Effort to Free U.S. Prisoners in Vietnam Fails

Returning from a 10-day trip to Vietnam, state Assemblyman Jim Morrissey (R-Santa Ana) said Sunday he had failed to negotiate the release of U.S. citizens being held prisoner there, but vowed to continue to pressure the Clinton administration to help him in his fight.

During a news conference at Los Angeles International Airport, Morrissey said he had met with numerous officials of the Vietnamese government, but acknowledged that his attempts to discuss the prisoners, let alone see them, were rebuffed.

A first-term assemblyman, Morrissey said he made the trip at his own expense after he had been approached at the State Capitol earlier this year by the father of one of 10 prisoners he believes are being held in Vietnam for political reasons.

“I thought it was a good cause, so I decided to do it,” said Morrissey, who before leaving on the trip introduced a resolution passed by the Legislature that calls on the White House and Congress to push for the release of the prisoners.

“All 10 [prisoners] are holding U.S. passports, six are citizens of the United States, and we’re not doing anything to help them,” said Morrissey, 65, who was joined at the morning news conference by friends and relatives of some of the prisoners.

The prisoners, who are serving sentences of up to 20 years on what Morrissey called “trumped-up charges,” include two former members of Orange County’s Vietnamese American community: Do Hong Van of Santa Ana and My Nguyen Thanh Van of Westminster.

Morrissey said his crusade began four months ago, when he was approached in Sacramento by Nghi Tran, whose son, Jimmy Tran, has been held in a Vietnamese prison since February 1993.

Jimmy Tran, a longtime political activist who immigrated to the United States in the late 1970s, made a trip to his homeland two years ago as part of a human rights mission. Morrissey said Tran was falsely accused of plotting to destroy a statue of Ho Chi Minh near Saigon Harbor in Ho Chi Minh City.

Jimmy Tran’s brother, Vincent, who served as Morrissey’s interpreter on the trip, said he had hoped to see his brother, whose eyesight is reportedly failing because he is kept in a small, dark cell. But Vincent Tran acknowledged that he embarked on the trip knowing that winning the release of his brother would be next to impossible.

“They’re not going to release people just because an assemblyman from California goes over and talks,” Vincent Tran said. “I feel disappointed, but at least Vietnam knows that people in America are looking out for [Jimmy].”

Tuan Nguyen, a 33-year-old resident of Arleta, said his father, My Nguyen, an anti-Communist, has been held in a Vietnamese prison since March 1993, when he returned to his homeland to see family members.

“I was hoping [Morrissey] would give a voice to get the U.S. government to help this situation,” Nguyen said. “I think he’s done that, but we need to do more.”

Morrissey, a retired aerospace executive, said he met with seven officials of the Vietnam government, including the minister of agriculture and rural development, and officials with the ministry of commerce.

Morrissey said he plans to press U.S. companies, including Ford and Coca-Cola, to refuse to do business in Vietnam until the prisoners are released. He was also sharply critical of the Clinton administration and U.S. efforts to negotiate the release of the prisoners.

“If Jimmy Tran’s name was Jimmy Jones or Jimmy Smith, the government would be doing something and the American people would be mad as hell,” Morrissey said.

Also at the news conference were Jimmy Tran’s wife and four of his children, including Chanh Tran, who was celebrating her 13th birthday. Asked whether she misses her father, she said, “I miss him a lot, but not as much as I used to, because it’s been a long time.”