In 1962, Thái Hà went to study at Central Nguyễn Ái Quốc Party School – a political institution teaching key communist Party members – and was commissioned to journey south along the Ho Chi Minh Trail. His name was changed from Nguyễn Như Huân to Thái Hà (taken from his two children) in order to maintain secrecy.
Hà was in charge of managing the Liberty Arts Department that included artists Phương Đông, Trang Phượng, and Nguyễn Thanh Châu. In 1964, he set up a liberty art class in Bến Tre – a province in the Mekong Delta, close to the Cambodian border.


In 1965, Hà established his second liberty class in Cần Thơ, where he was able to sketch and paint the local population (fig. 1), soldiers (fig. 2) and guerrillas based in Bến Tre Province. While there, he and his students held a short exhibition at Phụng Hiệp Commune, the aim of which was to create propaganda for the war. The exhibition lasted for only one night as the South Vietnamese authorities shut it down.
Towards the end of 1966, he established the third liberty class in Cà Mau Province.