Vietnamese Crusade: ‘This Has Become Bigger Than Mr. Tran’

Truong Van Tran’s single tribute to communism has galvanized the Vietnamese American community like never before, say its leaders, and they hope to build on that momentum to push for human rights and democracy in Vietnam.

During a Monday meeting with members of the Times Orange County Edition’s editorial staff, Vietnamese American community leaders spoke of plans to harness the community’s energy--already expressed by thousands demonstrating in Little Saigon in recent weeks--to work toward improving conditions in Vietnam.

One effort underway is lobbying in Washington, D.C., against full trade privileges for Vietnam unless human rights concessions are granted, they said.

“This has become bigger than Mr. Tran,” Diem Do said. “It would be nice if he removed the flag. It would be nice if he apologized. But we want to focus on the future of human rights in Vietnam.”

By displaying the hated symbols of a Communist regime inside his Westminster store, Tran has resurrected the ghosts of a painful war, igniting a furor unprecedented in the Vietnamese American exile experience.

“Mr. Tran has become irrelevant in the scheme of things. For every community, there’s a defining moment. I think this is our moment,” said attorney Luan Tran, who represents the Vietnamese Community of Southern California, an organization known for its political activism. “He created something that none of us could have imagined in our wildest dreams.”

Little Saigon is considered the de facto capital of Vietnamese American emigres, a community created in memory of a country that no longer exists. Orange County is home to 200,000 Vietnamese Americans, many of them refugees and former political prisoners who fled communism.

The demonstrations are, in part, a reaction to the painful memories of the Vietnam War, which ended in 1975. But more important, they are a response to the horrors after the war, a period considered by many as the “Vietnamese Holocaust,” said Thang Nguyen, who has worked for years on refugee issues.

Tens of thousands of Vietnamese were sent to “reeducation camps,” thousands more were summarily executed, and millions faced economic and physical deprivation when Communist North Vietnamese troops took over South Vietnam, he said. Tens of thousands of “boat people” also died on the seas, trying to escape.

“Tran reopened wounds not just from the war but from the aftermath of the war,” Nguyen said. “The whole message of atrocity and genocide by the Communist government is the root of the problem.”

Friday’s rally drew about 15,000 people--the largest yet during the controversy--in a show of unity organized by more than 25 Vietnamese student and religious groups. The mobilization of youths came after an opinion column by a local writer declared that ardent anti-communist feelings were retained only by the older generation of Vietnamese Americans, Do said.

“He said that the younger generation doesn’t care. That’s dead wrong. We do care,” Do said. “We do have our eyes set on the bigger picture.”

The rallies have been largely peaceful, but organizers say they have agreed to scale down the protests, which have lasted for more than a month. Though details are still being negotiated with police, protesters say they plan to continue a 24-hour vigil outside Tran’s store but will keep the crowd down to about 25 to 30 people so business won’t be restricted in that Little Saigon shopping center.