VIETNAM, NEWS ANALYSIS, JUNE 17, 2000.

* In Memory of the Thirteen Viet Quoc Martyrs Who Were Executed on June 17, 1930 in Yen Bai and many martyrs who were guillotined on other dates at other sites by the French Colonialist Authorities.

* On June Nineteen, Vietnamese exiles celebrate the Repubic of Vietnam Armed Forces Day, in memory of the 250,000 South Vietnamese warriors who sacrifed their lives and their 500,000 fighting fellows who have lost parts of their bodies for the Freedom of South Vietnam and for the safety and prosperity of the free world, particularly of the United States of America.

By Thanh Tin

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In the beginning, Thanh Tin believes that "Le Kha Phieu and his entourage were fostering many ambitions. Now that the trip has concluded, the propaganda machine is free to boast with editorials, commentaries, pictures, news reports on Nhan Dan Daily, on Hanoi TV and radio. But the Vietnamese are still skeptical. Is it really 'a very good trip' as alleged by the headlines on Nhan Dan newspaper on June 1?"

"I have often joined the delegations of the (VCP's) general secretaries Truong Chinh, Le Duan, Nguyen Van Linh. I have often written newspaper articles covering those trips to boast about their achievements as usually done in the Communist party. It's shameful," Thanh Tin admits.

He has met and talked on the telephone with "various sources, French and Vietnamese fellow journalists, including those from the Communist media from Vietnam, those journalists, reporters and cameramen (my old colleagues) and pro-Communist Vietnamese who frequent the Hanoi Embassy in Paris. Here I speak out the truth regarding Phieu's adventures."

"Upon receiving the list of Phieu's entourage, French officials in the presidential office and the foreign ministry exclaimed, 'Why (his accompanying party is) so large? Nearly 100 persons!' "

Thanh Tin could tell every member of the suite: two moving pictures camera teams, two photographers, 6 reporters, the director general of the Vietnam Press who commanded the whole propaganda operation, 7 interpreters, and officials from various offices of the party and the government. He also said that the official delegation only consisted of 8 members.

"The (Hanoi) ambassador (to France) is very sensitive about images. He ordered a lot of Japanese blank cassettes and activated all the six best TV sets to serve the plan." Thanh Tin reveals that on Sunday, May 21 when Phieu visited the Hanoi Embassy, the secretary general of the pro-Communist Association of the Vietnamese Patriots assured him that everything had been well prepared for the press campaign, thank to his good relations with the French media, who would come to see Phieu for interviews.

In the next two days, May 22 and 23, all the five TV major networks, kept absolute silence, as if Le Kha Phieu were not in Paris, according to Thanh Tin's reports. No TV, radio or newspaper report said a word about President Chirac receiving Phieu and his delegation.

"Chirac's short speech of half a page welcoming Phieu, deliberately made no mention of the Vietnam Communist Party or Ho Chi Minh beside praising the Vietnamese people and the Vietnam-France friendship. Even so, no one has reported a word about the reception."

To Thanh Tin, French media takes it a "non evenement" or an event with no value, a non-existent, inutile fact, unworthy of making news and of communication. The embassy's video cassettes are still "virgin." The French media silence has been very "eloquent and profound."

According to the report, Phieu and his men was visiting Europe for the first time. They have been used to other trips to China, Cuba, Laos and Cambodia or to Moscow in the Soviet era where Communist media published their portraits, biographies and reports regarding the welcoming receptions and speeches on two or three pages.

At last, there were some articles on the newspapers Le Monde, Liberation, L'Express, Nouvel Observateur. The softest article is by Jean Claude Pomonti of Le Monde in Hanoi. He says there is no indication of significant changes in he policy of "doi moi" (renovation) and it seems that the VCP's only concern is to consolidate its ruling power.

Le Monde also has a short article on its May-25 issue - after Phieu left France - about a Vietnamese committee in France has just published a document regarding the violations of human rights by Phieu's regime. The article concluded with a few words saying that Phieu visit ended in the indifference and uninterested attitude of the French public.

The weekly L'Express has had the largest coverage on Vietnam. Its correspondent Sylvaine Pasquier was rudely expelled from Vietnam in April. L'Epress wants to make the French public aware of its opinion that France should not have normal relations with a despotic regime that is acting against its own people. The L'Express conclusion is that "this is a regime of totalitaire d'un autre age."

The Liberation, once was supporting North Vietnam so much against the Americans' bombing, now has changed its position completely. With an article by Arnault Dubs, it points out that Phieu has only done one incomplete and ineffective work, that is a two-year struggle to reorganize his party whereas the party is still above and out of the laws and his red capitalist class is still acting freely.

"To see Mr. Phieu off, the Nouvel Observateur ran a nearly full-page article by the famous political gossip columnist Delfeil de Ton, who is uncompromising to dictators. The impressive title: 'Another Pinochet,' appeared on the newspaper May 31 issue."

"A Pinochet has just visited France, no one calls for arresting him. His name is Le Kha Phieu, which is difficult to pronounce. Different from Pinochet of Chile, whose crimes were in the past and he has retired, Le Kha Phieu is still holding a position and committing crimes, his organization has been assassinating and killing, causing many people's death on high seas on their ways fleeing Phieu's wicked regime..."

"It is very interesting to see the picture associated with the article. In the picture, Phieu is shaking hands with Prime Minister Jospin, wearing a very unpleasant smile and an oversize suit, the trousers look like a pair of bellows," Thanh Tin describes the scene.

The former NVN colonel reports that May 24 was the most important of the Phieu's four-day visit, when his delegation met with the French side at the Senate. French Senate President Poncelet and Phieu delivered their opening speeches. French officials and businessmen wanted Phieu to make clear: whether the VCP is willing to further its renovation or just implement it half way.

Senate President Poncelet's speech is downright. He stressed that Phieu's regime does not definitely renovate, the growth is slowing down, its administrative system is bulky and slow, foreign investment decreases, corruption is uncontrollable...

Phieu responded by boasting about independence before promising that he would "bring renovation into the depth." Other members of his delegation did nothing better, just evading the principal issue.

According to Thanh Tin, Phieu's May 24 meeting with the French side at the Senate could be considered a political and economic failure.

The visit was an initiative of Robert Hue, leader of the French Communist Party, but the VCP was imploring President Chirac's inviting him officially. Chirac was hesitating before responding to Phieu's insistence.

Thanh Tin has talked to many French journalists and officials from the offices of the president and the prime minister. It turned out that everybody knows that inviting a dictator to visit the home country of liberty and democracy is a sensible issue. So they (Phieu and his suit) are reluctantly-invited guests. Even the French Communist Party didn't invite them to the party's office.

Robert Hue passed the buck to a local communist leader in the commune of Montreuil, who welcomed Phieu to the tiny house where Ho Chi Minh had been living in the 1910's. The speech of this leader is probably the only one that has some propaganda value to be shown in Vietnam.

Right from the beginning, the buck was passed back and forth between the offices of the president and of the prime minister about how to and who would welcome Phieu. At last, the Minister of Communication Gaysott, of the Communist Party agreed to take the unpleasant task. Phieu and his entourage left France for Italy without any farewell party or ceremony on May 25.

Thanh Tin feels bitter and shameful when looking at the picture of Chirac and Phieu, where Phieu appears smaller in his full suit with a "smile of a child that sees a piece of candy."

Before returning to Hanoi, Phieu ordered members his entourage and employees in Hanoi embassy at Roma to praise his visit and threatened those who spread counter-propaganda viewpoints. But some of them expressed their opinion in front of Hanoi Ambassador Tran Minh Quoc that many in Phieu's entourage were skeptical, that Phieu's order would only create more entanglements, and they were not children.

An interesting anecdote told by Thanh Tin from a French source that in the meeting with Prim Minister Jospin, Phieu has bragging about a private businessman in Vietnam whose enterprise is exporting to Europe some $25 million a year of sea product. Prime Minister Jospin commented, "Oh that. I have never heard of it."

Thanh Tin remarks: "Let's ask the interpreter" for the truth. He also asks: "Who is the businessman that exported $25 million of sea product to Europe last year, please raise your hand."

Most of journalists that Thanh Tin has met with have the same opinion. Ms. Sylvaine Pasquier clasified Le Kha Phieu into the same list with Pinochet, Suharto, Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein.

One of his friends in the Figaro blamed the computer for all that. Just hit the button for "Le Kha Phieu" under "Vietnam," and all his speeches are on the monitor screen. The journalists however, have known his "wooden tongue, and what is in his empty head." Thanh Tin also visited AFP where the executive officer showed him how the agency is learning more and more about the dissidents in Vietnam.

Thanh Tin concluded his essay with his words to the Vietnamese in Vietnam: "I want to inform our friends who are courageous dissidents inside Vietnam that your voices, however little they may be and though they are prohibited, have been damping down the tyrant's noisy trumpet. We have reliable friends in the European and French media. They have just taught the visitors from Hanoi a broad lesson: There is a wide gap between democratic France and dictatorships, tyrants, the enemies of liberty, whatever cloak they may put on."

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