Hoang Minh Chinh at Harvard
Dear VSG members,
Hoang Minh Chinh, well-known dissident involved in the "Anti-Party
Affair" of
the 1960s is coming to Harvard. Please see details for his talk below.
Yours,
Lien-Hang Nguyen
Hoang Minh Chinh, Former Dean of the Marx-Lenin Institute and Deputy
Chief of
the Nguyen Ai Quoc Party School, Hanoi, Vietnam will present a talk
entitled, "Chu nghia Mac-xit va he luy" ["Marxism and Its Consequences"].
4-6pm
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
Asia Center, 1730 Cambridge Street
CGIS South, Seminar Room S153
Harvard University
Cambridge, MA
Talk to be followed by a reception
Sponsored by the Harvard University Asia Center
For more information, please contact lnguyen@wcfia.harvard.edu
Dear all,
Official Vietnamese media have had many articles criticizing Hoang Minh
Chinh's trip to the US. Among them, intriguingly, Dr. Pham Van Duc,
current director of the Philosophy Institute in Hanoi, asserts that Mr.
Chinh was not the first director of the Marxist - Leninist Institute. In
the Quan doi nhan dan paper, he said "Our Philosophy Institute hasn't
found any document to say Mr. Chinh was our first director. The decision
paper we found suggests that the first director was Prof. Pham Minh
Cuong." It's not clear in this article whether he implies Hoang Minh Chinh
has never been the institute's director at all.
More info here:
http://www.quandoinhandan.org.vn/right.php?id_new=52084
Quynh Le
I think Pham Van Duc's statement is part of a crude attempt at diverting
younger generation attention from policy disputes during the late 1950s and
1960s, and specifically the `Revisionist, Anti-Party Affair' that resulted
in Hoanh Minh Chinh and a number of other senior cadres being purged and
punished for decades thereafter. All persons quoted in the 24 Oct 05 issue
of Quan Doi Nhan Dan argue that Hoang Minh Chinh has broken the trust
placed in him by the Party, as if nothing ever happened. Quite possibly
they are ignorant of the purges, and the editors are not about to enlighten
them and others.
The interesting question today is why the Party gave Hoang Minh Chinh
permission to leave the country. As for his speech at Harvard, I found it
rather disappointing. But we ought not judge him on the basis of one
attempt to wax theoretical at the hallowed halls of ivy.
David Marr
Hoang Minh Chinh Speech in English