Hoang Minh Chinh

Hoàng Minh Chính (November 16, 1922 – February 7, 2008), also Trần Ngọc Nghiêm, was a Vietnamese politician and dissident. He was one of the best-known figures and ideologists of the Vietnamese Communist Party during the 1960s and held several key governmental positions. In the late 1960s, he criticized decisions made by his own party and was sent to jail three times.

Early life Hoang was born in 1922 in the province of Nam Dinh, French Tokin and joined the communist revolution in 1937. He was later trained in politics in the Soviet Union during the late 1950s.

Political career From 1960 to 1967, he was named during his political tenure in various key positions inside the North government, including vice-minister of education and director of the Marxist Institute of Philosophy. Despite constant government surveillance and his house arrest, he would continue to be involved in pro-democracy movements during the late 1990s.

In June 2006, he reactivated the Democratic Party of Vietnam.

Later life In 2005, he began to experience health problems. In a surprise move from the government, he was allowed to go to the United States to receive treatment for pancreatic cancer and was able to return to Vietnam despite opposition from the media after he made a speech in Congressional Committee at the United States House of Representatives on the situation in Vietnam and his criticism of the country repression on pro-democracy activists and its human rights record. After his return to Vietnam, there were reports that groups of plain-clothed police attacked him at his home. Briefly he returned as a member of the DPV.

Death He died at his home in Hanoi on February 7, 2008, aged 85, on the first day of the Tet Lunar New Year.