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 for Republic of Vietnam 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 South Vietnamese diplomatic service in Southeast Asia, Tran Van Dinh joined the Embassy of Republic of Vietnam in Washington, D.C. in 1961.In 1963, Tran was in charge of the South 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.After his departure from diplomat career, Tran Van Dinh had criticized the government Republic of Vietnam and American involvement in Vietnam War. He later became an opponent of the Vietnam War. After the war he made some visits to the unified Vietnam.
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 included hundreds of articles and essays, two major textbooks: and . He also wrote two novels about the Vietnam War: and .He was a contributor and editorial advisor to
In later 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 was an overseas member of the Scientific Council of the non-governmental TrungTam Nghien Cuu Quoc Hoc with offices in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.