This decision came after military veterans voiced their objections.
The Latest: On Sept. 21, Cựu Chiến Binh Việt Nam (Vietnam Veterans), the official newspaper of the Vietnam Veterans Association’s central leadership, reported that the Ministry of Education and Training decided to remove Bảo Ninh’s novel The Sorrow of War from new school textbooks.
- According to Nguyễn Tiến Thanh, general director of Việt Nam Education Publishing House, who responded to the newspaper on Sept. 15, the ministry had “taken veterans’ views into account.”
- Furthermore, the ministry issued a written directive prohibiting schools from teaching the novel, which remains physically present in textbooks for the 2026–27 school year.
Support for the Decision: On Sept. 22, Phan Trung Can, a prominent figure in public denunciation campaigns, announced the news on his personal Facebook account.
- Most commenters supported the ministry’s decision and urged others to continue fighting what they called “historical revisionism.”
Other accounts and pages, including Chống phản động, Kênh giáo viên and Nguyễn Khuyến, also posted messages supporting the decision.
Before the Ban: Prior to the ban, several chief editors of Vietnamese literature textbooks had defended the novel’s inclusion.
Associate professor Bùi Mạnh Hùng, chief editor of the literature textbooks in the Connecting Knowledge With Life series, stated that it would be difficult to find a work better suited than The Sorrow of War to meet the requirements of the 12th-grade curriculum.
- He also cited broad agreement among literature educators, scholars, and critics regarding Bảo Ninh’s contribution to Vietnamese literature.
- He stated that including the novel would help students understand both sides of war, giving them “a nuanced and more profound understanding of the war our nation endured, encompassing heroism and glory, but also suffering and tears.”
Associate professor Đỗ Ngọc Thống, chief editor of the literature textbooks in the Kite series, also “fought resolutely” to include the work.
- He noted that several members of the national textbook appraisal council had feared a public backlash, but he persuaded the council to approve it.
The Background: In early December 2025, The Sorrow of War became the subject of fierce controversy after the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism honored it as one of 50 outstanding works of literature and art from the 50 years since reunification, 1975–2025.
- Following the backlash, the Education Ministry announced in January that it would remove the novel from school textbooks beginning in the 2026–27 academic year.
- The Ministry of Culture also removed it from the list of honored works.
Other books and writers have also faced denunciation campaigns over allegations of rewriting history.
- Prominent targets include Nguyễn Thành Nam’s Conversations With Thanh, Trần Thanh Cảnh’s Saint Trần, Bùi Việt Sỹ’s The Hawk and the Basket Weaver, and various works by Hà Thủy Nguyên.
Lê Sáng wrote this news article in Vietnamese and published it in Luật Khoa Magazine on September 25, 2026. The Vietnamese Magazine translated it into English.
