Ton That Thien - Revolution and Education: 1945-1955

Revolution and Education: 1945-1955

In April 1945, after the French colonial administration was ended by a Japanese coup, Emperor Bảo Đại set up the first independent government of Viet Nam led by Mr. Trần Trọng Kim. A well known lawyer, Phan Anh was appointed Minister of Youth and Thien served as his personal secretary. This marked Thien's first introduction to Vietnamese politics, at the age of twenty-one.

After the abdication of Emperor Bảo Đại in late August 1945, on the recommendation of Mr. Ta Quang Buu he was called to Hanoi to serve in the new Viet Minh National Front Government led by Ho Chi Minh. Fluent in English he was posted in the Foreign Relations section of the president's office headed by Mr. Buu. The latter had been his teacher of English and rated him as the best of the class. More noteworthy still, Mr. Buu was an assistant to Vo Nguyen Giap and had access to the top echelons of the leadership. Thien was thus placed close to the power center. This inclusion in the workings of the inner circle of the highest level of the Viet Minh leadership enabled him to observe at close quarters the core Viet Minh leadership in Hanoi including Ho Chi Minh, Vo Nguyen Giap, Truong Chinh, Phạm Văn Đồng as well as many of the foreign officials in Hanoi at the time including Archimedes Patti of the U.S. Office of Strategic Services (OSS). It also allowed him to understand the Communist Party of Vietnam's manipulation of the nationalist front as a means to secure power. He was one of the first few non-Communist Vietnamese to have this understanding at that time.

Thien's work was varied. He translated and typed government documents, and served as an announcer and commentator for Hanoi Radio's English language service "The Voice of Viet Nam", thereby becoming practically the first Vietnamese to address the English speaking world. He also was a major contributor to the magazine of the Vietnamese-American Friendship Association (VAFA) launched by Ta Quang Buu and General Gallagher at a time when Ho Chi Minh was courting American support for the Viet Minh government and its continued independence from French colonial rule.

Dismissive of communist ideology from his economics studies and unable to support the radical political aims of Ho Chi Minh which included on-going systematic persecution of Vietnamese nationalists, he left Hanoi and returned to Huế in late 1946. In 1947 he went abroad to study. He continued to morally support the anti-French aims of the Viet Minh until 1950 when the Ho-led Viet Minh forces unreservedly turned to communist China for material and advisory support, and Ho Chi Minh publicly proclaimed Vietnam "the forward post of socialism in South-east-Asia" and the Vietnamese Communist Party re-emerged under the thin guise of the "Lao Dong" (Worker's) Party. From then on Thien distanced himself from the Viet Minh government, remained aloof from the various political formations, and concentrated on his studies. He obtained a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics at the London School of Economics and a Master's degree in Political Science at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva. He maintained his political neutrality until 1953. In October of that year, he met Mr. Ngo Dinh Diem in Paris and judged him to be a true nationalist leader. He also learned that Mr. Diem was going to be appointed by Bảo Đại as the next Prime Minister of the non-communist State of Viet Nam.