Wichita Eagle, The (KS) May 21, 1990 Section: PROSPER Edition: CITY EDITION Page: 11D Memo:COVER STORYEditor's note: Kansas' ties to the world abroad come in many forms. One of the most valuable imports is the people who have contributed their cultures and work to the fabric of the state.

SUCCESS IS SWEET THE SECOND TIME AROUND WITH HARD WORK AND A BIG HEART, A VIETNAMESE IMMIGRANT CARVES HIS NICHE IN A NEW LAND

Bob Cox, The Wichita Eagle

For Long Le, the path to living the American dream has been a tortuous one.

Once, Le led a privileged life. He was a wealthy, successful Vietnamese businessman, with a car and driver to transport him about Saigon. He had a luxurious home. Three servants took care of every need of his wife and four children.

Then Le had to start over. Fleeing the Communist rulers who took over his native land, Le brought his family to America with little more than the clothes on their backs.

Now they are rebuilding their lives in Wichita, using the old fashioned pull-yourself-up-by-the-bootstraps approach.

By day, Le runs Today Printing, a printing and typesetting business that specializes in Vietnamese-language jobs. He publishes a Vietnamese-language magazine that is distributed nationally. By night, he works at Learjet Corp. where, with overtime, the shift may end at 2 a.m.

Similarly, his wife, My Nguyen, performs alterations for Brick's by day and, working out of the print shop, on her own at night. Sister-in-law Mai Nguyen works the day shift at Learjet and afterwards in the printing shop.

It's been that way since they arrived in America a dozen years ago.

''I was in this country 12 days I got a job," Le says. "I'm very proud I don't get any penny from social assistance."

With his gray-flecked hair, light blue dress shirt and tie, Le looks the part of a modest small-business man. Sitting at his desk in a cramped corner of the print shop at 410 W.

21st, his eyes gleam as he relates the incredible struggle his family has endured since fleeing Vietnam on May 19, 1977.

They were boat people, among the fortunate ones who were able to escape without detection and make it safely to freedom, via Singapore and Indonesia. After spending six months in a refugee camp, Le, who had worked with the U.S.government public affairs office in Saigon, was allowed to emigrate to Kirksville, Mo.

There Le, his wife and sister-in-law worked at whatever jobs were available. "I never used my hands in Vietnam," he says,"I used my brain. But when I came to this country I used my hands."

After work, Le took a vocational course and learned electronics. In 1979 he got a job withCessna Aircraft Co. and moved to Wichita. Eventually, his wife and sister-in-law also gotjobs at Cessna.

While he worked, Le took a course in printing from the Wichita Area Vocational-Technical School. He dreamed of opening his own shop, but could not get financing. Local banks and the Small Business Administration pointed to his lack of experience and declined to take the risk.

Finally, a Kansas City firm lent Le $25,000 at 28 percent interest.

''Everybody worked two jobs to make the payments," Le says. Sometimes they were late making loan payments and were assessed steep penalties. He opened the print shop primarily as a vehicle to print the national magazine in 1982. It took five years to pay off the loan from Kansas City.

Le punctuates his telling of the family's tale with an occasional somber shake of the head or a burst of wry laughter.

In 1985, all three members of the Le family were laid off by Cessna as the aircraft maker struggled to survive the steep downturn in the general aviation industry. They made the printing business pay and family ends meet.

But for more than three years the family went without health insurance and the other benefits that a regular job carries. Fortunately, they suffered no serious illnesses or injuries.

In the meantime, Le, like other American parents, made sure his children received an education. Le beams as ticks off their progress:

The oldest son, Diep Le, is an engineer employed by a contractor at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. Another son, Phong Le, is headed to Boston College this fall, while daughter Ngoc Le is attending McPherson College and pointing toward medical school. Youngest son Phuc Le is doing well at Northwest High.

Finally, last April, Le and his sister-in-law both were hired by Learjet. Their days got longer, but they're more financially secure.

Le doesn't sleep much now, but he dreams. He dreams of the day he doesn't have to work 18 hours a day. "I want to expand my business, to make it bigger, to make more benefits, make more profits," he says.

The print shop is faring well. Because the shop specializes in Vietnamese-language jobs, Le says, ''We really don't have any competition in Wichita." Additional business comes from Vietnamese communities all over the country.

The magazine, called Ngay Nay in Vietnamese the title translates to Today Magazine hasa circulation of about 5,000 and is mostly a labor of love at this point. "It is my hobby," Le says. In a good month the advertising may cover the costs of printing it.

A recent issue contained a variety of articles ranging from the collapse of communism in East Germany and the potential reunification of Germany to suggestions on how to assist other Vietnamese who are stranded in refugee camps in southeast Asia.

Le hopes the publication will become profitable. It competes with other publications for readership among the sizable Vietnamese emigre population in the United States.

He says the magazine serves a dual purpose for its Vietnamese readers. It helps them maintain the culture of their old land while adapting to that of their new land.

Aside from having to borrow money at an outrageous interest rate "That's a very expensive lesson I never forget" Le says he has nothing but good feelings about his American experience.

''I live in this city 10 years," he says. "I own the business.

He hopes soon to fulfill another aspect of the American dream, home ownership.

When asked if he wished to return to his homeland someday, Le said yes, but only if the Communist government is replaced by one that permits the kinds of individual freedoms he has found here.

''I think this country is the best place in the world to live," Le says. "We appreciate that."

Illustration:PHOTO: Long Le escaped Vietnam in one of the boat flotillas.From a refugee camp, he emigrated to this country, working where jobs wereavailable. "I never used my hands in Vietnam. I used my brain. But when Icame to this country I used my hands," he said.