Yen Do, the perfect spy?

The Bolsavik ran into a strange assertion published in Nguoi Viet in its April 3 edition. The claim has to do with the paper’s late founder and publisher, Yen Do (Vietnamese: Do Ngoc Yen).

First, some background information.

During the weeks before that edition, the protesters (read more about the protests on the L.A. Times here) had publicized a photo of Yen Do in meetings with the Vietnamese communist government’s officials in 1998. One photo shows Do in a souvenir photo with the Vietnamese consul general with the communist flag and a portrait of Ho Chi Minh in the background. (Read about that photo here.)

A second photo (photo right) shows Do at what appears to be a meeting of Vietnamese-American business people on the left and two high-ranking communist officials on the right, Consul General Nguyen Xuan Phong and Vice-Premier (now prime minister) Nguyen Tan Dung. Do was seated at the head of the table in what appears to be an intermediary role – or perhaps there were simply no more seats on the left.

The protesters publicized this photo in late March, purportedly as evidence that somehow Yen Do was a communist. How that conclusion flowed from him meeting communist officials is, at the least, a leap.

In response, Nguoi Viet published a lengthy op-ed admitting that Yen Do did attend such a meeting, with prior knowledge of other Nguoi Viet major shareholders. However, the op-ed said, he was there only as a curious observer – a journalist’s instinct, if you will.

In the Bolsavik‘s personal opinion, that should have been it. The man has passed away, nobody knows what was said at the meeting, there’s no evidence he did or said anything that helped the communists at the table.

However, the op-ed piece went on to say something curious. It said, direct quote:

“In U.S. government documents recently declassified one can find several reports by diplomats and CIA agents relating conversations they had with Yen Do.”

And in its April 3 edition, the paper published an opinion piece by Vo Long Trieu, asserting something equally disturbing. During the war, Vo Long Trieu was a politician and newspaper publisher, and Yen Do worked at his paper. Vo Long Trieu’s opinion piece asserts that Yen Do could not have been a communist. And it contains this bit (photo right):

“Once (after the war and in the US) I was talking to General Nguyen Khac Binh, National Police commander and head of the (South Vietnam) Central Intelligence Agency …. Mr. Binh said:

- Do Ngoc Yen (Yen Do), the owner of Nguoi Viet, he’s your former employee, right?

I smiled and responded:

- Well Yen was an employeee of yours over at the Central Intelligence Agency too!

Binh smiled in agreement.”

Here’s the problem: There is a name for people who speak secretly to the (US) CIA, and who works secretly for the national police and intelligence agency, and that’s “informant.” And a lot of people consider “informant” an insult! (Talk to cops, even they have no respect for their informants!)

The Bolsavik is sure that Yen Do was no such thing. He was a well-respected, dignified human being.

Imagine this. Mr. Do was a highly connected person – he knew hundreds of people and hundreds of people knew him. If he really was, as Vo Long Trieu claimed without any real evidence, an agent of the secret police, those hundreds would have files with the South Vietnamese police — and those files are now in the hands of the communists!

With such flimsy evidence as a silent smile of a private citizen, and unknown, unspecified documents, Nguoi Viet sullied the memory of its founder. What’s up with that?

Nguoi Viet should have just said, “Yes Mr. Do went to meet the communists. Yes we knew about it beforehand. And there’s nothing wrong with it!! You don’t know what he told the communists. He’s no longer around to defend himself against these baseless accusations.”

(The Bolsavik would have also added something like, “Go away, assholes!” But that sort of language isn’t for everybody…)