Anti-Communist Activist Arrested for Vietnam Flight Gets O.C. Support

The often fractious Vietnamese American community in Little Saigon is rallying around the cause of an activist arrested last week after dropping 50,000 anti-Communist leaflets in Ho Chi Minh City on the eve of President Clinton’s visit there.

Tong Ly, 50, of New Orleans has been held in a Thailand jail since returning from his Nov. 16 flight. He is accused of forcing a pilot he had hired for flying lessons to fly into Vietnam, low enough to avoid radar, so he could sprinkle the leaflets over the city once known as Saigon, the capital of the former South Vietnam.

Late Tuesday in Westminster, about 250 Little Saigon community members, many of whom were South Vietnamese soldiers or prisoners of war, formed a committee to spearhead efforts to free Ly.

The 21-member committee plans to contact government officials, raise money for Ly’s legal defense, fight for his return to the United States and raise awareness in other Vietnamese communities around the world. Vietnamese American enclaves in Houston and San Jose have begun similar efforts.

On Friday, a delegation of about a dozen community leaders will meet with Royal Thai Consul General Piyawat Niyomrerks in Los Angeles to seek the release of Ly.

Community members argue that Ly did not coerce the pilot or, as Thai officials allege, carry a grenade on the plane. Instead, he offered $10,000 to the pilot for the trip but the pilot did not take the money.

“He is seen as a hero, not a thug,” said Van Vo, producer of the Vietnamese American radio program “Living in America.” “He fights for human rights for a country, something that no one else dares to do, and should be released.”

Community activists already have written letters seeking help from Reps. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), Edward R. Royce, (R-Fullerton) and Loretta Sanchez (D-Garden Grove).

“We want to welcome our hero back,” Vo said.

Little Saigon, the largest Vietnamese American community in the nation, is known as much for its political infighting as it is for its abhorrence of Communism.

The area erupted in a massive 53-day protest starting in January 1999 over a merchant’s decision to hang a photo of Communist leader Ho Chi Minh and a flag of the current Vietnamese government in his video store on Bolsa Avenue in Westminster. Daily demonstrations drew as many as 15,000 people.

Ly, 50, a writer and naturalized U.S. citizen who was a pilot in the South Vietnamese armed forces, first gained attention in immigrant communities in 1992 when he hijacked a Vietnam Airlines jet in Thailand and dropped 50,000 anti-Communist leaflets over Ho Chi Minh City. He spent six years in a Vietnamese prison.

On New Year’s Day last January, Ly also released 50,000 leaflets over Havana, urging Cubans to overthrow Fidel Castro.

Last week, during the half-hour flight above Ho Chi Minh City, Ly tossed out 50,000 leaflets that encouraged the Vietnamese people to stage a march for freedom while Clinton was visiting Vietnam. The leaflets said their actions would be supported by Vietnamese Americans overseas.

“If we bow, the Communists will ride on top of us,” the leaflet stated. “If we stand up, the Communists will collapse.”