AMERICA AND VIETNAM: A NEW ERA : For Vietnamese-Language Media, Story Hits Home : Normalization: Little Saigon Radio opens its lines to distraught callers. Newspaper reporters struggle to cover a volatile issue fairly without inflaming their community’s passions.

Eagerly poised in front of a small television in the Nguoi Viet newsroom, Ha Tuong Cat struggled Tuesday to analyze President Clinton’s announcement while trying to take it in emotionally.

Ha, a staff writer for the nation’s largest Vietnamese-language daily newspaper, a man who fought for South Vietnam, reflects the sentiments of his colleagues troubled by plans to restore diplomatic ties with Hanoi.

“It is hard,” he said, his voice trembling. “We have to try to reflect the community, and here, the community is much more volatile when it comes to this issue. We have to be able to report what’s new and be sensitive to what’s in the past.”

At Vietnamese newspapers, magazines and radio stations, Tuesday’s much-anticipated normalization announcement was one of the biggest--and most controversial--news stories since the fall of Saigon in 1975.

Little Saigon Radio President Trang Nguyen went on the air Tuesday evening and dedicated a song to those who “lost Vietnam.”

Earlier, what was scheduled as a one-hour call-in show became a full day of on-air conversations with members of the community. Unabashed with their show of emotions, the radio personalities admitted that they were grieving for a lost dream.

“Many employees here have cried today,” said Viet Dzung, the station’s anchor, as he consoled a caller who couldn’t stop crying.

At one point during her Vietnamese translation of Clinton’s announcement, Trang Nguyen paused to excuse herself for feeling a bit “emotional.”

At Viet Bao Kinh Te, a Vietnamese-language newspaper in Westminster, all 12 staffers scrambled to report the story for publication in this morning’s editions.

At Nguoi Viet, editors decided to run a front-page photo of Clinton making the announcement on top of an old picture of a protest against normalization “to make sure that the all the factions in our community is represented,” said Hoang Nguyen, the paper’s managing editor.

Editors fielded calls from the BBC, CNN and CBS, along with with inquiries from newspapers across the country.

“We’ve had a lot of media calls today,” he said. “It’s difficult, I’ve been very busy and have to refer all calls to [Publisher] Yen Do. Besides, how do you find the right words to sum up what’s happening in a few sentences?”

Hoang Nguyen said the paper also received dozens of calls from readers.

“Some likened it to the fall of Saigon, that’s how much they feel betrayed,” he said. “But obviously we don’t feel that way, and we have to be honest about that.”

Little Saigon Radio and several newspapers received calls from people who thought normalization might be a step in the right direction in terms of bringing democracy and human rights for Vietnam.

“Years ago, you wouldn’t get many people coming forward with an opinion like that,” said Hoang Nguyen.

While media doyens in the Little Saigon community say the decision to normalize relationships will not affect the way they report the news, they do acknowledge that it will make a difference.

“I think we’ll have more freedom to say what we want to say about what’s going on in Vietnam,” Hoang Nguyen said.

Tran Da Tu, an editor for Viet Bao Kinh Te, also predicted change in the press coverage of the community.

“The Vietnamese community in the United States is in the process of changing,” he said. “If the community changes, then the media has to change with it.”

Times staff writer Lily Dizon contributed to this report.