VNF - As the culprit of the mass killings of journalists who exposed evil nature about them; tricking out of hundreds of millions of dollar, Viet Tan has become an international criminal organization operating in the Vietnamese community in many countries.

Assassination of 5 Vietnamese journalists in America

In the early 80s of the last century, while the majority of Vietnamese immigrants to the United States were still managing a difficult life in the new land, members of Viet Tan wandered all the streets where Vietnamese people live to deceive and extort money. They used every tricks, such as organizing charity fundraisers for compatriots or calling for support for the so-called “Vietnam Liberation Front”. The amount of money raised, in fact, they used for personal life.

The leaders of Viet Tan hired many reporters to write articles, using local newspaper and television to spread imformation on their acitivities. However soon afterwards, their deceptive behavior was uncovered. Since then, homicides, intimidation, mental threats were carried out in secret by Viet Tan.

In 1981, journalist Duong Trong Lam (27, in San Francisco) was shot to death by a stranger outside his apartment in Tenderloin.

One year later in 1982, a group of assassins ambushed and shot 7 bullets into journalist Nguyen Dam Phong at his home in Houston.

In 1987, journalist Pham Van Tap burned to death in his working office in Garden Grove, California. Then, in 1989 and 1990, journalist Do Trong Nhan and editor Le Triet (with his wife) were killed by pistols in Virginia.

To help families of the victims to find the truth, A.C Thompson and his colleagues at PBS & Pro Publica began investigating the case despite objections from both the US government and the suspects. PBS & Pro Publica reporters quickly identified the cause of the killings. Accordingly, the journalists were killed because they not only had authentic documents of activities of Viet Tan but also dared to publicly criticize and denounce them on newspaper.

PBS & Pro Publica had conducted countless interviews with FBI members, local police, victims' families and colleagues to clarify many issues.

Finally, in November 2015, the film "Terror in Little Saigon" was also introduced to the public. Although the film does not accuse Viet Tan (due to lack of evidence under US law), the viewers share the same view: Viet Tan is the killer of Vietnamese journalists. It is a campaign to purge those who do not share the negative political viewpoints and bravely denounce criminals activities of Viet Tan.

Money scram

Calling upopn the Vietnamese community in America to participate in and contribute money to the Vietnam Communist Government’s coup, a group of senior officials of Vietnam Republic, led by Hoang Co Minh met in the United States to form the Front for the Fight Agaisnt the Communist regime in Vietnam, the precursor of Viet Tan.

The Front made up a “ghost war zone” in Thailand with tens of thousands of soldiers. Then, they called for hundreds of millions of dollars in contributions from Vietnamese community in America and other countries.

To make this “ghost war zone” more real, the Front claimed that the war zone lied in Thailand with about 10,000 troops. They held a few small groups seeking ways to enter into Vietnam from the east.

It is ridiculous that how the Thai government could allow such a large number of armed men to reside in Thailand to fight against Vietnam, to create tension in bilateral relations.

Apprently Hoang Co Minh and his fellow cheated the community, exaggerating the number of members, polishing name and activities of the Front to extract money from Vietnamese in America and other countries.

However, if we pay closer attention we will see how the Front “ghost war zone, 10,000 troops’’ can survive when they do not make any value to pay for their operating costs. Or if there is a source of funding from elsewhere, there can be no safe route for the Front to transport a large number of food and weapons to Thailand, Laos and Cambodia because Vietnam has a very good relations with these countries.

When internal conflicts in Viet Tan occured, they disclosed each other by themselves. A US newspaper reported that by the mid-1980s overseas Vietnamese had contributed more than USD 20 million to Viet Tan. To date, this figure has been more than USD 100 million.

A person who has been with Viet Tan for a long time like Pham Thanh also indigantly declared that Viet Tan was essentially a “robber”, robbing both money and trust of Vietnamese overseas./.

Translated by VNF