Trần Văn Dĩnh


Trần Văn Dĩnh was a Vietnamese diplomat, author, professor of international politics and communications at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In his words, "I am a Vietnamese by birth, an American by choice."

Early life

Tran Van Dinh was born and raised in Huế, the former imperial capital of Vietnam. He came from a family of Confucian scholars, Buddhist philosophers and Taoist poets. In his youth, he participated in the anti-colonial struggle against the French. Later, he became a diplomat and has served in Thailand, Burma, the United Nations, Argentina, Mexico and the United States of America.

Diplomatic career

After serving for 10 years in the Vietnamese diplomatic service in Southeast Asia, Tran Van Dinh joined the Embassy of Vietnam in Washington, D.C. in 1961. From their post in Washington, the Van Dinhs took in the events of the growing Civil Rights Movement, in particular the 300,000 person March on Washington led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. These events would have a profound impact on their relationship with the United States, and would foreshadow their own immersion into the ongoing struggle for liberation around the globe.
In 1963, Tran was in charge of the Vietnamese Embassy in Washington, D.C. as well as non-resident Ambassador to Argentina.

Academic career

He resigned at the end of 1963 to pursue full-time his passion for peace and social justice work. This included teaching courses in Asian Humanism at the State University of New York/Old Westbury and the Dag Hammarskjöld College at Columbia, Maryland. From 1971 to 1985, he taught International Politics and Communications and chaired the Department of Pan-African Studies at Temple University.

Marriage

His wife is Nuong Van Dinh Tran. While Tran was pursuing his work in the political and academic arenas, Nuong was exploring her many interests in the world of visual art. Nuong Van-Dinh Tran, a Fine Art artist, was trained as a painter and a printmaker at the Corcoran School of Art, and earned her MFA at the George Washington University. Nuong Van-Dinh Tran, a Founding Member of the , has her work featured in The National Museum of Women in the Arts, The National Museum of American Art, The Smithsonian Institution, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Library of Congress Fine Prints Collection, the Permanent Collection of the Pushkin Museum, Moscow, and in many private collections.

Publications

His publications include hundreds of articles and essays, two major textbooks :; . He also wrote two novels about the Vietnam War: and .
He was a contributor and editorial advisor to
In recent years, he frequently visited Southeast Asia and Vietnam and has written an article on his native city of Huế in the November 1989 issue of the National Geographic Magazine. He co-authored an Insight Guides book on Vietnam which was translated into several languages. He is an overseas member of the Scientific Council of the non-governmentalTrungTam Nghien Cuu Quoc Hoc with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.