Moreover, the agenda of Nhân Văn-Giai Phẩm was linked to "reactionary" political projects against the North Vietnamese government (the Ngo Dinh Diem regime reprinted Nhan Van-Giai Pham articles and distributed them as anti-communist propaganda materials.
[6] The key global preludes of Nhan Van-Giai Pham affair may be located in the ups and downs of reform and repression that dominated political life in the Eastern Bloc and China throughout the turbulent years of the 1950s.
Most significant was the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953, the rise of currents of de-Stalinization promoted by political elites, and the growth of agitation throughout the Eastern bloc on the part of workers, intellectuals, and students.
Three in particular political movements were causing widespread discontent in North Vietnam which were all resulted from DRV's imitation of the Chinese model,[7] including the rectification campaign, the land reform and the correction of errors.
In 1950s, Ho Chi Minh made an official visit to China to sign a military aid agreement with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership in Beijing.
Moreover, the fact that those series of movements were inspired by Maoist that stimulated other unpopular policies of the new regime that contributed to a belief that the Vietnamese revolution was a misplaced enthusiasm for the Chinese model.
With the criticism of de-Stalinization by Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) pursued a high key official campaign against independent intellectuals such as Hu Feng in 1955.
Among intellectuals that joined the group around the two journals were the lawyer Nguyễn Mạnh Tường, Dr Đặng Văn Ngữ, scholar Đào Duy Anh, philosopher Trần Đức Thảo, poets Trần Dần, Hoàng Cầm, Phùng Quán, Quang Dũng, Văn Cao, Nguyễn Hữu Đang, Lê Đạt and painter Bùi Xuân Phái.
Prior to the founding of Nhân Văn and Giai Phẩm journals, there was an insurgent campaign waged within the army to loosen censorship imposed on military writers and artists.
[7] The leading figure of this dissenting intellectual campaign was Tran Dan, a soldier-poet who became disenchanted with Maoist cultural policy following a two-month study tour to China in late 1954.
[7] Domestically, a similarly liberal atmosphere dominated the Tenth Plenum of the VWP in September during which party leaders "correction of errors" of the land reform and called for a revival of "democratic rights" and the "people`s freedom.
"[6] after that, many issues of Nhan Van and Giai Pham appeared, along with other independent journals came out intermittently, including Tram hoa (Hundred flowers), Noi that (Speak truth), Tap san phe binh (Criticism newsletter), Sang tao (Creativity), and Dai moi (New land).
[8] In September, five issues of the independent journal Nhan Van were permitted to publish, along with many other private publications that rallied dissenting intellectuals and flooded news-stands, symbolized a unique time of liberalization was represented.
After the Soviet suppression of the Hungarian revolt in early November 1956 and the outbreak of rural riot in Quynh Luu, the liberal stage of Nhan Van-Giai Pham ended.
[7] In the meanwhile, government began to harass the editors of Nhan Van-Giai Pham by accusing them of breaking the law for failing to deposit three copies of the journal with the Central Press Office prior to publication.
After more than a month of such campaign, on 18 December, the Hanoi Administrative Committee suspended the two journals of Nhan Van and Giai Pham, closed other publishing houses and confiscated the copies of previous issues.
[8] On October 21–23, 1956, a delegation composed of 40 writers and artists discussed the questions of intellectual freedom with such prominent party cadres as Trường Chinh, Xuân Thủy, and Tố Hữu.
Of the intellectuals present, the young poet Lê Đạt expressed particularly sharp criticism of the regime's intolerant cultural policies in general, and of To Huu and Hoai Thanh in particular.
The editors of Nhan Van intended to publish a special issue about the Hungarian events, whereupon the authorities banned the paper, and adopted a tougher attitude toward intellectual dissidence.
Secondly, although Nhan Van Giai Pham is still sensitive to present Hanoi, it could not be neglect because it continues as a rallying point for those who demand the party reopen the matter and rehabilitate the victims.
[8] From the orthodox point of view, Zachary Abuza (2001) considered that the intellectuals in Nhan Van Giai Pham were a group of dissidents who were joined the Viet Minh out of patriotism, not a love or supporter of communism.
Moreover, when examined within a broader transnational context—one marked by the emergence of loosely connected reformist movements throughout the Communist world in the 1950s inspired by de-Stalinization--Nhan Van Giai Pham comes off as a relatively restrained effort to "save" Vietnamese Communism by transforming it from within.
Affinities and congruences between Nhan Van Giai Pham and Eastern bloc reform Communism may be found in shared patterns of official language and argumentation as well as in a common repertoire of political positions and cultural references.
In addition, Nhan Van Giai Pham`s kinship with a moderate version of reform Communism is evident in its leaders` insistent expression of fidelity to the VWP and Marxism–Leninism.
[6] Lien-Hang T. Nguyen (2006) stated that neither totally imitated to Chinese models, nor had affinity with Eastern bloc, Viet Minh was actually intertwined with the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations during the 1950s.
[4][5] Therefore, according to this interpretation, although Nhan Van Giai Pham affair was shaped by the current of de-Stalinization and the Hundred Flowers Movement from eastern bloc and China during the 1950s, it still tried to find an independent way to deal with such political struggles.