At the August 1956 Conference of the Vietnamese Literary Association, intellectuals openly demanded greater freedom, just as their counterparts in China and the Soviet Union were doing at that time. In September, five issues of the independent journal Nhan Van were permitted to publish, along with many other private publications that rallied dissenting intellectuals and flooded news-stands, symbolized a unique time of liberalization was represented. In an attempt to influence these publishing ventures and to stop the wave of criticism, the Van Hghe, which was an official weekly newspaper for literature and the arts, published a "self-criticism" of Hoai Thanh. Nevertheless, in that period, the DRV held a provisional tolerate official stance toward the directness of the writers and artists.
