Nhan Dan

Nhan Dan, or People's Daily, is now identified as the daily newspaper and website of the Central Organ of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Depending on the political climate of the time, it was identified, at various times, as the newspaper of the Lao Dong or Vietnam Workers' Party. For a period from the late 1930s to 1970s, Vietnamese Communists, while perfectly happy to discuss Marxism, preferred not to have their movement called "Communist". In any event, the more theoretical discussions were, from the 1960s on, in the Party journal, Hoc Tap.

Nhan Dan was first published in 1951. During the Vietnam War, it was written in turgid revolutionary jargon, but still was necessary reading for open source intelligence analysts. Especially when changes in language or mention officials could be seen to change over a period of time, an experienced analyst could derive considerable information on factional disputes within the leadership, and even external policy. It was routinely translated by the Joint Publications Research Service, a government service that was absorbed by the CIA's Foreign Broadcast Information Service.

In 1998, it became Vietnam's first Internet news publication. While some formal presentations still may be jargon-filled, it has become remarkably more readable by Westerners.