The Three Faces of Jean-Paul Sartre in Communist Vietnam, 1946–1986 New Light on the Intellectual History of Contemporary Vietnam

• Published in: Sojourn (Singapore) Vol. 38; no. 1; pp. 28 - 65
• Main Author: Thi, Doan Cam
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute 01.03.2023; ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute; Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS)
• Subjects: China; Communism; France; Russia; Sartre, Jean-Paul; Vietnam; Vietnam; France; China; Russia
• ISSN: 0217-9520; 1793-2858
• DOI: 10.1355/sj38-1b

Even though we read a great deal about what Jean-Paul Sartre thought of his ‘Vietnamese friends’, we know almost nothing about what they thought of him. This article draws upon a wealth of untapped Vietnamese language sources to shed new light on communist Vietnam’s interpretations of Sartre, his philosophical ideas and his battles. These sources are closely linked to their historical and political context, not only in relation to the Indochina wars, but also as part of the Cold War. The study of interpretations of Sartre shows how his work and his commitments were exploited by the Vietnamese communist state in Hanoi by means of a powerful ideological apparatus in the service of its own struggles against France and the United States. What were the methods used by Vietnamese leaders? What do they reveal about communist Vietnam’s foreign policies and about internal differences within the country’s leadership? What roles did the Soviet Union, China, France and the United States play in this? How did Hanoi intellectuals act in the face of political power? How do their changing views of Sartre shed light on the intellectual history of contemporary Vietnam? In answering these questions, this article makes several original contributions not only to understanding the history of contemporary Vietnam but also that of the wider world in the twentieth century.