Put Pressure on Hanoi, Former S. Vietnamese President Urges

Citing the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, former South Vietnamese President Nguyen Van Thieu on Sunday urged a gathering of more than 400 former countrymen here to start a movement for democratization of Vietnam.

Demonstrators outside the Westminster Community Hall on Westminster Avenue chanted “No more Thieu!” and “Noriega” as Thieu spoke for nearly three hours.

But the gray-haired Thieu, who lives in Boston and London, also stirred nationalistic passions in what has been a new battle for the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese community.

Predicting that the economic and social stagnation in present-day Vietnam will cause the communist regime to fall eventually, Thieu said the people of Vietnam and the refugee community abroad blame each other, waiting for the other to do something.

“We have to show the people within Vietnam that we are ready to support them if they fight the communists,” Thieu told the invitation-only meeting of mostly former military and civil service workers, speaking entirely in Vietnamese. “We have all the means necessary to fight. We have freedom. We should organize ourselves to put pressure on the Viet Cong to speed up democratic reforms.”

Can Nguyen, who was South Vietnam’s prime minister and a former speaker of the National Assembly just before the fall of Saigon, said Thieu was speaking out of a desire to return to Vietnam, but not as the leader of a party or a new government.

“I will not form any political party for myself, so that the people will fight communism, not me,” said Thieu, referring to controversy surrounding him in the Vietnamese community.

Translating Thieu’s speech, Nguyen quoted Thieu as saying: “The movement (for democratization) is yours, not mine. Set it up right away.”

Thieu’s speech was interrupted by applause several times. When a protester suddenly stood up in an aisle and shouted at the former president, a few members of the audience attacked the young man. But Thieu ordered the attackers to back off, saying: “This is freedom. This is what we like. We are here working together to fight the communists.”

When calm was restored, Thieu outlined the failures of the communist regime in Vietnam. Reciting statistics showing dramatic declines in individual income and productivity, he predicted that even the residents of Hanoi would fight the regime if they could see strong support in the Vietnamese community abroad.

Thieu said he favors creating political pluralism in Vietnam without punishment for the communists.

“I accept the challenge of the communists in free elections,” he said. But Thieu pointed out that the current regime would have to liberalize and grant political parties the right to organize for there to be truly free elections.

He also urged the United States and other countries to use political and economic sanctions to pressure Hanoi into implementing such changes--an argument against the current State Department effort to normalize relations with the communist government in Vietnam.

During a question-and-answer session, several people from the audience attacked Thieu for allegedly taking 16 tons of gold out of Vietnam when he fled the country. But Thieu responded calmly, despite one woman’s continued shouting, saying that if the gold existed, the United States and other governments would have intercepted or seized it by now, citing the confiscations involving Ferdinand Marcos of the Philippines and Panama’s Manuel A. Noriega, now in a U.S. prison. “It could not have happened,” Thieu said. “You can see that it’s impossible.”

Dinh Nguyen of Westminster asked Thieu about his alleged desertion from the Vietnamese army. Thieu had resigned as president long before the fall of Saigon, but he still retained his rank as a general, Nguyen pointed out.

“Did the defense minister sign your release?” Nguyen asked.

“No,” Thieu replied. “I was the president. I could have ordered him to. So it wasn’t necessary.”

Across the street from the hall, pickets carried a banner saying: “Thieu and Communists--60,000 Americans killed in Vietnam.” And on the sidewalk in front of the hall, demonstrators displayed signs proclaiming “Thieu = Noriega.”

“We don’t want him here,” said Tom Trang of Westminster, a leader of the protest group. “He is a disgrace. He is a defector and a traitor. He kept his mouth shut for more than 10 years and now he comes here wanting to lead us. He will never lead anyone again.”

Shouting slogans through bullhorns, protesters several times apologized for the noise to residents of a seniors’ apartment complex behind the meeting hall.

Thieu and his controversial rival, former South Vietnamese Vice President Nguyen Cao Ky of Fountain Valley, have hit the lecture circuit recently, each jockeying for position in the immigrant community.