Dao Dinh Luan was born in 1924 and worked in several different areas in the 1940s, many of them in Central Vietnam (Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Hue, Da Nang). Shortly after the August Revolution, he started working for the Central Vietnam police department based in Hue, where he investigated opposition parties. In 1946, he transferred to Thanh Hoa where he continued the repression (including the killing of some members) of opposition parties, mostly from the Quoc Dan Dang. He also mentions the Democratic Party, though he says this party was treated differently as it was part of the Viet Minh. Later on he worked for a propaganda agency in Thanh Hoa, broadcasting and printing information on large posters or boards (bang), which was mostly taken from Bao Cuu Quoc. During that time he worked in collaboration with Dao Duy Denh, who is mentioned frequently (as well as his brothers Dao Duy Ky and Dao Duy Anh). By chance Luan found himself in Hanoi for repairing and learning about radio transmitters when the Indochina War broke out in December 1946. From there he was instructed to join a theatre company (doan kich), which included the artist Pham Duy and which traveled in many areas of the Viet Bac. He talks about his work managing and taking care of communications for the theatre company in the Viet Bac, as well as political training, mobilizing, and propagandizing among the local population in the areas they traveled in (including ethnic minorities). He talks at length about “Hoa van” (propagandizing/mobilizing the overseas Chinese community in Vietnam), and about the fact that he had to learn Chinese (a Cantonese-related dialect he calls “tieng Pac Va”) in order to carry out this task.