Tuesday 17 February 2026, 16:00 -18:00, Bushuis Room  BH E1.02

Kevin Pham (UvA) (https://www.uva.nl/en/profile/p/h/k.d.pham/k.d.pham.html)

In 1954, the government of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV) defeated the French military at Dien Bien Phu, thereby ending French colonialism in Vietnam (1858-1954). But soon after achieving national liberation, the same government became a new source of oppression in the newly independent state, or so argued a group of about fifty intellectuals proclaiming loyalty to the DRV. This talk presents the ideas of these intellectuals, participants in what has become known as the Nhan Van – Giai Phammovement (1956-1960). They criticized their government for becoming dogmatic, authoritarian, and harming the interests of the people they claimed to serve. Interestingly, they argued that the key to long lasting freedom in Vietnam is freedom of speech. But rather than defend freedom of speech in terms of individual entitlement as we tend to do in the West, they defend it as a collective—rather than individual—right, arguing that it can help the government redress mistakes, identify what is good and bad for the people, and create a socialism that celebrates human diversity. Their theories of free speech draw on Confucian traditions of remonstrance and Marxism, thus offering a different, more global perspective on free speech.