Regarding a name on the memorial stela of Yên Bái Uprising.

Abstract

Regarding a name on the memorial stela of YÊn Bái Uprising
The memorial stela at the “Nguyễn Thái Học Historical Relic” in Yên Bái city where dedicated thirteen to martyrs of the Vietnam Nationalist Party who were put under guillotine by the French colonialists on 17 June 1930. This event was the tragic ending of the earlier uprising on 10 February led by Party Chief Nguyễn Thái Học with the motto “If you don’t succeed, you become benevolent”. In a large number of records written in the last 90 years, there appears to be another martyr’s name which prompts possible errors relating to the name Nguyễn Văn Thịnh that was carved on this stela.
By researching and comparing various documents and archives, the authors of this study determined that Nguyễn Văn Thịnh was not executed, and the soldier who was beheaded was actually another man whose name was Nguyễn Văn Tính. Moreover, this first study is to identify the hometown of Nguyễn Văn Thịnh, who actually had his death sentence reduced to force labor for life.
Due to the uncritical approach, there have been numerous reputable historical documents that have reproduced this error, especially the publications from 2000 up to now. The error related to the names of Nguyễn Văn Tính - Nguyễn Văn Thịnh thus implies the underlying cause of mistakes in the perception of historical facts in Vietnam.
Based on historical data, the authors also suggest relevant authorities to correct this specific mistake in official documents.