Lê Xuân Nhuận (born January 2,êXuânNhuậ 1930), also known as Nhuan Xuan Le, is a Vietnamese American poet and writer. He has been a participant in Who's Who in New Poets, inducted as a member of the Poets' Guild, and elected by The International Society of Poets into the International Poetry Hall of Fame under the pen name Thanh-Thanh.
He opposed a series of political regimes in Vietnam: French colonialism, Emperor Bảo Đại's feudalism, President Ngô Đình Diệm's dictatorship, President Nguyễn Văn Thiệu's stratocracy, and communism. He had consequently been periodically fired, arrested, imprisoned, demoted, put under house arrest, and exiled At different times, he served under the French, Bảo Đại, Ngô Đình Diệm, and Nguyễn Văn Thiệu, despite his opposition to their governments. He was admitted to the United States as a political refugee in 1992.
As a poet, he composed his own poems in English and translated other authors' works into English verse. After Poems by Selected Vietnamese, and "Vietnamese Choice Poems", he recently published Dragon & Fairy in Poetry, introducing 102 pieces by 70 poets living in America, Australia, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Norway and Vietnam Nhuan X. Le is a member of International PEN (PEN Center America).
Early life
Lê was born in Huế, the capital of Vietnam at the time. His father, a native of Hà Nội in the north, moved to Huế to become an imperial bureaucrat (mandarin). There he met Lê's mother, the daughter of a royal physician under the previous emperor, Khải Định.
Lê attended school in Huế. At the age of 13, his first poems and short stories were published in magazines in Hà Nội, then the literary center of the country. He attended Quốc Học–Huế High School, a school noted for producing many political leaders. He was politically influenced by his teacher, Tráng Cử—the son of Cường Để, an exiled royal who worked to oust the French from Vietnam.
French occupation and Bảo Đại's puppet administration
The French rulers were ousted by the Imperial Japanese Army in March 1945; after that, in August, Emperor Bảo Đại was dethroned by the Vietnamese Communist Party (Việt Minh). Following the end of World War II, French forces re-occupied most parts of Vietnam.
From 1947 to 1954, Lê Xuân Nhuận wrote for the various newspapers in Huế City, especially the two opposition bi-weeklies Công Lý (Justice) and Dân Đen (The Pariah) issued throughout Central Vietnam. He was threatened by both the French Federal (Liêm Phóng Liên Bang) and the Vietnamese Nationalist (Công An Quốc Gia) Security Services.
Nhuận's novel Trai Thời Loạn (Wartime Youths) implied resistance to the French who wanted to re-establish their dominion over Vietnam, and ex-Emperor Bảo Đại who wished to restore his reign. Nhuận was consequently arrested and imprisoned in 1949.
In 1954, he was mobilized as a writer/journalist into the French-supported Vietnamese National Army. He served at the Second Military Region Headquarters as a war correspondent, military press editor, psychological warfare lecturer, and chief of the radio broadcasting bureau "Voice of the Army, Central Vietnam". During that period, Nhuận created the Xây-Dựng literary group and publishing house.
Ngô Đình Diệm's dictatorship
When Ngô Đình Diệm was appointed Prime Minister by Bảo Đại – then Chief of the State of Vietnam – he was resisted by many people, especially the State of Vietnam's Army headed by General Nguyễn Văn Hinh, son of ex-Premier Nguyễn Văn Tâm, who were both pro-French. The Geneva Conference resulted in dividing the country into two, putting North Vietnam under the Vietnamese communists.
Lê Xuân Nhuận supported Diệm because of U.S. backing and opposition to communism. He refused to obey orders by Nguyễn Văn Hinh and Trương Văn Xương, the Second Military Region Commander, who tried to step up the campaign against Ngô Đình Diệm. Nhuận separated himself from the Headquarters and used the "Voice of the Army from Central Vietnam" to support Diệm in Saigon, the new capital of South Vietnam so that the Hinh and Xương's efforts were ineffective in the Central Region, and this encouraged and helped pro-Diệm elements succeed in the Southern Region.
Nhuận taught, with the USIS (USIA known abroad as USIS) and American Consulate General's help, the first-ever English-by-Radio course for Vietnamese listeners. In 1957, Nhuận's Xây-Dựng group was recognized for its achievements at the pre-1975 National Cultural Festival as one of the main branches of the Vietnam Cultural Tree. During this time, Nhuận also served in the CIO Central Intelligence Organization or SOC Đoàn Công-Tác Đặc-Biệt and taught English at the Duy Tân High School in Buôn Ma Thuột.