200 Protest Move Toward New Ties With Vietnam : Politics: Demonstrators gather in Little Saigon to denounce the consideration of full diplomatic relations.

More than 200 protesters gathered in Little Saigon on Sunday morning to voice their anger at the Clinton Administration’s decision to consider renewing diplomatic ties with Vietnam.

“We oppose that decision,” said Diem Do, spokesman for the 20 Years of Struggle for Freedom Campaign, a group of Vietnamese immigrants and Vietnamese Americans commemorating the 20th anniversary of the fall of South Vietnam. “We oppose unconditional diplomatic relations with Vietnam.”

The group believes that the United States should withhold diplomatic ties until the Vietnamese government enacts more democratic reforms, frees remaining political prisoners, and more precisely accounts for U.S. soldiers listed as prisoners of war or missing in action.

“When he normalizes relations with a very abnormal, brutal and anti-democratic government such as the Vietnamese government, President Clinton would trample on the sufferings of the Vietnamese people and violate all principles of democracy and human rights,” said Cuong Doan, another spokesman for the group.

In front of a podium festooned with flags of the United States and the former South Vietnam, protesters raised placards bearing slogans critical of the Administration’s decision.

“We were in Vietnam. Why?” read one plaintive sign held by a small girl.

U.S. troops fought beside the South Vietnamese until 1973, when they left the country after years of divisive protest throughout American cities. Two years later, the South Vietnamese capital of Saigon fell to the Communists and the U.S. closed its embassy.

Early last year, Clinton lifted economic sanctions against Vietnam, and in January the former enemies signed an agreement establishing liaison offices in each other’s capitals. On June 14, Secretary of State Warren Christopher recommended to Clinton that the United States resume full diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

Christopher’s recommendation prompted mixed reaction in Orange County’s Vietnamese community. Some support increased business ties with Vietnam while others fear that establishing diplomatic relations at this point will stymie efforts to improve human rights and resolve other political disputes.

More than 1,600 U.S. soldiers remain unaccounted for and, Do said, there are an estimated 32,000 political prisoners in Vietnam.

Among protesters staunchly opposed to normalization were Vietnamese Americans as well as refugees who fled South Vietnam after the war.

“I’m so sad about this,” said Truong Hoang, who left Vietnam in 1975. “The people living under the Communists are very, very poor. They cannot do what they want, they cannot say what they want. They want to talk about freedom, they are put in prison. We should have diplomatic relations when the Vietnamese people have free speech, free elections and can choose their leader.”

Second-generation Vietnamese Americans such as Tammy Tran, 15, showed up to exercise what they consider a responsibility to their parents’ homeland.

“We can’t take for granted our freedom of speech,” she said. “Because we have that freedom, we have to fight for others.”

Normalizing relations with Vietnam also will damage U.S. credibility as a world leader, other protesters complained.

“I’m upset,” said Brian Vu, 30, who emigrated 10 years ago. “I think the U.S. is losing its standards of morality by doing so. It’s against the idealism of the American people.”

Thich Nguyen Tri, a Buddhist monk, said the U.N. charter binds the United States to demand human rights improvements before establishing full diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

“As a member of the United Nations, the U.S. government has the obligation to oppose human rights violations throughout the world,” he said. “A lot of people around the world have high hopes for American leadership, and if the American government fails them, it will lose their trust.”