Vietnam: 5 Arrested for Ho Chi Minh Book

(Bangkok) – The Vietnamese authorities since late June 2026 have arrested and detained five people for their roles in the publication of a controversial book about Ho Chi Minh, the founder of Vietnamese communism, Human Rights Watch said today. Hanoi police charged all five—Nguyen Thanh Nam, Tran Viet Anh, Nguyen Thuy Hang, Dao Ba Doan, and Nguyen Van Yen—with carrying out anti-state propaganda under the notorious national security law, penal code article 117, and published their home addresses, violating their families’ privacy rights. If convicted, they could face up to 20 years in prison. The government should immediately and unconditionally drop the charges against the five and release them. “The wave of arrests for a book about Ho Chi Minh sends a chilling message to all Vietnamese writers, journalists, and publishers that the proclaimed new era of ‘national rise’ just means more repression,” said Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. “The extreme reaction to the book suggests that even prominent establishment figures in business, publishing, and media are not safe from Communist Party hardliners.” In Conversation with Thanh: A New Account of the Light was written by the detained tech executive Nguyen Thanh Nam and published by the Writers’ Association Publishing House in Hanoi in April. The book details Ho Chi Minh’s life and revolutionary career using conversational dialogues between a teacher and a student, and contemporary vernacular to make Ho Chi Minh and his thinking relevant to younger Vietnamese people. The police newspaper said “the content of this book distorts history, as well as the lines and policies of the [Communist] Party and State; and insults President Ho Chi Minh, General Vo Nguyen Giap [Vietnam’s most celebrated modern military leader], and many other Party and State leaders.” Events to introduce the book in April and May garnered positive coverage, including in state media outlets like the People’s Daily, the People’s Army, the Liberation of Saigon, and others. However, in June, the retired provincial Communist Party official Phan Trung Can criticized the book online, accusing the author of disrespecting Ho Chi Minh and disparaging Vietnam’s revolutionary history. He focused on the book’s use of contemporary language as insufficiently reverential toward Ho Chi Minh and called for the book to be destroyed. Following his initial post, like-minded internet users demanded punishment of everyone involved in producing and promoting the book. Newspapers in Vietnam soon removed articles promoting the book. The Writers’ Association Publishing House apologized publicly and ordered a recall. Days later, the Bureau of Publication, Printing and Distribution under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism disciplined the publishing house by suspending its operations for two months and fining it 100 million dong (US$3,800). In July, the ministry’s Press Bureau fined 23 newspapers for promoting the book. Over a dozen journalists received warnings, suspensions, or dismissals as a consequence of their perceived connection to the book. Nguyen Thanh Nam, 65, the author, was arrested on June 27. He is a co-founder and former CEO of FPT Corporation, a major technology and education company in Vietnam, and founder of FUNiX, Vietnam’s first online university for software training. In 2019, then Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recognized him for “having achieved outstanding results in studying and following the ideology, ethics, and style of Ho Chi Minh … and contributing to the cause of building socialism and defending the Fatherland.” For several years, he also taught Ho Chi Minh ideology at VinUniversity, a private university established by Vietnam’s giant private corporation VinGroup in 2019. He decided to turn his lecture notes into a book. Tran Viet Anh, 33, was arrested for promoting the Ho Chi Minh book. He is the founder of Spiderum, an online discussion platform established in 2016 and popular with many young Vietnamese people. As of July 2026, Spiderum’s YouTube channel had 1.19 million subscribers. The platform has since been suspended. On July 11 and 12, police arrested three senior figures from the Writers’ Association Publishing House whose names appear in the book: Nguyen Thuy Hang, 50, director; Dao Ba Doan, 55, chief editor; and Nguyen Van Yen, 64, editor. The police newspaper said that all three, who are senior Communist Party members, had been detained for “editing, amending, publishing and promoting” the book. “For the Communist Party leadership, even a book about their founding father written for young people can be deemed a threat to the party’s monopoly on power,” Pearson said.