Nguyễn Khắc Viện Explained

Nguyễn Khắc Viện (5 February 1913 in Hương Sơn – 10 May 1997) was a Vietnamese historian, literary critic, sometime dissident, and advocate of a Vietnamese health exercise dưỡng sinh similar to Yoga.^{[1] [2]}

Viện was a party member formerly in charge of external propaganda and statements to foreign press.^{[3] [4]} However his circulating of criticism of the government in the 1980s^[5] led to a ban on his writings till the early 1990s.^[6]

Life

Khắc Viện first came to Paris, France, in 1937, a time where the capital was a hotbed for anti-imperialist political exiles. He would stay in the country for twenty years, wherein he pursued an advanced degree in medicine, became a doctor and a writer.^[7]

He became a member of the French Communist Party in 1947, two years after Ho Chi Minh's declaration of Vietnamese independence.^[8] and worked on propaganda, campaigns, and discussions for Vietnamese national liberation with both French intellectuals and Vietnamese soldiers in the French army.

Khắc Viện was a prominent voice for Vietnamese national liberation since 1953 until his expulsion to Vietnam in 1963. He became the editor of the French journals Études Vietnamiennes (Vietnamese Studies) and the Courrier du Vietnam (Vietnamese Courier). Under the pseudonym Nguyen Nghe, he wrote a prominent critique of the book Wretched of the Earth by fellow anti-colonialist Franz Fanon, through the essay "Frantz Fanon and the Problems of Independence."

He married Nguyen Thi Nhat in 1966, with one adopted daughter.

Notes and References

1. Jonathan D. London Education in Vietnam 2011 - Page 10 "... historian, literary critic, and dissident Nguyễn Khắc Viện decried Vietnamese Confucians' proclivities towards conservatism and fixation on individual self-improvement while ignoring institutional constraints, a view characteristic of prevailing ..."
2. Marie-Carine Lall, Edward Vickers Education As a Political Tool in Asia 2009 Page 154 "Nguyễn Khắc Viện (1993) encouraged these images and ideas."
3. Grace Ming-Hui Cheng "Culture for development and development for culture is the ...2002 - Page 245 "Nguyen Khac Vien was the party member formerly in charge of external propaganda, which refers to official accounts of events in Vietnam released to foreign countries."
4. Peace courier World Peace Council 1978 - Volume 9 - Page 60 "... for discussions with the WPC Secretariat concerning the Sino-Kampuchean aggression against the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Mr. Nguyen Khac Vien was accompanid by Mr. Nguyen Dinh Vinh of the Embassy of Vietnam in Sweden."
5. Southeast Asian affairs Institute of Southeast Asian Studies 1983 Page 300 "... made mistakes have not been punished. "' At the same time that Nguyen Khac Vien was circulating his private letter, the Party was taking steps to clamp down on dissenters who were making their views known outside the official channels."
6. Human Rights Watch World Report 1992 - Page 475 Human Rights Watch (Organization), Human Rights Watch "General Secretary Do Muoi met with numerous groups to assure them that the party welcomes divergent ideas, and the ban on writings by Phan Dinh Dieu and Nguyen Khac Vien was said to have been lifted. However, the government ..."
7. News: Frantz Fanon and the Problems of Independence (1963) - Viewpoint Magazine. 2018-02-01. Viewpoint Magazine. 2018-02-25. en-US.
8. News: Obituary: Nguyen Khac Vien. https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220618/https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-nguyen-khac-vien-5565815.html . 2022-06-18 . subscription . live. 1997-05-26. The Independent. 2018-02-25. en-GB.