Plans Still in Flux for Viet Events

Less than a week before the 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, members of Orange County’s Vietnamese community are still scrambling to get city permits and reconcile competing plans to mark the day when many were driven into exile.

The Vietnam War, which claimed the lives of 58,000 American and about 300,000 South Vietnamese soldiers, ended April 30, 1975. Hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese fled to start a new life in a new land. Millions remain in Vietnam today, many of them struggling with poverty and an often oppressive communist regime.

For all the significance of the day, however, organizers in Little Saigon are still trying to settle plans for commemorating it on Sunday. As on previous occasions, community factions are planning separate events and organizers are late in applying for permits.

“They’re pretty dedicated people, who want to hold events all the time,” said Westminster Councilwoman Margie L. Rice. “But it’s frustrating when they never get their applications in on time. I see that continually--like with the Tet festival. They argue among themselves all year, then they get the applications in late. You get to the point you don’t know what the heck they want.”

Because they failed to get the paperwork in on time, for example, organizers of a rally planned for Little Saigon on Sunday must ask the Westminster City Council to place on its agenda Tuesday as an urgent item their request for permission to use amplified sound at the event.

Leaders of various student, youth and nonprofit organizations hope to precede Sunday’s 11 a.m. rally with a fast to call for religious freedom in Vietnam, beginning at 2 p.m. Saturday. Both events are to be held at the Cultural Court, 9221 Bolsa Ave.

Nguyet Minh Nguyen, president of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California and a member of the organizing committee, said she could move the rally to Garden Grove if the permit is not approved or strike a deal with Vietnamese-language radio to broadcast the event so participants could hear on portable radios.

Such an arrangement was used successfully last year by Tuan Anh Ho, a leader of protests outside Hi-Tek Video, who also was denied an amplification permit.

Ho plans to use this technique again for a 25th anniversary rally he plans for a parking lot on Moran Street.

The event, sponsored by Committee for the Just Cause of a Free Vietnam, is to be held Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon.

Other events planned in Orange County:

* An exhibit of more than 100 photos depicting the history of Little Saigon. The display will be open through Saturday at the Asian Garden Mall, 9225 Bolsa Ave., Westminster.

* A forum at UC Irvine to discuss the refugee experience. A candlelight vigil will follow. The event, sponsored by Asian Pacific Student Assn., will be held from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday at Crescent Bay Rooms A and B.

* A candlelight vigil on Saturday to commemorate those killed in the Vietnam War. The event will be from 6 to 10 p.m. at the Cultural Court.

* A prayer vigil from 7 p.m. to midnight Saturday at the Nationalist Vietnamese Activity Center, 13139 Harbor Blvd., Garden Grove.

Just south of Orange County, American and Vietnamese veterans, their families and former refugees will gather to honor veterans and hold a tribute at 10:30 a.m. Sunday at the Hand of Hope Statue at Camp Pendleton.