Doan Van Toai
Encyclopedia
Doan Van Toai (born 1945 in Vietnam
) is author of The Vietnamese Gulag
. It was published in 1986 by Simon and Schuster Publishing Group, New York (ISBN 9780671603502 ISBN 0671603507) , 351 pp.
Doan became an antiwar activist, a supporter of the National Liberation Front and vice president of the Saigon Student Union in 1969 and 1970, and spent time in jails in South Vietnam
for antigovernment activities as a student leader. After the invasion of the North Vietnamese Army and the end of the Vietnam War
in 1975, he became a senior official of the Ministry of Finance under the Provisional Government. He soon disagreed on purely professional grounds with a superior official and was quickly and unceremoniously tossed into jail, for 28 months. He left Vietnam in May 1978 and like Truong Nhu Tang
, went into exile in Paris
.
In 1989 he was shot and seriously wounded by two Asian males as he was walking in area around his home in California. The shooting happened during a spate of attacks on foreign resident dissident Vietnamese and was widely believed to have been politically motivated. Doan's advocacy of the recognition of the government of Vietnam and proposal that the US government should establish diplomatic ties was not universally liked in the Vietnamese community and there was speculation that he was shot by anti-Communist protestors.
Doan Van Toai is also author of these books :
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
) is author of The Vietnamese Gulag
The Vietnamese Gulag
The Vietnamese Gulag is the autobiography of the Vietnamese pro-democracy activist Doan Van Toai. The book focuses specifically on his arrest and imprisonment by the Communist Vietnamese government, events which precipitated a change in his political belief from luke-warm communist to advocate of...
. It was published in 1986 by Simon and Schuster Publishing Group, New York (ISBN 9780671603502 ISBN 0671603507) , 351 pp.
Doan became an antiwar activist, a supporter of the National Liberation Front and vice president of the Saigon Student Union in 1969 and 1970, and spent time in jails in South Vietnam
South Vietnam
South Vietnam was a state which governed southern Vietnam until 1975. It received international recognition in 1950 as the "State of Vietnam" and later as the "Republic of Vietnam" . Its capital was Saigon...
for antigovernment activities as a student leader. After the invasion of the North Vietnamese Army and the end of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
in 1975, he became a senior official of the Ministry of Finance under the Provisional Government. He soon disagreed on purely professional grounds with a superior official and was quickly and unceremoniously tossed into jail, for 28 months. He left Vietnam in May 1978 and like Truong Nhu Tang
Truong Nhu Tang
Trương Như Tảng is a Vietnamese lawyer and politician living in France. He was active in many anti-South Vietnamese organizations before joining the newly created Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam as the Minister of Justice. He spent many years in the jungles...
, went into exile in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
.
In 1989 he was shot and seriously wounded by two Asian males as he was walking in area around his home in California. The shooting happened during a spate of attacks on foreign resident dissident Vietnamese and was widely believed to have been politically motivated. Doan's advocacy of the recognition of the government of Vietnam and proposal that the US government should establish diplomatic ties was not universally liked in the Vietnamese community and there was speculation that he was shot by anti-Communist protestors.
Doan Van Toai is also author of these books :
- Documents on prisons in Viet-Nam
- A Vietcong Memoir (Mémoires d'un Vietcong, w/ Nhu Tang TruongTruong Nhu TangTrương Như Tảng is a Vietnamese lawyer and politician living in France. He was active in many anti-South Vietnamese organizations before joining the newly created Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam as the Minister of Justice. He spent many years in the jungles...
, David Chanoff) - 'Vietnam' A Portrait of its People at War (w/ David Chanoff)
- PORTRAIT Of The ENEMY The Other Side of Vietnam, Told Through Interviews with North Vietnamese, Former Vietcong and Southern Opposition Leaders (w/ David Chanoff).