It's quite a moment for Vietnam's press now as the country is observing 100 Years of Revolutionary Journalism Day.
The event itself occurs every June 21—the date commemorates the founding of Thanh Nien (Youth) Newspaper, the first revolutionary newspaper launched in 1925 by Ho Chi Minh.
This day also honors generations of journalists who risked everything to inform, unite, and awaken a people under occupation, conflict, and transformation. These journalist-soldiers, as they came to be known, understood that their pens were weapons in the fight for national liberation.
Here are five remarkable figures who influenced Vietnam's revolutionary press and are the inspiration for the next generations of journalists.
1. Truong Vinh Ky - The Father of Modern Vietnamese Journalism
Mid to Late 1800s, Under French Colonization
Truong Vinh Ky, a 19th-century linguist, scholar, and journalist, laid the foundation for the modern Vietnamese press. He was the editor-in-chief of Gia Dinh Bao, the first newspaper printed in quốc ngữ —the Romanized Vietnamese script still used today.
Initially, Gia Dinh Bao was launched by the French colonial administration. It served as an official gazette to publish laws, decrees, and public announcements. At a time when most documents were written in classical Chinese, the French promoted quốc ngữ as a simpler, more effective tool for communication and cultural assimilation.
When Truong Vinh Ky took over in 1869, he redefined the paper’s mission. Beyond its administrative role, he transformed it into a platform for education, linguistic reform, and the circulation of both local and global knowledge.
Under his direction, the newspaper covered a wide range of topics, from weather reports, current events, agriculture, to trade news. Creating an informed citizenry that would later prove crucial to the independence struggle.
2. Ho Chi Minh (Nguyen Ai Quoc) - Founder of Vietnam's First Revolutionary Newspaper
1920s, French Colonization
When Vietnam was under French colonial rule, Ho Chi Minh emerged not just as a future national leader but as a media strategist. In 1925, while in exile in Guangzhou, China, he launched Thanh Nien Newspaper, a revolutionary newspaper that he and his comrades secretly transported into Vietnam through underground networks of Vietnamese exiles and sympathizers.
The primary purpose of Thanh Nien Newspaper was to educate young Vietnamese about Marxist-Leninist thought and foster anti-colonial sentiment. The paper focused on criticizing colonial injustices, encouraging organized resistance, and promoting political literacy.
Later, he also wrote for French publications, such as Le Paria (The Outcast) and L'Humanité, and later founded Vietnamese-language outlets, including Công Nông (Workers and Peasants). His international journalism experience allowed him to understand the global revolutionary movement and adapt those ideas for Vietnamese audiences.
3. Phan Dang Luu - The Prison Journalist Who Wrote for Freedom
1930s–1940s, French Colonization
Phan Dang Luu was not only a revolutionary intellectual but also a journalist who used every circumstance, even imprisonment.
When detained in Buon Me Thuot—a highland region where many minor Vietnamese ethnicities are inhabited, he secretly published a handwritten newspaper called “Doãn Đê tù báo”, written in both Vietnamese and Ede (a Central Highlands minority language). The paper contained news, commentary, and language lessons, aiming to bridge the gaps between ethnicities.
His articles were brief, clear, and emotionally resonant, discussing colonial oppression, national shame, and the shared struggle of all Vietnamese, regardless of ethnicity. Despite constant surveillance and beatings, he continued writing and smuggling essays out of prison, exposing the brutality of the colonial penal system.
After his release from Buon Ma Thuot prison in the late 1930s, he continued to contribute to other legal publications under various pseudonyms. In 1941, he was executed for his role in the Cochinchina Uprising, but his defiant prison journalism lives on as one of the earliest examples of resistance through the press.
4. Pham Xuan An - The Spy Reporter with a Dual Mission
1950s–1970s, American War
Pham Xuan An was a respected war correspondent for Time, Reuters, and The New York Herald Tribune during the Vietnam War. But secretly, he worked as an intelligence officer for the North Vietnamese National Liberation Front.
He was the first Vietnamese person to become a full-fledged staff member for a major American news outlet covering the war. He befriended everyone who was anyone in Saigon, including American journalists such as David Halberstam and Neil Sheehan, the CIA's William Colby, and the legendary Colonel Edward Lansdale. This network of relationships made him perhaps the most well-connected journalist in Vietnam during the war. Time bureau chief Stanley Cloud considered him their "secret weapon" because of his extraordinary access to information and sources throughout Saigon.
His unique access allowed him to affect U.S. public opinion with his articles while simultaneously passing military information to the resistance. An's reports helped inform American readers about the complexities of the conflict, while his intelligence work contributed to major North Vietnamese operations, including the Tet Offensive.
After the war, his dual role was revealed, and he was honored as a Major General in the People's Army of Vietnam. The secret of his double life was kept for almost 30 years.
5. Trinh Thi Ngo (Hanoi Hannah) - The Psychic Voice in Psychological Warfare
1955–1975, American War
Trinh Thi Ngo, known to American soldiers as Hanoi Hannah, joined the Voice of Vietnam in 1955. Throughout the American War, from the mid-1960s until 1973, she narrated daily English-language bulletins designed to unravel the morale of U.S. troops through a mixture of hard truths, emotional appeals, and carefully selected music.
Her 30‑minute programs aired thrice daily, opening with direct addresses to “GI Joe,” continuing with lists of American battalion losses, sourced from Stars and Stripes, Time, and Newsweek, and interspersed with anti-war anthems like "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" by The Animals. She deployed a voice that was soft yet authoritative, intentionally not shrill, but suffused with empathy, to blur the boundary between adversary and confidante.
What made her broadcasts haunting was the psychological architecture. By naming soldiers, locations, and drawing from the American press, she cultivated an unsettling intimacy. U.S. veterans recalled moments when laughter over the radio turned to uneasy silence as they wondered, “How did she know?”
In one notable telling anecdote, she addressed listeners:
“When you sit alone at night and think of your loved ones, our gallant soldiers are watching you. You cannot escape.”
NPR described her as a broadcaster “whose broadcasts taunted and entertained American GIs.”
The fall of American troop presence in 1973 marked the end of her wartime broadcasts. Yet on April 30, 1975, she became the first to announce in English the liberation of Saigon—marking not just military victory, but the culmination of a psychological campaign.
A Legacy Written in Ink and Sacrifice’
Vietnam's revolutionary journalists weren't passive storytellers; they were participants in change. They wrote behind bars, printed the truth in exile. Their legacy is a press that doesn't just report, but dares to resist.
“Journalists are also revolutionary soldiers. Their pens and sheets of paper are their sharp weapons." — Ho Chi Minh.
As Vietnam's media continues to evolve in the digital age, these pioneers remain a compass. Their works remind contemporary journalists that the profession carries both privileges and responsibilities, and that the power of the press lies in its ability to serve the people's aspirations for freedom, truth, and justice.