Ca Van Thinh (1902 - 1987)

Born on March 21, 1902, in Tan Thanh Binh Commune, Mo Cay District, Ben Tre Province. One of the prominent revolutionary personalities of Ben Tre. During his school years, he was known as a very intelligent and excellent student of his age. He won a scholarship to study at the Sai Gon Teachers Training School , then moved to the Ha Noi Teachers Training College. At the College, he joined with schoolmates such as Dang Thai Mai (later became one of the most prestigious People's Teacher) and Pham Thieu to take part in the protesting student movement in Ha Noi. He used literary as a tool to fight the French invaders.

After graduating from the Teachers Training College, Ca Van Thinh was appointed Chief of Education in Ben Tre Province. In August, 1945, he joined in toppling the Government in Ben Tre province. In 1946, he became a member of the Sector 8 Delegation going to the Central in North Viet Nam to report the situation in the South at the time and sought support for Southern battle fields. He was invited to be the Acting Minister of Education of the Resisting Government.

In 1952, he returned to the South and was designated member of the Resisting War Committee of the South, and at the same time member of the Inter-Vietnamese Committee in the South. After the Geneva Accord (1954), he was regrouped to the North, and there he passed through many positions in the Central Government such as Chief of the SEA Service in the Foreign Ministry, Amabssador to Cambodia, director of the Central Scientific Library. After the Liberation of the South, he was appointed chairman of the Southern Social Science Institute, representative of the central Social Science Committee in Ho Chi Minh City.

In decades after the August Revolution, Ca Van Thinh was working tirelessly until his retirement, contributing emmensely to the country's development in many fields. He was awarded the national First Class Independent Medal for his lifetime devotion.

Some of his contributions in cultural and literary research include works such as Tho Van yeu nuoc Nam Bo nua sau the ky XIX (Patriotic Literature of the South in later half of  Nineteen Century); Tho van Nguyen Van Thong (Nguyen Van Thong's Prose and Poem), and especially, his introduction of patriotic intellectuals Vo Truong Toan, Nguyen Dinh Chieu and Nguyen Thong to the whole country, which have been seen as extremely crucial in Vietnamese cultural life.