Doctor Nguyen Khac Vien

HA NOI (VNS)- Celebrations to mark the 100th birthday of Nguyen Khac Vien, one of modern Viet Nam's best known scholars, is held today (February 1) in Ha Noi.

Vien, who died in 1997, was one of the most distinguished figures in the Vietnamese revolutionary movement.

For many, Vien was a respected teacher and a devoted doctor to generations of Vietnamese students.

He became a paediatrician after graduating from the Paris Medical University in 1941. During his time in France, he studied and popularised Vietnamese culture and headed up a Patriotic Overseas Vietnamese movement against the wars led by France and the US in Indochina.

In 1963, he returned to Viet Nam and worked for the French-English magazine Viet Nam Studies. He also served as Director of the Foreign Language Publishing House (now the World Publishers).

In 1984, he founded the Child Psychology and Psychosis Research Centre. In November 1992, he held a Grand Prix de la Francophone and donated most of the proceeds to the research centre.

In 1997, he was awarded a first-rank Independence Medal by the State of Viet Nam, and in September 2000, he was posthumously awarded the State Prize for his book, Viet Nam, an Epic. VNS