In 1992, Da Le was editor of the Vietnam Times, a Vietnamese language newspaper based in Seattle. Le's paper advocated for normalizing relations between Vietnam and the US and for the end of a trade embargo imposed by the US against Vietnam. In response, a group called the Movement Against Assistance to Communist Vietnam distributed a leaflet among Seattle's Vietnamese communities which accused Le and his newspaper of being part of a conspiracy run by the Vietnamese government and calling for the community to remove them "from any influence whatsoever." The leaflet also implicitly called for violence by branding Le as a communist. Le accused the Movement of being a conservative faction which intimidated Vietnamese people to control the Vietnamese-American community, saying, "These people are trying to force us to be prisoners of a state that doesn't exist anymore. We didn't come out of Vietnam to be prisoners again."

This image shows Da Le in his office. Le worked for the city of Seattle and published the Vietnam Times at nights and weekends. Le was formerly an officer in the South Vietnamese army who came to the US after escaping Vietnam by boat to Thailand.

Caption information source: "Vietnamese editor here threatened," by Ron Redmond, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 7, 1992, page A1.