April 6, 1999
By DENA BUNIS
The Orange County Register
Rep. Loretta Sanchez worked both sides of the street during her five-day trip to Vietnam.
From the offices of government in Hanoi in the north to the homes of dissidents in Ho Chi Minh City in the south, she talked about linking human-rights gains to increased trade with the United States.
"I said to the government officials: 'This will happen whether you make moves to have it happen now or in time it happens because of the economy you have here,' " Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, said.
And she said she saw firsthand the disconnection between government and some of the Vietnamese dissidents her constituents told her she needed to listen to.
For example, Sanchez says government officials told her that more than 400 publications were in circulation in Vietnam. But a Catholic cardinal told her the church was unable to publish a newsletter for parishioners.
A person can freely visit a relative or friend, Sanchez said. But if more than two people get together to take such a trip, they must report that movement to the government.
Sanchez's trip was big news in Orange County's Vietnamese community. She was on a local radio show from Vietnam and the local press has covered her trip extensively.
"I believe she has been on target with hitting on things the Vietnamese government has been trying to hide," said Brian Vu, a community activist and member of the Vietnamese Political Action Committee. Vu says he is most concerned about the lack of press freedoms in Vietnam and would have liked Sanchez to come back with a specific road map on how to install those freedoms into that country.
Sanchez met Thursday with Dr. Nguyen Dan Que, a prominent dissident released from prison in September. They were at his middle-class home on the edge of Ho Chi Minh City when a commotion erupted outside.
"We were having a good conversation," Sanchez said. "All of a sudden we heard a lot of noise out front and the doorbell rang. Somebody yelled over the fence that it was the secret police." The stranger finally gave up when Que's family would not let him in.
"I was more frightened for Dr. Que" than for herself, Sanchez said. Que turned to her after that incident, she said, and told her the government obviously didn't want her to meet with him.
Sanchez said she got the same feeling when she went to the home of Le Quang Liem, a Buddhist monk known to be an outspoken government critic.
But on this day, Liem was not talkative.
"He was pretty close lipped. My feeling was somebody had gotten to him," Sanchez said.
Sanchez also visited with American business people operating in Vietnam, from large corporate representatives to small-business entrepreneurs.
"The most surprising thing was the optimism from the American business people who haven't turned a profit, even though some of them have been there for seven years," said Sanchez. "They still think the pot of gold" is within reach.
Van Tran, a Westminster lawyer, says the community viewed her trip "with high expectations," particularly in the wake of the two-month-long protests in the community.
But, Tran says, expectations were not that she'd solve the problems, just that she'd be a visible and forceful advocate for their views.
Tran believes such sustained communication might be a way for Sanchez to compensate for never showing up at the protest site or speaking out in favor of the demonstrators' goals.
Instead of going to the protest, Sanchez held a community meeting in advance of her trip, believing that was the most productive way to get at the issues.
Members of congress frequently travel overseas, often in conjunction with the committees they sit on. Sanchez sits on the Armed Services Committeee.
She said she made it clear to Vietnamese officials that she would continue to try to persuade Congress and President Clinton not to extend normalization of relations with Vietnam until the human-rights and religious freedom issues are resolved.
But she knows she has an uphill battle.
"I'm still hoping we can affect what goes on with the bilateral trade agreement" that is being negotiated now, she said.