Khải Định
In Huế he attended a "franco-indigène" – half Vietnamese, half French - elementary school, then a Catholic high school and the state-run Khải Định College. The last two establishments were "modern" schools which eliminated Chinese script and Confucian ideas and introduced a French education standard curriculum with French as the medium of instruction. Thien was thereby introduced to Western political and social ideas, graduating with a Baccalaureate of Philosophy in 1944. Plans for medical studies in Hanoi were interrupted in March 1945 when the Japanese occupying forces took over control of the country from the French. With no other transportation available he rode his bicycle the 400 miles from Hanoi to Huế. Along the way he witnessed the terrible effects of a famine estimated to have killed over one million Vietnamese in 1944/45. This traumatic experience convinced him to switch his course of studies from medicine to economics on the understanding he could thereby help more people.