On January 17 and the following days, hundreds of Vietnamese living in Orange County areas joined in a peaceful gathering in front of a video shop, Hi-Tek, in Bolsa shopping center, Westminster City (South California) to protest the shop owner, who displayed a picture of the late leader of the Vietnam Communist Party Ho Chi Minh.

His assistant took down the picture after talking to the protesters. But when the owner Tran Van Truong came back, again he hung not only Ho's picture but also the flag of Hanoi regime - yellow star on red.

Moreover, Truong even provoked the protesters in a very shocking manner: He wore a North Vietnamese Army field dress including a pith-hat, standing in front of his shop with defiant gestures.

His provocation drew more protesters, estimated a thousand at a peak, and police officers were sent to the site. When Truong got out of his shop for his home under police protection, Truong claimed that he was beaten by the surrounding angry crowd. Later it was said that police officers had brought him to a hospital for treatment. Several reporters were searching all hospitals and emergency rooms in the areas. However, they have never found Truong's name in check-in registration of those medical facilities.

The landlord who owns the building immediately filed a complaint at the court, requesting that Truong be ordered to remove the two provoking items. The landlord also informed Truong that he would be evicted from the property as he intentionally caused disorder that resulted in disruption of other businesses in the shopping center. The judge gave order to remove the flag and the picture.

Truong, 37 years old, argued that he had a right to display what is legal in the United States. According to those who have known Truong personally, Truong fled Vietnam by boat in 1979 and was resettled in Canada before moving to California. His friends find his behavior a bit weird, or he is mentally unstable.

Hanoi lost no time taking advantage of the event. Hanoi Embassy in Washington D.C., its foreign ministry spokeswoman and its state-controlled media said in their press release, editorials and new reports that "The display of the Vietnamese national flag in the United States must be protected."

According to Hanoi Embassy's press release," Viet Nam and the US normalized their diplomatic ties in 1995 and exchanged ambassadors in 1997. In conformity with diplomatic criteria, the two countries have mutually recognized their national flags. Therefore, the display or raising of the national flag of the Socialist Republic of Viet Nam at any place in the United States is legal and should be protected by US law..."

Communist Party daily Nhan Dan (People) accused Washington of hypocrisy on its human rights policy.

Witnesses are certain that there could be no fierce blow on Truong's head while he was protected by the police, and if there had been such beating, the attacker(s) must have been arrested.

The case will be reviewed by the court next month, and many expect that some civil rights activists might participate in the controversy. Any ruling might only address the legal aspect.

Psychologically, the Vietnamese refugees have suffered incredible mental an d physical hardships under the Communist regime, many of them have relatives and friends fell victims of the Communist "political cleansing" campaigns in the 1946-48 purge, the 1953-56 Land Reform Campaign, the 1968 Tet massacre and in the re-education camps after 1975.

The red flag and the Ho's picture triggers their anger, just like a red cloth maddening a bull. They are angry when seeing such provocation displayed in public - where people can see clearly.

The protesters have shown remarkable self-restraint when facing such provocation. If they had not respected the U.S. law, things might have gone beyond expectation.

Many Vietnamese refugees said that displaying the red flag and Ho's picture in Orange County is similar to hanging Nazi swastika flag and Hitler's picture in a Jewish neighborhood. About 200,000 Vietnamese émigrés who fled Vietnam after April 30, 1975, are living in the areas around Orange County.

The yellow-star-on-red flag was originally the banner of the Vietnam Communist Party in the early 1940's. Since August 19, 1945, the VCP , then disguised as a nationalist front, introduced it to be the national colors. The nationalists strongly opposed to it, so strongly that a move to vote for a new national banner was initiated in the National Assembly, but the war broke out in December 1946 killed the move.

A lot of Vietnamese living abroad believe that Truong is no more than a scapegoat for Hanoi's scheme of disgracing the anti-Communist Vietnamese by provoking them into violent actions that most Americans would not accept.

The 6th plenum, second session of the Central Committee of the Vietnam Communist Party, was held in Hanoi on Monday, January 25, 1999. According to Nhan Dan daily (People), the session concentrated on discussing major and urgent issues concerning the Party building work. In the first session in October 1998, discussions were focused on economy.

The party's paper said "This is an event of great importance. In the renovation process, our Party defines economy as the central task and Party building is the key task. The Party must be strong in politics, ideology and organization. The true leadership of the Party has always been the factor that decides every victory of Vietnam's Revolution."

According to Western news reports, the VCP 165-member Central Committee has been discussing ways to stop corruption and make the party more relevant to Vietnam's younger, more materialistic generation.

The closed-door meetings, expected to last about a week, are held at a time when reforms have slowed down to a worrying rate and foreign investments are increasingly withdrawn.

Corruption is like cancer, slowly spreading without being noticed as dangerous until it is too late. Hanoi has had many anti-corruption campaigns for the last 45 years, but all of them failed to stem the evil. Most of the times, probably in the current campaign as well, the committee members only got rid of some scapegoats instead of punishing the true convicts, who usually have powerful protectors at the top level or may be top leaders themselves.

News report on Friday, Jan 29, indicated that scapegoats were sacrificed: More than 1.000 party cadres and officials at village level in Thai Binh province where farmers protests took place last year stunned the country, were disciplined. The reports have not given details of punishment measures.

The Central Committee was expected to name at least one member to fill a vacant seat in policy-making Politburo, and to officially oust retired general Tran Do, whose overt opposition causes much embarrassment to the party leadership.

Media sources predict several top officials could be switching jobs. Among them, Nguyen Manh Cam, the foreign minister, might be replaced by current Minister of Public Security Le Minh Huong, a staunch conservative. Pham Van Tra might leave the Ministry of Defense to take over the Public Security Ministry. Le Van Dung might become minister of Defense.

Whether the prediction would come true or not, the VCP leadership as the whole, won't change much. The new generations of young Vietnamese are growing up. People hope that the new class of younger leaders would be more liberal and reasonable to move the nation towards democracy.

It could be only a faint hope, because of the basic principle of VCP personnel management, frequently repeated in the party directives: "Strengthen the Party's Leadership." In fact, it means that "offspring of the party leaders and cadres are given key leading jobs." Communist aristocracy still prevails with somewhat inheritary system.

As usual, the primary objective of such plenum is to cope with a difficult situation. This time, the Party leaders are facing pressure from inside by conservative party members who disapprove extensive economic reforms, and from outside by global donators - among them the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank - who strongly urge Hanoi on implementation of a series of reforms.

What the VCP leaders would do in this plenum could only be for their ultimate objective: to maintain the party existence and its ruling power.