The Background
The speech revealing Stalin’s crimes and errors by Krutchev at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union in March 1956 was the curtain-raiser to a ring of the calamitous consequences that shook not only the Kremlin but also the Communist Bloc. For the first time, tragic incidents such as the vast deportation of members of the ethnic minorities, the mass killing of tens of thousand opposing party members and thousands of officers of the Red Army, and the lugubrious leadership of Stalin in face of the invasion of Germany, and the errors in the conduct of the war were revealed to the world. Similar serious crimes and mistakes were also exposed: The verities are the cult of the person results in despotism, and revolution is not necessarily achieved by violence and through the class struggle. Kruttchev vehemently promised to promote collective leadership and to carry out policies of democracy
While the de-Stalinization had not produced great impact on the democratization in the Soviet Union, it gave impetus to the rise of subsequent subversive incidents in the Communist Bloc of Eastern Europe. In Poland, where national fervor was imminent, anti-Soviet movement instantly rose. It spread to a rebellion of Polish workers in Poznan on June 28, 1956. The leaders of the Kremlin strove hard to stop it, stifling public opinion and crushing the masses. Popular uprising in Hungary broke out. During the first days, the leaders at the Kremlin believed they would easily extinguish the revolt as they had in Ponan. They nevertheless made a mistake in their calculations. It was not until the Hungarian people demanded for independence and democracy that they realized the truth was the reverse. The Soviet troops were sent in to crush the masses. The Budapest disastrous massacre resulted in losses of human lives that stunned the world.
In China, Mao’s Hundred Flowers movement drummed up free expression of thought. On May 25, 1956, a large assembly of prominent intellectuals, social scientists, writers and artists, and progressive personalities were called to attend a meeting to be explained on the purposes of the event. "All Flowers Blossom, and all Doctrines Compete." As the political situation in China was relatively stable after the dispute over Hu Feng’s viewpoint on freedom of expression in the early years of the 1950’s, the leadership simply suggested a new approach. However, it did not assert any means or method for improvement. Vigilance was stressed on avoidance of off-limit debates and discussions as regards free expression of thought.
The Situation of the Intellectuals in North Vietnam
All the circuitous events that happened following the land reforms generated resentment among the intellectuals in Hanoi. They were professors, scholars, writers, poets, and artists who had joined and played an active role in the war of resistance against the French. They endured hardship during the war and hoped they would be treated with decency when peace was restored. Reality proved to be the reverse. Their social status declined, and their living standards deteriorated. Their lives were truly deplorable after the new regime had been well established. Many writers could not afford a cup of coffee to work late at night. The poet Huu Loan’s desire was to own an oil lamp to work in the dark room where he shared with his wife and children. The poet Nguyen Binh lived miserably; he rarely had a full meal.
The vast majority of intellectuals, in truth, were almost ignored after the land reform. The Party placed entire confidence in the working class. To their distress, not only were they disregarded, by the Party but also endured humiliation in face of those haughty cadres who made light of their contribution to the Revolution. They were "bitterly disillusioned when they realized that the Party had no confidence in them, regardless of the many sacrifices they had made for the Party. The majority of them were not ambitious. They willingly gave to the party members and politicians the positions in the government. They simply wish to contribute their services to the people and to safeguard their honor and freedom of thought which they believed to be essential to the dignity of the intellectual." (Nguyen Manh Tuong, Kiem Thao. 1958).
The Demand for Free Expression
After the victory of Dien Bien Phu, the Party carried out its preconceived policies to establish socialism. first and foremost, through education and reform of thought. This major effort was nevertheless stopped short because of a host of unforeseen world events that were disadvantageous to the regime. Communism and its ideological practices were questioned, notably after the dethronement of Stalin by Kruthchev in his speech delivered on February 20, 1956. at the Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The event not only upset all policies of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party but also raised doubts about the rectification of its cause. The distrust of t of the intellectuals vis-a-vis the performance of the Party’s policies ever increased. Their dissent from the errors it had made since the days of the Resistance War intensified. The situation was aggravated by the State cadres’ abuses of power and practices of nepotism, mostly among the group of intellectuals acting as "cadres in the Arts who lived in luxury and who wore red neckties, leather shoes, and spent their times delivering speeches and attending banquets." (Nhan Van No. 2, October 1956)
There had been, in reality, a division between the group of independent intellectuals and the group of intellectuals who served as cadres in the Arts and who slaved for the Party. The former group joined the Viet Minh to fight for national independence but were reluctant to serve the Party and regime because of the Viet Minh’s cause of bad faith and mischievous conduct of public affairs. The latter group were the members of or adherents to the Communist-led Viet Minh, The division between the two groups were apparent as the war wore on.
During the first years of the war, the vast majority of independent intellectuals concentrated in the Thanh Hoa Province, Inter-zone IV. They were relatively free from the control of the Party. They enjoyed, in particular, the patronage of the independent Chairman of the War Zone IV, General Nguyen Son. This personality was a war hero who had joined Mao in the Red Army in the Long March. His brilliant exploits had made the Vietnamese Communists bow their heads. Not long, after that, at the suggestion of Ho Chi Minh. the general was recalled to China by Mao. The independent intellectuals lost protection; they felt reluctant to stay with the Viet Minh .
Reluctance to serve the resistance leadership of independent intellectuals ever grew. The situation worsened as a result of the Party leadership’s shift of political lines, from the people’s democracy to socialism of the Maoist style. Political discrimination was brought into play, and methods of internal purification were executed. Most independent intellectuals in the resistance zones distanced themselves from the Party out of disbelief and fear. Quite a few of them left the free zones and returned to the city to seek permanent shelter, to live under the protection of the newly-established national government led by ex-Emperor Bao Dai. They were scholars, professors, doctors, lawyers, poets, writers and artists. Among them were Nguyen Khac Kham, Hoang Van Chi, Nguyen Van Mui, Vu Ngo Xan, Pham Huu Chuong, Tran Van Kha, Nguyen Van Huyen, Tran Trung Dung, Tran Chanh Thanh, Le Quang Luat, Le Khai Trach, Nguyen Huu Dung, Tran Thanh Dinh, Chu Van Binh, Cao Xuan Vy, Vu Hoang Chuong, Doan Phu Tu, Dinh Hung, Bui Xuan Uyen, Nguyen Sy Te, Nguyen Hoat, Doan Quoc Sy, Nguyen Thach Kien, Nguyen Kien Trung, Pham Duy, and so on. The independent intellectuals who stayed bore silent discontent towards Ho Chi Minh and the Resistance Government as an act of silent protest against their brazen dependence on Communist China.
Discontent pervaded the guerrilla zones with the arrival from China of growing numbers of politics commissioners and military advisors beside the central government organs and military commands. The independent intellectuals defied the political Party leadership. They allowed themselves not to parrot the Party’s slogans. not to serve it as an instrument for political propaganda. They chose not to praise without shame the Party’s unreal glory and untrue achievements. Later, coming back to the city from the war zone after the Communist takeover of Hanoi in August 1954. Emboldened by self-respect in face of the regime’s show of power and unjust practices, they stood up in revolt.
The abyss that separated the independent intellectuals and the political regime widened. Not only did the regime regard them as bunglers, it treated them with despise. Still, it trampled their merits underfoot. The independent intellectuals endured even more the insulting arrogance of the party cadres. In addition, their differences in the viewpoints of Maoism, aggravated the division between them. They did not resign themselves to adopt the outlook on life and the universe of Communist ideology Consistent with their viewpoints, they were blamed by the party cadres as those people that were behind the times. Worse still, they were regarded as reactionary elements, the henchmen of imperialism and the slaves to bourgeois ideology. They were, therefore, the enemy of the regime.
The Rise of Opposition
Faults of haughty and arrogant party cadres were noticeable in the private press of Hanoi. Although there was no open attack on the regime, covert criticism nevertheless caused damage to the prestige of the Party leadership. The resentment gradually went sour. It eventually led to a wave of open opposition to the regime. The movement broke out coincidentally with the fight of the peasantry against the cadres and the People’s Army in the countryside subsequent to the Party’s rectification of errors after the Land Reform. In a show of will, the intellectuals in Hanoi all as one stood up, activating a political campaign against the Communist administration. They disseminated articles, poems, and stories on newspapers and magazines. They delivered speeches at open meetings to criticize the Party’s oppression of the people and the cadres’ scornful attitude towards the intellectuals.
Almost all the participants were veteran fighters in the Resistance War. They had shared the ups and downs with the regime in the nine years of the war. They were scholars, critics, writers and poets: Nguyen Binh, Van Cao, Tran Duy, Hoang Cam, Huu Loan, Si Ngoc, Chu Ngoc, and Nhu Mai; the scholars Phan Khoi, Dao Duy Anh, Truong Tuu, Tran Duc Thao, and Nguyen Manh Tuong. Among the young party-members and students were Tran Dan Le Dat, Phung Quan, Ta Huu Thien, Minh Hoang, Phung Cung, Tran Le Van, Hoang Tich Linh, and Bui Quang Doai.
As early as March 1956, the Minh Duc Publishers circulated the Giai Pham 1956 (Collected Works of 1956) in which corrupted practices of the regime were exhibited. Tran Dan, in his poem, Nhat Dinh Thang (We Will Win), expressed melancholy and sorrows while the whole country was still celebrating the victory of Dien Bien Phu. He was subject to self-criticism and accused at crime revelations sessions. Unable to sustain humiliation, he committed suicide but was saved. The young poet Phung Quan, in his article Cai Choi Quet Rac Ruoi (The Broom that Seeps away Trash), characterized the actual society as a messy house with filthy things. So, in the capacity of a poet, he wished to be a broom to sweep all of such things away. Le Dat composed a poem entitled Ong Binh Voi (Mr. Lime Pot) in which he linked the narrow-mindedness of the party cadres to a hardened inert lime-pot. Their moral conduct was likened to the capacity of a lime-pot: The older it gets, the pettier it will become. This cock-and-bull parable with hints also meant with allusion to Ho Chi Minh himself. The longer the president lives, the nastier he will become. He no longer loves the country as he did when he still was Nguyen the Patriot.
On May 26, Mao launched the Hundred Flowers campaign in China, eulogizing the freedom of thought and expression. A month later, the Polish workers rose up in a revolt in Poznan. The proletarian dictatorship in Vietnam was at risk. The Vietnamese Workers’ Party explained with embarrassment the developments in Eastern Europe and China. Seizing the opportunity, the independent literary circle in Hanoi pounded direct attacks on the regime. As in a fire, the demand for free expression was ignited and quickly spread to a movement. The review Nhan Van actively engaged in it, took the lead, and enjoyed warm support from people of all walks of life, especially the youth and college students.
The Nhan Van Giai Pham Mua Thu (Nhan Van, Collected Works for the Fall) carried in its issue of August 29, 1956 a poem with a call to those veteran fighters " ... who defeated the invaders/ And did not bow/Under colonial domination. /Why do you bear with these villains/Who shame our Fatherland. /Stand up!" A week later, the magazine appeared with Nguyen Huu Dang, a long-standing Communist and an ardent activist in the August Revolution, as the editor-in-chief. The opposition reached apogee.
Young poets and writers who were all party members submitted to the review the most critical articles and writings. In the Maikovki-style of poetry, Huu Loan, in his poem Lai Nhung Thang Ninh Hot (Again, the same Flatters) in Nhan Van II, September 30, tenaciously declared war against unjust and corrupted social practices of the officialdom. Phung Cung in his story Con Ngua Gia cua Chua Trinh (The Old Horse of Trinh Lord), likened the State intellectual’s incapacity to that of an old horse. This horse was trained and used as a draught animal in the royal service. It was left far behind in a horse-race as it was overfed and lacked vigilance. Nhu Mai, in his story Thi Si May (The Robot Poet), ridiculed with humorous hints at the State poets. There would be robots to be created. These machines would replace State poets to produce 8,000 versus a second. (Nhan Van 5). Tran Duy, in his story Nguoi Khong Lo (The Giants), likened with satire the Vietnamese Communist leaders’ thoughtlessness to the stupidity of a group of giants who helped humans to fight the devils. Unfortunately, without hearts, they killed more men than devils. In his essay Thanh That Dau Tranh cho Tu Do Dan Chu (To Strive to Struggle for Freedom and Democracy), he revealed the serious consequences caused by the Party’s dark intrigues in stifling dead the Nhan Van.
Of equally great contribution to the movement were the essays and writings by the intellectuals of the older generation. The scholar Dao Duy Anh contended that there was need to implement democracy. The senior literary critic Phan Khoi, a Confucian who survived the Land Reform, made his last attempt to defend Confucianism in face of the merciless attack of Marxism. He fought back and accused the leadership in the Arts of corruption and oppression. In his short story Ong Nam Chuot (Mr. Mouse the Fifth," the scholar accused with hints at Ho Chi Minh of being the small-minded person and the leadership of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party of committing corrupt practices and exercising authority with nepotism and despotism, Another prominent figure, the scholar Truong Tuu, particularly criticized the Party’s policy in a series of essays in the Van Hoc (Literature Magazine). His arguments were based on Marx’s and Lenin’s writings. Years of compulsory study of Marxism were put into question. The philosopher Tran Duc Thao examined the rights to freedom that were currently practiced in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam. His analysis was based on the social contents and forms of freedom. All contents for freedom were well-defined but the realizations were quite the reverse. Officialdom, bureaucracy, and the cult of the person were common practices. Of particular significance, Professor Nguyen Manh Tuong, a lawyer of reputation, delivered a speech at the Ninth Congress of the Fatherland Front in Hanoi on October 30, 1956 criticized with vehemence the regime for the lack of a rule of law.
On September 19, a group of students, fascinated by the hilarious atmosphere of the day, engaged in the opposition. They published the magazine Dat Moi (Fresh Soil). In it, Bui Quang Doai narrated a love story in which he portrayed a party cadre who traded on his position to court a petty-bourgeois Hanoi student. Ta Huu Thieu, in his poem Toi Tim Em (I Seek You Forever), looked at girls of all walks of life but was not able to marry any of them. Political indoctrination had caused him the incapacity for personal feelings and fear for love of a petty bourgeoisie type.
The attack attracted other reviews to join in the fight. The Tram Hoa (Hundred Flowers) of the poet Nguyen Binh voiced no less bitterness and discontent. The Thoi Moi (The Modern Times), the only private authorized journal that survived the period after the Communist takeover of Hanoi, launched a campaign of attacks on the Party leadership’s and the State bureaucracy’s corrupt practices. State-run and Party-owned journals and magazines such as the Cuu Quoc (National Salvation) of the Fatherland Front, the official journal Nhan Dan (The People) and the Hoc Tap (The Studies), the organ for ideological study of the Vietnamese Workers’ Party had articles or writings revealing the mischievous defaults of the administration. They nevertheless attributed the mistakes and errors to the cadres at the lower levels.
The Developments
The opposition developed in three stages. In the first stage, the intellectuals attacked the "sycophants" and "cadres in the Arts," and revealed cases of exposed corruption and nepotism. In the second stage, they turned their attacks on certain petty leaders. In the third stage, they criticized the Party’s policy in its entirety. In the first stage, the Party did not retaliate. On the contrary, one or two official publications joined in the opposition to denounce the mistakes they attributed to minor officials and low-ranking cadres. In the second stage, it counterattacked by publishing a series of articles written by one or two pro-party intellectuals. In the third stage, it resorted to secret terrorism to defend itself.
The Repression
The State poet To Huu, the Head of the Central Committee Political Propaganda and Education of the Party, was vested with authority to put an end to the opposition. Within a short time and with some hesitation, the Party recouped with repressive measures. At first, it ordered that paper must not be sold to the opposition. The security police were sent to every bookstore and printing shop to ensure cooperation. Workers at printing houses were ordered to go on strike. The measure came to no result, however. Popular support of the intellectuals was solid, and the authority failed to shake it off.
Discontent from other social sectors added weight to the opposition. The wrath of the people boosted to such an extent that it became unrestrained. Unhappy Southerners grouped in Hanoi following the Geneva Agreements of July 1954 attacked the Cau Go police station. Students from the South living in the Nhan Muc village near Hanoi set up barricades along the route from Ha Dong to Hanoi. The Capital was shrouded in dark clouds. The opposition gained support not only from the literary circle but also from the masses. Chaos spread, and the regime was at risk.
The Party could not step back. It decided to strike back and to strike hard. The counterattack, first, concentrated on paralyzing the activities of the opposition. State-run stores were ordered not to sell paper to Nhan Van. The measure took no effect, nonetheless. The magazine could find it in the black market. Other measures also proved to be ineffective. The post-office was ordered to stop the delivery of Nhan Van to its readers. Distributors were forbidden to work with Nhan Van. The review stood firm. High school and college students did the job in its place. The Party turned to intimidate the readership. Operations to search for copies of Nhan Van were actuated. Groups of cadres were sent to work in the streets of Hanoi, and house-search was conducted to look for any holder of the magazine. Nhan Van still came into print.
The opposition fought back. Nhan Van Number VI, in particular, carried the appeal for a demonstration against the political regime. The Party instantly recouped with violent charges. The magazine’s editors were branded as the henchmen of the colonialists and imperialists. It mercilessly gave a dead blow at their head. By an administrative order, the People’s Council of Hanoi closed down the Nhan Van Publishers. All the copies of Nhan Van IV and copies of the issues previously published, from Nhan Van Number 1, were confiscated. Finally, on December 15, Ho Chi Minh signed into law the order to ban all the rights to freedoms of speech and of the press. The press from then on had the obligations to serve the proletarian dictatorship. Those who violated the law were punished, to serve the criminal penalties, from the 5 years’ imprisonment to the life imprisonment.
The Aftermath
The conflict between the Party and the intellectuals lasted for three years and resulted in the defeat of the latter. It only ended when the State poet To Huu read the "Final Report on the Opposition of Subversive Elements in Nhan Van" at the Third Congress of the Union of Writers and Artists in Hanoi on June 4, 1958. To crack down on the growing opposition of the intellectuals, the Party launched hefty repressive operations to terrorize it. The aim was to root up the bourgeois ideology in the minds of the intellectuals and coerce them to break with their old ways of life, to abandon the corrupt practices of free market economy, and to renounce modes of life of petty bourgeoisie, Western philosophy and representative democracy.
Three hundred and four writers and artists were subjected to attending "rectification of thoughts" courses. They were forced to avow the errors in their thinking. Phan Khoi, Truong Tuu, and Nguyen Huu Dang of the Nhan Van Giai Pham and the female novelist Thuy An, who had not written for Nhan Van, did not resign themselves to the order. Punishment was executed. The essayist Nguyen Huu Dang, the novelist Thuy An, and the publisher Tran Thieu Bao were isolated and detained. Later, they were brought to stand trial on charges of treason. Truong Tuu was dismissed from his position as professor at the Faculty of Letters. The Confucian scholar Phan Khoi was placed under house surveillance. He was forbidden to maintain relationship with other writers. Strict disciplinary measures were applied on the culprits and accomplices. In the end, the Party launched "reeducation and labor operations," subjecting the intellectuals, writers, and artists to discipline and conditioning them to work in line with the Association for Writers and Artists of the Party.
On January 21, 1960, the Hanoi People’s Court convicted and sentenced Nguyen Huu Dang and Thuy An to 15 years in prison and Tran Thieu Bao to 10 years in prison. The court could not produce any evidence except for the relationship of the defendants with Maurice Durand, an employee at the Ecole d’Extreme Orient in Hanoi. Durand was portrayed as an intelligence agent for the French colonialists and American imperialists. The trial was conducted behind closed doors. The defendants were brought to the tribunal to hear their verdicts then taken back to the prison (Bui Tin, 1993:197).
The French newspaper Le Monde reported that five intellectuals, including one woman, were tried in January 1960 on charges of having collaborated with the magazine Nhan Van. They were sentenced to prison terms of up to fifteen years. Phan Khoi died before going on trial, and his son Phan Thao, a Communist of renown, died from unexplained causes seven months later. Thousands of other intellectuals and high school and college students were conscripted into "reeducation and labor courses" similar to those instituted in Communist China (Bernard Fall, 1996: 128)
Being a student involving in the opposition, his name would be registered in a black list. A cadre, he would be transferred to another workplace or sent to reeducation and thought reform. Many students took revenge until decades afterwards. Discontented poets, writers, and artists were subjected to serve the regime in line with the Party’s orthodox ideology. The entire people of all classes, and the working people, in particular, should thoroughly absorb the socialist ideology. They should abandon their previous outlook on life. They should replace it with the Marxist viewpoint.
Quite a few of intellectuals were sent to distant areas where infant mortality was high and malaria was common disease. They endured forced labor from dawn till dark. Many of them never returned home or had not been heard of again.
