(Bangkok) \u2013 The\u00a0Vietnamese 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\u2014Nguyen Thanh Nam, Tran Viet Anh, Nguyen Thuy Hang, Dao Ba Doan, and Nguyen Van Yen\u2014with carrying out anti-state propaganda under the notorious national security law, penal code article 117, and\u00a0published their home addresses, violating their families\u2019 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.
\u201cThe 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 \u2018national rise\u2019 just means more repression,\u201d said\u00a0Elaine Pearson, Asia director at Human Rights Watch. \u201cThe extreme reaction to the book suggests that even prominent establishment figures in business, publishing, and media are not safe from Communist Party hardliners.\u201d
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\u2019 Association Publishing House in Hanoi in April. The book details Ho Chi Minh\u2019s 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\u00a0police newspaper said \u201cthe 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\u2019s most celebrated modern military leader], and many other Party and State leaders.\u201d
Events to introduce the book in April and May garnered positive coverage, including in state media outlets like the People\u2019s Daily, the People\u2019s Army, the Liberation of Saigon, and others. However, in June, the retired provincial Communist Party official Phan Trung Can\u00a0criticized the book online, accusing the author of disrespecting Ho Chi Minh and disparaging Vietnam\u2019s revolutionary history. He focused on the book\u2019s 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\u00a0removed articles promoting the book. The Writers\u2019 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\u00a0disciplined the publishing house by suspending its operations for two months and fining it 100 million dong (US$3,800). In July, the ministry\u2019s Press Bureau\u00a0fined 23 newspapers for promoting the book. Over a dozen journalists received\u00a0warnings, 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\u2019s first online university for software training. In 2019, then Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc recognized him for \u201chaving achieved outstanding results in studying and following the ideology, ethics, and style of Ho Chi Minh \u2026 and contributing to the cause of building socialism and defending the Fatherland.\u201d
For several years, he also taught Ho Chi Minh ideology at VinUniversity, a private university established by Vietnam\u2019s 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\u2019s\u00a0YouTube 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\u2019 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 \u201cediting, amending, publishing and promoting\u201d the book.
\u201cFor the Communist Party leadership, even a book about their founding father written for young people can be deemed a threat to the party\u2019s monopoly on power,\u201d Pearson said.
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