The main content of the work does not study ideology or history of ideas but focus on the transformation of three generations of Vietnamese intellectuals from the middle of the XIX century to the middle of the XX century. The author seeks a typical connection for the transformation of Vietnam's ideology in about a century of violent changes of the country in that period. It is the journey of intellectual groups who play the most eloquent and sensitive role of society. The basic content of the work is to identify intellectual groups through historical periods that the author calls "historical generations". The historical context of this period is the conquest of the French colonization, the process of colonization and the confrontation in all aspects of the process of national liberation. Western colonial aggression poses many confrontations and paradoxes in the perception and behavior of intellectuals, not only in terms of national independence but also in the fields of economics, religion, ideology and culture.