By K. Oanh Ha,San Jose Mercury News

SAN JOSE, Calif. – The event was invitation-only and reporters were banned. Organizers such as Diep and Quyen Vuong, Santa Clara, Calif., sisters who run several non-profits in Vietnam, wanted to keep it low-key.

Inside, though, the occasion was historic. It was an unprecedented meeting, on U.S. soil, at which a delegation of officials from Hanoi was openly greeted by Vietnamese-Americans whose philanthropic groups help compatriots in their struggling homeland.

The encounter, which took place at a conference two weekends ago in Petaluma, Calif., was an act of truce once unimaginable, and one that remains controversial today.

It’s the most recent example of a quiet movement stirring in the Vietnamese-American community to help develop their homeland by reaching out to the communist government in Vietnam – a regime many fled and swore eternal hatred toward a generation ago.

“We just want to build a dialogue with the government of Vietnam and the government of the U.S. so our work can be more effective,” said Quyen Vuong, one of the co-founders of Pacific Links Foundation, which organized the gathering of more than 130 Vietnamese-American non-profits that operate in Vietnam.

“The end goal is we want a brighter future for the children and people of Vietnam.”

Others see something more sinister.

SaigonUSA, a Vietnamese-language newspaper in San Jose, published an article this week accusing the Vietnamese government of orchestrating the conference to exploit the groups for its own end. The article cast suspicion on Pacific Links and other non-profits that attended.

That was exactly the kind of attack the Vuongs and others tried to avert by controlling the guest list and minimizing the involvement of Vietnamese officials. In fact, the event was underwritten by the Ford, Asia and Gerbode foundations, and the Vietnamese delegation was invited to attend just two of 12 sessions.

Though many non-profits have had private meetings with Vietnamese officials, this was the first openly acknowledged encounter in the United States.

Community activist Le Xuan Khoa, who has been lambasted over the past decade for advocating better relations with Hanoi, was elated about the history being made.

“Now people are accepting that dialogue is the best way to improve the situation in Vietnam,” said Le, who recently moved to Southern California.

To be sure, the anti-communist faction in the community is still strong, capable of drawing crowds for political demonstrations and successfully lobbying cities across California, including San Jose, to endorse the flag of vanquished South Vietnam as the preferred emblem for the country.

Since President Clinton resumed diplomatic relations with Hanoi a decade ago, the relationship between the two countries has grown, fortified by trade. But relations between Vietnam and the 1.2 million-strong Vietnamese-American community has been far more complicated.

Even the term “reconciliation,” often used to describe the evolution of the relationship between the two governments, is hardly uttered in the context of Hanoi and America’s Vietnamese community. The concept is interpreted differently by each side and is fraught with emotion over old grievances.

Much of the cooperation between emigres and Vietnamese officials still occurs behind closed doors. But increasingly, some are going public.

Many efforts are linked to commerce and technology, where Vietnam is hungry for the investment dollars and expertise of Viet Kieu, or overseas Vietnamese.

In June, the Vietnamese Silicon Valley Network, a technology group, hosted a rare roundtable between Vietnamese officials and Vietnamese-American entrepreneurs. Last year, a delegation that included local Vietnamese-Americans represented San Francisco on an official visit to sister city, Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). And last summer, Oakland formalized a sister-city relationship with Danang, a port city in central Vietnam.

The Vietnamese government estimates that 560 international non-profits provided $140 million in aid and services to the country in 2004. But Vietnamese-American groups think that amount is much higher because many groups operate under government radar.

“The people and government of Vietnam recognize the contributions and roles of Vietnamese-American” non-profits to help the people of Vietnam, said Tran Tuan Anh, Vietnamese consul general in San Francisco, who attended the Petaluma conference banquet last month.

Diep and Quyen Vuong and other community leaders consider that recognition a leap forward. Just two years ago, the government organized a conference for non-profits working in Vietnam but invited just a handful of Vietnamese-American groups, which make up the bulk of the effort.

In Petaluma, 24 non-profits formed an alliance group, Vietnamese-American Non-Governmental Organization Network, which will work with officials to gain more transparency and accountability in non-profit projects.

The seven officials from Hanoi spoke at two informational sessions, packed by attendees who asked questions about Vietnamese non-profit regulations and shared their frustrations.

“The face-to-face dialogue really helps,” said Thu Anh Do, executive director of San Jose-based VNHELP, which provides health and education programs in Vietnam. “In the past, there was a lot of distance between the non-profits and Vietnamese officials.”

The non-profit alliance agreed to pick one Vietnamese city next year toward which all members would contribute programs. The effort is the first of its kind.

The Vuongs hope the alliance group can be a bridge between emigres and the government of their homeland. While their critics charge the non-profits are being manipulated by Hanoi, the Vuongs and others say the non-profits, in fact, are helping to bring democratic values to Vietnam.

Said Diep Vuong, chair of the alliance’s planning committee: “What we’re doing – demanding transparency and accountability from the Vietnamese government – is a very American thing.”

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(c) 2005, San Jose Mercury News (San Jose, Calif.).

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Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-12-03-05 1446EST

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