A Reviled Figure Resurfaces to Oppose Unwelcome Mat for Vietnam Officials

By Mai Tran

May 19, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

A former Little Saigon video shop owner who once triggered weeks of noisy protests when he displayed communist icons in his business reemerged Tuesday as a voice of dissent against a resolution aimed at keeping delegates from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam from visiting the immigrant community.

More than 100 shouting demonstrators gathered Tuesday as Truong Van Tran stood on the steps of Westminster City Hall, where he held a disjointed press conference that turned into a yelling match. Police ultimately were called, and Tran was escorted to his car.

During the gathering, Tran announced his intent to file a lawsuit to overturn a resolution by Garden Grove, passed last week, that “discourages” visits by Communist Party leaders from Vietnam.

Westminster is expected to adopt a similar resolution tonight.

“It’s discriminatory,” said Tran, 43, who has kept a low profile since the protests he once triggered and his subsequent jail term for video piracy. “It’s like saying that blacks aren’t allowed to walk around Little Saigon. It’s not fair. It’s not right.”

The gathering outside City Hall was reminiscent of the outrage that Tran sparked in January 1999 when he hung a photo of late communist leader Ho Chi Minh and the current Vietnamese flag inside his shop. The 53 days of protests attracted international attention as police in riot gear tried to control crowds of up to 15,000 that spilled onto the streets near Tran’s video rental shop. Those protests finally came to an end after Tran was arrested for possessing counterfeit videotapes. He was ultimately sentenced to three months in jail.

On Tuesday, Tran brought along an orange bank bag to his press conference in hopes of soliciting donations for his legal fight. He left empty-handed, however.

Tran has remained out of the limelight in recent years, living quietly in Stanton and working as a contract employee, on underground wiring for Caltrans, delivering the Orange County Register and picking up recyclables to subsidize his welfare checks.

But he said his anger boiled over last week when he heard a radio report that Garden Grove had passed the resolution.

Appearing with a goatee and long salt-and-pepper hair pulled into a ponytail, Tran said he had spent hours on the Internet, trying to solicit donations so he could hire an attorney.

“I’m not doing this for notoriety,” Tran said. “I’m doing it for Vietnam. I want Garden Grove to stop the [resolution]. It’s a freedom country.”

Tuesday’s demonstrators taunted Tran while waving flags of the United States and the former South Vietnam, and holding effigies of a beheaded Ho Chi Minh. The two who led the 1999 demonstrations, Tuan Anh Ho and Ky Ngo, were also there.

“Communist dog, go home!” one lady yelled.

Tran screamed back, “You call yourself anti-communist, but you’re worse than the communists! You don’t accept anyone else’s opinions!”

Some protesters said they had misgivings about attending Tran’s press conference but feared that staying away would give him a one-sided forum.

“He’s disrupting the community and provoking us,” said Hao Le, 56, a manicurist from Diamond Bar. “He is being persuaded by the communists to do this. He fled to come to the United States, and he doesn’t even open his eyes and recognize what the communists did.”

Ngoc The Phan, 73, of Anaheim Hills said he wouldn’t donate anything. “Are you kidding me? I’d rather give it to the homeless guy on the street,” said Phan, who said his wife was shot and killed by communist officials in Vietnam.

Officers urged Tran to leave after the crowd began to grow and became more vocal.