of all those countries, because they suffer miseries.”

The speakers stood on a makeshift stage under American and South Vietnamese flags, before a mural depicting the palm trees, fields and verdant mountains of their homeland. The crowd stood attentively through “The Star-Spangled Banner,” then joined in singing the anthem of the Republic of Vietnam that fell 10 years ago.

“It is not so much that we want to resurrect the government of South Vietnam,” Nguyen-Vo said. “But it is under that flag and that anthem that a lot of people died for their cause, so we don’t want to abandon it.”

The speakers attacked repression and violations of civil liberties in Vietnam, poor economic conditions and imprisonment of supporters of the former regime.

Community elders called for refugees and their children to keep alive their Vietnamese culture while they learn English and find their places in U.S. society.

Samuel S. Ramsek, a representative of the anti-Vietnamese Cambodian resistance coalition that still holds Cambodia’s seat in the United Nations, addressed the crowd in English.

Congressman’s Statement Read

“Let’s get together,” Ramsek urged. “We need Cambodia. We need Vietnam. We need Laos. We can get together. . . . Let’s fight for freedom so we can go back and be happy.”

Raoul Silva, an aide to Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove), read a statement by the congressman praising refugees’ contributions to the economic and cultural life of Orange County, and supporting anti-Communist efforts in Indochina.

“One day we will liberate those countries from the chains of the cruel totalitarian governments that rule them now,” Dornan said in his statement.

The midday activities ended with demonstrators parading along a sidewalk through the Vietnamese business district that lines Bolsa Avenue. A musical and cultural show is scheduled at the same location for Saturday evening, to be followed by an all-night vigil and song fest.