the first vietnamese to travel into outer space was the cosmonaut phạm tuân, a native of thái bình. two other natives of thái bình are the ones who finalized the two famous wars in vietnam: tạ quốc luật, who captured christian de castries and raised the victory flag in the battle of dien bien phu (the first indochina war) and bùi quang thận, who led a group of northern tanks and entered the headquarters of south vietnam's government to make president dương văn minh unconditionally surrender (the second indochina war). the thái bình born, first chief of general staff was hoàng văn thái. thái bình is also the homeland of several famous vietnamese political dissidents and humanitarians. thích quảng độ is a vietnamese buddhist leader and critic of the vietnamese government. in 2006, he was awarded the thorolf rafto memorial prize, and was also a nominee for the nobel peace prize. dương thu hương, arguably the most famous postwar vietnamese writer, whose novel "paradise of the blind" (những thiên đường mù, 1988) became the first vietnamese novel ever published in the united states in english, is also a famous political dissident. nguyễn hữu đang, born in kiến xương district, was the leader and prominent victim of the nhân văn affair - a movement for a movement for political and cultural freedom of vietnamese intellectuals. this affair is one of the most tragic events in modern vietnamese history.