BY MARIKA LYNCH

 Ly Tong, who rained leaflets over Havana on New Year's Day, is fast becoming
 the darling of Miami's Cuban community.

 Hailed as a hero by many exiles, he has been invited to roll through the streets of
 Little Havana in Sunday's annual Three Kings Day Parade, a longtime Cuban
 tradition in Miami. He even wants to bring along the Cessna 172 he rented for the
 flight, if the plane's owner permits.

 Brothers to the Rescue leader Jose Basulto has nominated the 51-year-old former
 fighter pilot to receive honorary wings from the exile organization that has also
 made leaflet drops over Havana.

 ``We grant that to people who do something in an act of solidarity, people who
 express a great deal of valor. He's done that, Basulto said Monday before heading
 to meet Tong at a Cuban American Veterans Association/Brothers meeting.

 The praise comes despite the fact that Tong's trip caused military jets to
 scramble on both sides of the Florida Straits. The FAA is investigating whether
 Tong broke any federal laws.

 Meanwhile, Havana's reaction to Tong's trip was vitriolic, to put it mildly.

 In an unsigned article titled Madman, Drug Addict or Mercenary? the weekly
 Trabajadores presented the government's official appraisal of the ``Saigonese
 puppet'' who whizzed in and out of Havana in a ``grotesque provocation.

 ``That's all we needed!'' the writer continued. ``Now we have a leftover from the
 [excrement] the Saigonese army once was, flying over the Cuban

 capital at dawn Jan. 1 with the oh-so-noble objective of `liberating' our `enslaved'
 people.''

 The newspaper went on to quote in full the five calls to rebellion printed on the
 leaflets.

 Tong said Monday that he is on a mission to rally the people of China, Cuba,
 North Korea and Vietnam to overthrow communism. He tried in Vietnam eight
 years ago by hijacking an Airbus 300 to drop 50,000 leaflets over Ho Chi Minh
 City, formerly Saigon.

 Tong was captured and imprisoned until 1998. Last year, he decided Cuba was
 next on his list. He chose the Havana mission because Cuba is close to the
 United States and his New Orleans home.

 ``I feel [the] problem of Cuba is easiest for removing. You have [a] strong exile
 community here. Cuba is 90 miles from Key West. So to overthrow Fidel Castro,
 there is a chance to do that, Tong added. ``China is much harder.

 This summer, after a speaking engagement with a Miami Vietnamese group, Tong
 got in touch with leaders of the Vietnam Veterans of America Chapter 620 and the
 Cuban American Veterans. After speaking at Chapter 620's meeting, Tong kept in
 contact. Days before his trip to Cuba, he rode along with the group in a military
 helicopter in the Junior Orange Bowl Parade in Coral Gables.

 Neither group gave Tong money for the flight, although Tong said a Cuban exile
 whom he declined to name offered him a private plane if he would drop a bomb on
 the Cuban capital. Tong decided against it and said he didn't use any money from
 South Florida for the flight. Few except his closest friends even knew about the
 trip, he said.

 A University of New Orleans doctoral student in political science, Tong says the
 mission was his way of putting his scholarly theory to practice.

 ``After 41 years of [a] communist system, Cuban people become accustomed to
 communism, Tong said. ``They need a catalyst to wake them up. I'm the catalyst.

 Herald staff writer Renato Perez contributed to this report.
 

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald