Society

What Happened: The Great Famine of 1945 killed somewhere between 1-2 million people in northern Vietnam. The tragedy formed a key part of modern Vietnam’s history; the anger and devastation helped galvanize the population to support the Viet Minh independence movement and, later, the Communist Party of Vietnam. Yet since then, the famine has been largely forgotten – not censored, exactly, but neglected in official versions of history. While historians have called for official commemorations, and grassroots efforts have erected some local memorials, the government has largely ignored the push to acknowledge the famine’s central role in Vietnam’s 20th century history.

Our Focus: Like its fellow Communist Party to the north, the CPV maintains an iron grip on history to ensure there are no challenges to its legitimacy. CPV rule must be centered as a historical inevitability – not a fluke created by a confluence of events, including the Great Famine. The famine’s history, by contrast, is inextricably linked to the complexity of Vietnam’s independence movement, with a rival government – now universally denounced in official accounts – spearheading relief efforts at the time. Further complicating a full reckoning with the tragedy, the Great Famine took place under, and was undoubtedly worsened by, Japanese colonial rule. With Japan-Vietnam relations riding high, especially over the last 15 years, Hanoi has little incentive to dig up old ghosts. “By the 2000s, the government was far more interested in Japanese investment,” Professor Ken MacLean from Clark University told The Diplomat. “The issue of Japanese obligations never became a pressing public demand in Vietnam with regard to the criminal tragedy that occurred.”

What Comes Next: Without the Great Famine, Vietnam’s history might look very different. The Viet Minh front, which was established in 1941, used the famine to mobilize illiterate and impoverished peasants. In addition, the famine contributed to the political chaos that made possible for the August 1945 revolution to happen and for the CPV to lay claim to it. Yet the government has not approved any official projects to commemorate the history, though it has allowed local memorials to stand. “Those who experienced it [the famine] are mostly dead,” Ho Tai Hue Tam, a professor at Harvard University, said. “Currently, both governments and people are more interested in the post-war, post-Doi Moi prosperity, which, in the post-COVID period, seems to be slipping away.” Still, there is renewed interest in Vietnam’s history, including the Great Famine, which may force the CPV to respond.

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