Some people have called on Vietnamese-Americans to put the Vietnam War behind'' and not protest Vietnamese Prime Minister Phan Van Khai on his visit to the United States. These wishful thinkers should ask themselves if any of these protesters would protest Khai if he were a democratically elected leader of a free Vietnam. The answer is a resounding no. If he were, the Vietnamese-American community would give him a red carpet welcome. Many Vietnamese-Americans who are protesting are young people who have little or no memory of a war that ended 30 years ago. We believe that only a democracy, with respect for human rights, can steer our homeland to a future of humane and sustainable growth. We are fighting for that future.

If anybody is still hung up on the past, it is the Vietnamese communists. Thirty years later, the war is still at the center of the communists' propaganda to justify their monopoly on power.

It baffles me how many Americans naively assume that, because communism collapsed in Europe, Vietnam has become a free country. I hope that Americans will take some time to educate themselves about the draconian and corrupt dictatorship that Khai represents. His ruling class, a.k.a. red capitalists, is using its political power to enrich itself at the expense of the vast majority of the Vietnamese people. Please do not chant along with the neo-communists the insincere call to put the past behind.