Vietnam Envoy’s Appearance Illustrates Ironies of History : Speech: Diplomat seeks to win hearts and minds of Americans. But some immigrants angrily protest his visit.

Undeterred by an estimated 300 protesters, the No. 2 diplomat from Vietnam to the United States ventured here Saturday to call for closer business and cultural ties between the former enemies.

For anyone intrigued by the ups and downs of modern history, the appearance of Ha Huy Thong at the University of San Diego was a case study.

A generation ago Americans were said to be engaged in a struggle to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people and show them a way to a better life.

But the diplomatic and geopolitical tables have spun around numerous times since the Communist victory in 1975, and now diplomats from the regime in Hanoi are trying to win the hearts and minds of Americans with promises of a brighter future.

Since the controversial decision by President Clinton in July to lift trade sanctions against the Southeast Asian country and normalize diplomatic relations, diplomats from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam have embarked on an ambitious speaking schedule in the United States to spread their message that the wounds of war should be allowed to heal.

Their goal is not to spread ideology but to encourage tourism, trade and investment.

And so it was natural that Thong, the deputy chief of mission at the embassy in Washington, should attend a daylong conference at the University of San Diego on relations between Vietnam and the United States with the theme “Bridging the Gap Between the Old and the New.”

Other Vietnamese diplomats this weekend were in Oregon, and in a few days the ambassador, Le Van Bang, will speak in Boston. Thong, 39, whose uncles and nephews were killed “fighting the Americans,” is a veteran of similar conferences at UC Davis and UC San Diego.

“It is a busy time for us,” Thong told reporters. “You may call it PR if you like, but we want the Americans to know that we very much want to close the unhappy chapter between our countries from the past and move beyond that.”

For several hours before and after Thong’s keynote address to the conference, protesters using bullhorns and waving banners carried on a loud and angry demonstration. Many were veterans of the Army of the Republic of Vietnam who fought against the Viet Cong and the North Vietnamese and then, after the fall of Saigon, fled to the United States.

“We want all Americans to know that the Communists do not represent all the Vietnamese people,” said Loc Nguyen, who left Vietnam as a “boat person” and now is a real estate broker in San Diego.

“We will never talk with Communists,” said Van Thy Tran of Santa Ana. “No democracy, no dialogue.”

One banner read, “No Business With Lawless Regime.” Truong Quang To of Garden Grove brought a poster with pictures of him fleeing Vietnam in a tiny boat.

Most of the protesters were from the sizable Vietnamese American communities in San Diego and Orange counties.

San Diego police, in accordance with the wishes of university officials, kept the protesters from venturing more than a few dozen yards onto the campus.

The University of San Diego, a Catholic institution, has a policy against allowing outsiders to use the campus for demonstrations, said school spokesman Jack Cannon.

Protesters on Saturday talked angrily of the lack of political and religious freedom in Vietnam, facilities full of political prisoners, and brutal “police state” tactics used by the Communists to suppress the populace.

Thong said he remains convinced that the protesters represent only a small portion of the Vietnamese American community. “The majority have made efforts to put the past beyond them,” he said.

His speech was peppered with discussion of inflation, rice production and tourism. Only once did the luncheon crowd of more than 100--many of them Vietnamese Americans--react negatively.

When Thong told the group, “We understand that economic and political reforms have to go hand in hand,” shouts of “liar” and “no freedom” were heard.

Pausing only briefly, he continued, “We are now building a state of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Reporters later asked Thong if he had meant to quote Abraham Lincoln. Looking somewhat puzzled, he said the quote came not from Lincoln but from a figure who holds a similar position of reverence in the history of Vietnam: Ho Chi Minh.