Ranking educator during the war against the French. He studied in the Teacher’s Training School in Saigon and then in the Higher Teachers’ Training School in Hanoi, where he became involved in political activities in the 1930s and early 1940s with Dang Thai Mai and Pham Thieu. In 1945, Cao Van Thinh led the Vanguard Youth League (Thanh Nien Tien Phong) in Ben Tre and helped take over the province after the Allied defeat of the Japanese in August 1945. In 1946, Cao Van Thinh traveled to Hanoi where he became minister of Education in the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV). In 1952, he returned to southern Vietnam and was elected to the Resistance and Administrative Committee for Nam Bo and the Lien Viet Committee for Nam Bo (Uy Ban Lien Viet Nam Bo). He helped develop the educational system during the war in southern zones. One of his main tasks was reducing illiteracy in order to strengthen the efficiency of state institutionalization. At the end of the war, he repatriated to northern Vietnam, where he served in the Department for Southern Vietnam in the DRV’s Ministry of Education. He later served as consul general to Cambodia and Indonesia.