Extremist Group Threatens Editor With Execution : Vietnam: A letter from staunch anti-Communists names the journalist and other prominent Vietnamese-Americans as targets of retribution unless they stop their activities.

WESTMINSTER —  The editor of one of the largest Vietnamese-language newspapers in the United States has received a death threat from a right-wing extremist group.

The typewritten communique accuses editor Yen Ngoc Do and several other prominent Vietnamese-Americans of unspecified pro-Communist activities. It threatens to execute them on April 30, the 15th anniversary of the fall of Saigon, unless they stop their activities.

The letter is the latest in a barrage of threats, beatings, arsons and shootings since 1980 of Vietnamese-Americans who either advocate normalization of relations between the United States and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam or are otherwise perceived to be less-than-zealous anti-Communists.

Last April, one of Do’s trucks was set ablaze and a novelist was severely beaten.

Copies of the death threat were mailed to at least 20 newspapers and community groups in Orange County and San Jose. The letter was released to The Times by a community activist who hoped that public attention would prompt authorities to crack down on violent extremists.

San Jose attorney Liem Huu Nguyen, who was also named specifically in the death threat, said Friday that the violence has succeeded in silencing political discussion.

“It’s a kind of unofficial censorship stronger than any kind of government censorship that I know,” Nguyen said.

Vietnamese refugees have intently followed the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, upheaval in the Soviet Union and Vietnam’s recent policy of doi moi, or liberalization.

Vietnamese conservatives oppose establishing diplomatic relations, ending economic sanctions or lifting travel restrictions unless democratic reforms are enacted. They have publicly denounced doi moi as a “fake.” Liberals say closer ties will bring reforms. They say normalization is inevitable and could happen within a year or two--but most will discuss their views only on condition of anonymity.

“It’s almost impossible to say anything reasonable or moderate under these circumstances,” Nguyen said. “The idea of anti-Communism to these people is to kill all the Communists.”

In 1988, after a Garden Grove newspaper publisher died in an arson fire, the FBI announced an investigation into political violence in U.S. Vietnamese exile communities. No arrests have been made. Los Angeles FBI spokesman Jim Nielson declined comment Friday.

An Orange County physician who favors closer ties with Hanoi noted that the FBI snapped into action in recent months to catch those responsible for a wave of letter bombings in the South. Dr. Jack R. Kent said Friday that authorities and politicians should be just as forceful in protecting Vietnamese-Americans whose lives and freedom are threatened.

“Nobody comes out publicly and says, ‘We can’t tolerate this, this is un-American to threaten people for what they say, for having unpopular opinions,’ ” Kent said. “Why isn’t there a community outroar?”

As editor of the Nguoi Viet Daily News, which appears six days a week and claims a circulation of 10,000, Do has been repeatedly threatened both by mail and by envoys who have warned him to “keep quiet.” His car was vandalized three times last year and once this year.

Last April 24, arsonists set fire to a Nguoi Viet pickup truck and scrawled a threat in Vietnamese on the newspaper’s wall: “Nguoi Viet, if you are VC (Viet Cong) we kill.”

Do, who is also co-owner of the studio that produces a popular weekly Vietnamese television program, believes the arson was committed by anti-Communists who became enraged when the program inadvertently aired footage of the Vietnamese flag and Ho Chi Minh’s mausoleum in Hanoi.

Do blamed a technician for using old file footage in a new context that caused offense. He publicly apologized to community leaders for the mistake, and the newspaper published a banner-sized apology.

Do said Friday he does not know what prompted the latest threat.

“In my editorials, we are anti-Communist,” he said. “But there are many, many small groups of extremists in our community, and sometimes some of them don’t agree with us because we are not as fanatical as them.

“After my bitter experience last year, I became more careful about selecting articles,” said Do, speaking softly in English marked by a slight French accent. “I don’t think my newspaper published anything that the anti-Communists don’t like. . . . I have nothing to apologize for.”

The threatening letter, dated March 13 and postmarked from Santa Ana, was signed by a group that has not been heard from before. It warns that priests, intellectuals, journalists and businessmen “have tried to work with the Communists because they think the Communists are now changing,” an apparent reference to doi moi.

Nguyen, the young San Jose attorney, advocated reconciliation between the United States and Vietnam at a conference in August. Nguyen had argued that opening Vietnam to outside influences would ultimately weaken the grip of Communist Party hard-liners.

His office was later picketed, and he received two previous death threats, including one from a group called the Vietnamese Party to Exterminate the Communists and Restore the Nation, which has claimed credit for several acts of violence since 1980.

Nguyen said he is taking the threats very seriously and has reported them to local police and the FBI.

The letter also names two close associates of Do, a Fountain Valley video production company, a free-lance journalist and Los Angeles businessman, and “all Vietnamese traitors who pretend to be businessmen or priests.”

A friend of Do, who asked not to be named, said Do may be a target not because of his political views but because rivals are jealous of his business success.

Do said his associates have asked him to leave town on April 30 but he wants to “be in the office that day and see what happens.” But he said is concerned for the safety of his co-workers and his family and may respect their wishes.

Westminster Police Detective Marcus Frank said the police have taken a report on the threat and are taking it seriously. “We are increasing police presence in the area,” he said.

One prominent businessman called the extremists “ridiculous” and said a “silent majority” of educated Vietnamese quietly oppose them. He faulted the extremists for resorting to the same tactics as the Communists they once fought.

“These guys were supposed to fight against totalitarians, fight for freedom,” he said. “They come here and they do the same thing.”