O.C. Backers Mobilize to Save Hanoi Embargo : Vietnam: Opponents of normal ties work to change Clinton’s mind, but concede it’s probably too late.

From VFW posts to Little Saigon restaurants, from suburban homes to spare storefront offices, the opposition scrambled this week to mobilize a last-ditch campaign to dissuade President Clinton from lifting the trade embargo with Vietnam on Friday as expected.

For decades, the rhetorical battle over Vietnam’s future has been waged by the fiercely loyal opposition of war widows and veterans, grieving parents and immigrants. But this week, passions had cooled into a half-hearted effort to stave off what many crusaders concede is inevitable: the end of the 19-year-old embargo.

“What can I say?” said Chuyen Nguyen, a flamboyant activist in Little Saigon who ordinarily expresses his views on normalization through the mouth of a bullhorn. “America will do anything that will benefit America. Regardless of how much opposition we raise, it’s going to happen.”

Some Vietnamese American groups--which want to link normalization to improvements in human rights--vowed to stage demonstrations across the country and Little Saigon on Saturday. Others faxed objections to the White House, promising to circulate petitions for free elections in Vietnam during the popular local Tet festivities this month in Huntington Beach and in Westminster.

Veterans organizations and POW/MIA groups--which seek a fuller accounting of missing servicemen before the embargo is lifted--have been highly vocal in their disapproval. But their opposition has failed to produce the groundswell of criticism from other quarters that some White House advisers had been anticipating--and to which Clinton was vulnerable politically, given his avoidance of military service during the Vietnam War.

“A lot of people just seem to be getting tired of the issue,” said a congressional source, adding that his office was surprised by the muted reaction last week when the Senate recommended in a non-binding resolution that Clinton lift the embargo. The source said his Senate office received the expected protests from the leaders of POW/MIA family groups, but only six calls from constituents expressing an opinion about the 62 to 38 vote.

That weary sense of resignation seemed to have spread even to Little Saigon, an Orange County community with the largest concentration of Vietnamese living outside Vietnam and one where the normalization issue is a litmus test of opposition to communism.

Ban Binh Bui, the newly elected president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, fired off a letter of protest to the President, emblazoned with a seal of a map of Vietnam. He appealed to Clinton to consider “the 70 million people living under Communist oppression and not just American business firms worrying for their loss in dollars and cents.”

But beyond the letter, Bui said there was little his group could do until after the President officially makes his move.

“I don’t think anyone can make a difference at this point,” said Bui. “But we need to make our President understand that we need to link normalization with the issues of democracy, human rights and POWs.”

Some family groups and veterans organizations privately acknowledge that they may have been slow in organizing their opposition, but said they planned to redouble their efforts over the next few days to persuade Clinton to maintain the embargo until Hanoi accounts for 2,200 servicemen still officially listed as missing in Southeast Asia.

Bob Kakuk, a former Army machine-gunner and a member of Vietnam War Veterans of Orange County, said he was so appalled by the prospects for normalization that he started calling and faxing his objections to Washington. On Tuesday, he said, he called the office of Arizona Sen. John McCain, a former POW who has supported moves toward normalization, to accuse him of being a murderer.

“He’s selling out his brothers,” Kakuk said. “What is his motive? Is he getting money out of this? It’s a shame the businessmen--all they see is dollar signs rolling in their eyes when they think of Vietnam. . . . Vietnam has a lot of minerals and a lot of oil.”

Given the momentum of recent events, some groups are reassessing their strategies.

The American Legion said it is urging its 3.1 million members to call or send telegrams to the White House protesting the decision. The National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia, the nation’s largest POW/MIA family group, also appealed to Clinton to withhold his decision until the group can visit Hanoi to determine whether Vietnam is cooperating as fully as possible.

But even with this effort some Vietnamese activists worry that it’s too late. Or it’s time to move on.

“If American veteran groups and families of American servicemen can’t convince the President not to lift the embargo, then I think anything the Vietnamese people do will be like us screaming with no one there to listen,” said Hau Nguyen, chairman of the Viet Nam Political Detainees Mutual Assn.

In the lively Vietnamese press, many editors planned to publish their objections to trade normalization, according to Khoi Nguyen, president of the Assn. of Vietnamese Press and Media.

It was their way, he said, of protesting “the inevitable.”

So far, this spirit of resignation has not prompted a number of local Vietnamese leaders to suddenly support trade. Indeed, Little Saigon television host Diem Do was still struggling yesterday to find anyone willing to debate in support of trade for his show, “Tuoi Tre Va Ngay Mai” (Youth and Tomorrow). However, there was no shortage of advocates for the opposition.

“I do have a couple of candidates,” he said. “But they’re sort of hesitant about speaking about it. It’s such a hot issue right now and they’d rather talk about it in a few weeks.”

The heat of the issue is still so intense that some Vietnamese leaders dodged telephone calls or declined to be quoted.

“Lifting the embargo is a good thing, but don’t quote me on that because I’m in hot water enough with the community,” said a Vietnamese woman. “I’m so tired of people saying they’re against it. Just you watch. After Friday, they’ll be talking out of the other side of their mouths. They’ll be quick to jump to the other side and use it to their advantage.”

* GOOD BUSINESS: O.C. trade experts and business people laud Clinton move. A20

* WAR WITHOUT END: Some vets and MIA families vow to keep fighting. A21