Ton That Thien

Ton That Thien

Dr. Tôn Thất Thiện is a Vietnamese nationalist of the post-World War II generation who has the rare distinction of serving and watching at close quarters the two historic leaders of post-World War II Vietnam: presidents Ho Chi Minh in the Viet Minh coalition in 1945-1946, and Ngo Dinh Diem 1954-1955/1956-1959/1963. He played a significant though understated role in the nationalist attempt to preserve a non-communist Vietnam.

From 1945 to 1975 Thien was an active participant or a personal witness to almost all of the major historic events in Viet Nam: the 1945 August Revolution, the 1954 Geneva Conference, division of the country and birth of the State of Viet Nam, the 1963 coup d’état against Ngo Dinh Diem, the 1968 Tet Offensive in Huế and the April 1975 fall of Saigon. He knew or met virtually all of the significant actors among the North Vietnamese, South Vietnamese and American political and military leadership, as well as most foreign journalists who covered the conflict. In 1968 he served as Minister of Information in the South Vietnamese government. His reformist efforts allowing an uncensored media led to the Magsaysay Award for Journalism, Literature and Creative Communication Arts in the same year.

As a ‘Third Force’ nationalist opposed to colonialism and communism, and dedicated to a mix of Confucian traditions and Western political ideals he is most closely aligned with the evolutionary reformist vision of the famous Vietnamese nationalist, Phan Chu Trinh. In many ways he can be considered the personification of a ‘Quiet Vietnamese’ counterpart to Graham Greene's fictional "Quiet American" character.