War and Remembrance

A group of Vietnamese American anti-communists on Saturday called for a boycott of Vietnamese books, magazines and videos that they consider propaganda disseminated by the Communist Vietnamese government.

The boycott was announced on the eve of today’s 25th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, a day which will be marked by official celebrations in Vietnam and angry speeches and denouncements in Westminster’s Little Saigon.

Organizers of Saturday’s protest initially planned to burn Vietnamese books, which they said were produced under Communist censorship. Those plans were scrapped after police warned the act would violate Westminster fire codes.

Instead, protesters shredded books and magazines and destroyed music CDs and videos that they said were available in local shops and exist “to spread lies.”

“Since the [trade] embargo was lifted [in 1994], this propaganda has been infiltrated into the community here,” said Kevin Khoa Nguyen, 26, one of the organizers of the protest and boycott. “They glorify the Communist regime and denounce the lives of Vietnamese living overseas.”

Nguyen said organizers weren’t seeking to purge the materials, an act that runs contrary to many Americans’ sense of the constitutional guarantees of free speech. He said they want Vietnamese Americans to recognize the products for what they are.

“We’re trying to convince people to boycott,” Nguyen said. “You have to take the responsibility for yourself to throw this out.”

Another organizer, Le Khac Ly, denounced the Vietnamese government for human rights abuses and for stifling political freedom and freedom of expression. He called on fellow emigres to reject Vietnamese propaganda.

He also invoked the current controversy in Vietnam over Sen. John McCain’s remarks during the Arizona Republican’s current visit there that “the wrong guys won” the war.

“We lost our country to the Communists not because we were unable to defend our country, but because the war policy changed, making us a loser,” Ly said. “I agree 100% with Sen. John McCain that the wrong side won the war.”

Later in the evening, more than 800 people crowded into the Cultural Court in front of the New Saigon Mall to commemorate the fall of Saigon, a somber event filled with patriotic songs and a slide show detailing the atrocities of postwar Vietnam. The evening ended with a emotional candlelight vigil.

The 5:30 p.m. demonstration drew about 150 people to a roadside stage on Bolsa Avenue across from the Asian Garden Mall. It followed an earlier rally that drew about 400 people for a moment of silence to remember the war’s dead and missing, and to rally opposition to the Communist government.

An elaborate altar was decorated with red gladiolus and yellow chrysanthemums, and plates of apples and mangoes. A miniature version of a proposed war memorial statue depicting friendship between an American GI and a South Vietnamese soldier was propped behind an urn of incense.

Ha Tong, 16, brought her American and Vietnamese friends to Saturday’s ceremony.

“We don’t know anything about communism. We are the generation that was raised after 1975. We don’t have anything against the Communists,” said Tong, of Westminster, who left Vietnam in 1993. “But we oppose them because we see the 80 million people who are suffering back home.”

Organizers of the event raised $5,000 during the three-hour ceremony to help build the statue.

“For every dollar, that’s a bullet to the Communists,” a protester bellowed into a microphone exhorting people to donate.

Bon Tran, 60, of Santa Ana said April 30 has become embedded in his mind as a somber benchmark in his life.

“We lost our homeland and fled for our lives on this day,” Tran said after stuffing money into a donation box. “Our loved ones are still there. We can forget many things, but not this day.”