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