Do Hoang Diem

In this Vietnamese name, the family name is Đỗ. According to Vietnamese custom, this person should properly be referred to by the given name Điềm.

Do Diem
Native name	Đỗ Hoàng Điềm
Born	1963 (age 47–48) Saigon, Vietnam
Nationality	Vietnamese
Occupation	democracy activist
Website
www.viettan.org

Đỗ Hoàng Điềm (also known as Diem Do) is the current chairman of Viet Tan. He was born in Saigon, Vietnam, in 1963^[1] and was elected to chairman in September 2006 at the 6th Party Congress.

History

Đỗ Hoàng Điềm was born in Saigon in 1963^[1] and escaped from Vietnam on April 30, 1975, during the Fall of Saigon. He arrived in the United States as a refugee in June 1975. In 1984, he received his B.S. degree from the University of California, Irvine; in 1987, he graduated from the University of Houston with an MBA degree. With his degree, he worked as a manager in various industries, including banking, entertainment, health care and electronics business.^[1]

Điềm became very active in the Vietnamese American community. He served as the Vietnamese Professionals Society’s first Board of Directors from 1991 to 1992, was a radio and TV talk show host for Little Saigon Broadcasting and also a member of the Executive Board of the Vietnamese Community of Southern California. Most notably, as a member of the Vietnamese Public Affairs Committee (VPAC) since 1994, a grassroots organization aiming to empower Vietnamese Americans, he testified numerous times in the US Congress about human rights violations in Vietnam, US-Vietnam relations, and other political issues.

Đỗ Hoàng Điềm joined Việt Tân during his college years.^[2][1]

As the current chairman of Việt Tân, Đỗ Hoàng Điềm frequently visits lawmakers in Washington, D.C. On May 29, 2007, he was invited by U.S. president George W. Bush, along with three other Vietnamese-American activists to the White House on a meeting about Vietnam’s increasingly harsh treatment of anti-government activisits and an upcoming visit by Vietnam’s state president, Nguyen Minh Triet, to the United States. During the 45-minute meeting, Do Hoang Diem urged the president to increase pressure on Vietnam to respect human rights and asked for the United States to support openly democractic forces to bring change to Hanoi.^[3] During Nguyen Minh Triet’s visit to the U.S., Đỗ Hoàng Điềm also met with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shortly before her meeting with the Vietnamese state president to stress the importance of raising the issue of Hanoi's poor human rights record.^[4]

On March 12, 2008, he appeared before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee’s subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs to appeal to lawmakers to confront the issue of Việt Tân members being detained in Vietnam.^[5]

Việt Tân membership

Diem joined Việt Tân in 1982 while he was still at university. After having been a member for almost ten years, he became the Southern Californian Regional Director from 1991 to 1995, afterwards he became the External Affairs Director from 1996 to 2004, and briefly held the position as the Policy Director in 2005-2006.

In September 2006 at the 6th Party Congress, he was elected to be the new chairman of Việt Tân, replacing the previous chairman, Nguyen Kim.

See also

• Việt Tân
• Hoang Tu Duy

External links

• Short biography
• Do Hoang Diem speaks at University of California, Los Angeles

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d} Alistair Coe (2009-11-12). "Alistair commends Vietnam pro-democracy movement". http://www.alistaircoe.com.au/2009/viet-tan/. Retrieved 2009-12-06. 
2. ^ "Government attacks boost democracy movement" (in English). On Line Opinion. 2009-11-10. http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=9664&page=0. Retrieved 2009-11-14. 
3. ^ Associated Press (2007-05-29). "Vietnamese-American activists call for US to pressure Vietnam on human rights". http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/29/america/NA-GEN-US-Vietnam.php. Retrieved 2007-08-27. 
4. ^ Kathrine Schmidt (2007-06-20). "Orange County pushes discussion on Vietnam". http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/homepage/abox/article_1738986.php. Retrieved 2007-08-27. 
5. ^ "Vietnamese rights activists press Congress to act". 2008-03-12. http://weblogs.baltimoresun.com/news/politics/blog/2008/03/vietnamese_rights_activists_pr.html. Retrieved 2008-04-04. 

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Name	Diem, Do Hoang
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