Dornan Booted From Official Trip to Vietnam

WASHINGTON — Hours before Rep. Robert K. Dornan was to join a congressional delegation Friday for a weeklong trip to Vietnam, the Orange County congressman was unceremoniously bumped from the trip and his visitor’s visa revoked.

The culprit, Dornan angrily charged at a news conference in front of the Capitol, was the leader of the delegation, Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa).

Joined by Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Huntington Beach), whose staffer was also bumped from the trip, Dornan, his shirt damp with perspiration, held up his passport, which had been stamped Friday with an approved visa, only to be later marked ‘ ‘DA HUY, DA HUY, DA HUY ,” or “canceled.”

His two suitcases, which he had hastily packed for the trip, were locked in his Ford, parked just a few feet away.

“This is an unbelievable move by a guy who still thinks he’s in the majority [party of Congress],” the conservative Garden Grove congressman said of Harkin, who organized the trip to discuss trade and diplomatic issues with Vietnamese officials.

Dornan and Rohrabacher speculated that Harkin “uninvited” Dornan because the Iowa senator supports normalization of relations with Vietnam. Both Orange County congressmen have insisted that the MIA/POW issue be resolved before the Clinton Administration re-establishes diplomatic ties with the country.

Harkin’s office denied that the senator had made the decision to leave Dornan behind.

Initially, Dornan had pledged to follow the delegation’s itinerary--even though he had planned to pursue the MIA/POW issues.

Now, Dornan fumed, the trip would be nothing but a “celebratory, goof-off trip to please the communist killers, terrorists and victors” of the Vietnam War.

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Rohrabacher was equally outraged that Dornan, who is seeking the GOP presidential nomination, would be excluded from a taxpayer-funded trip on a government plane, the old Air Force One.

“Sen. Harkin is off to wine and dine with the communist bosses in Hanoi at the taxpayers’ expense,” Rohrabacher said. “And in our attempt to send a mission to have a legitimate investigation of the MIA/POW issue, Sen. Harkin or his staff used his influence to undermine and undercut that mission.”

But a spokeswoman for Harkin, who listened to the allegations by the Orange County congressmen, denied that the senator’s office had blocked the Republicans’ entry into Vietnam.

As the spokeswoman prepared to brief reporters, Dornan walked up to her and said: “[Harkin] is going to pay a severe price for this. This is the last Marxist thing he does in my face. This is the last time that a [Democratic] member shuts down a [Republican] chairman.” Dornan heads the House National Security subcommittee on military personnel.

Dornan’s inclusion in the delegation had been last-minute. Initially, only the Republican staffers were scheduled for the trip until they learned that Senate rules required a congressman’s attendance. Dornan said his chief of staff received assurances Thursday evening from Harkin that Dornan could join the group.

The delegation, which departed Washington just as Dornan’s news conference was being held, included three senators and three representatives--all Democrats except for an Independent.

“Sen. Harkin said, ‘Bob is more than welcome to come on this trip . . . as long as he gets the authorization and his papers in order,’ ” said Jodie Silverman, a spokeswoman in Harkin’s office. She noted that Harkin and Dornan had once traveled together to China.

“The decision is made by the State Department. We have no say over who gets a visa and who does not,” Silverman said.

The State Department questioned Dornan’s inclusion in the trip, she added, when Harkin’s office denied that Dornan had “personally” spoken to the senator about joining the trip.

Silverman said the State Department had asked if Dornan “personally” talked to Harkin about the trip. When Harkin’s staff said no, the State Department decided to remove Dornan from the travel plans, Silverman said.

“That was the beginning and the end of what was said on our end,” Silverman said.

However, Dennis Harter, the State Department officer who handled the papers for the trip, said the matter was between Harkin, Dornan and the Vietnamese government. “We don’t issue visas for the Vietnamese government. . . . We don’t make those kinds of decisions,” he said.

At the Liaison Office of Vietnam in Washington, Chi Pham, the official who handled the paperwork, said he was preparing to issue Dornan a visa but then realized his name was not on the list prepared several weeks ago by Harkin’s office.

In conversations with Harkin’s staff Friday morning, Pham said he was told that “Congressman Dornan has no contact [in Vietnam] . . . and did not want to follow Sen. Harkin’s program in Vietnam and he wanted to have his separate program. He’s not part of the delegation.”

Pham said that all Dornan needed was verification from Harkin’s office that he was a member of the official group visiting the country.