hie media reform and glasnost process allowed the people to become a true citizenry, no longera subject people.
Great effort has been made by the press and media reform in Vietnam to remedy the situation. It has brought some undeniable amelioration to the media climate and helped clear up the unwholesome social environment: However staunch opposition to the press reform was waged by invisible members of the powerful Party elite, by ail privileged officiais of the ossified system, and by the ideologicai watchdogs as well. This proved to be a mighty coalition against the democratization process and the openness policy of the Party reformers.
C. The Re-Awakening of Collective Consciousness and its Foes
If Nguyen Van Linh and his team are the directors of the drama of Truth, its principal actors are the people. Despite general mass apathy, a large number of the population: rank-and-file Party members, the intelligentsia, military officiais, the rising young generation, state employees and large numbers of city people are more politically oriented and eager to support any move, even from the top that corresponds to their aspirations and ameliorates their condition. Always on the watch for the slightest sign of policy change, these experienced between-the- lines readers were more than excited by the turn-around of Soviet Party lire. Public communication of Boris Yeltsin's report revealing the abuses of the corrupt Moscow Party apparatus has had some electrifying effects in Vietnam. Despite its exaggeration, the following news report conveyed the climate of collective febrility pervading the population, particularly the intelligentsia, at that time:

... not only the capital but ail the provinces are closely surveying ail activities of the CPSU, reading attentively the Party Congress' documents, especially the report of Comrade Yeltsin's of the Moscow Party leadership. When Nhan Dan started publishing Yeltsin's report I was working in Hai Phong and Quang Ninh. Vie report was fantastic, fascinating, the Party daily was like a magnet and everyone was compelled to rend it. Almost ail of those who have read the report wanted to share their joy, to "stir" everyone's attention concerning the news ...

... Back to Hanoi, I could observe that coinrade Yeltsin's report was still the predominant topic of conversation among the people 36.
Such popular excitement was forceful evidence of irrespressible collective political consciousness patiently waiting for its moment of revindication. The campaign for criticism and openness enabled the former atomized society to communicate with itself - a process equivalent to a social revolution in the context of a totalitarian system. This quite incredible opportunity was immediately exploited by the dynamic elements of Vietnamese society. Broad popular participation in the discussion of the nation's problems became more and more frequent and tolerated. If the political reform was decided from the top, it was principally the grass-roots that effected its implementation. And during this process, more and more people who formerly viewed themselves as subjects were taking on the mentality of citizens. Let's quote again Nguyen Khac Vien to picture the new social reality in Viet nam:

In 1986, we hear everywhere: I object to this, I would litre to supplément or propose a way to correct il, this is right, that is wrong, such person has cominitted errors, another must step down from his office. The belly is still humigary but the braie is full of ferment and vitality. Then the ideas have bloomed, not only during the meeting, the propositions; opinion rnakes its apparition, not only among hal f a dozen people gathering around a streetcorner or on the ricefields;
Indochina Report 8	Oct-Dec 1990