Historian Duong Trung Quoc: The grain fund for dyke repair in the first years of independence

Speaking with the Vietnam Agriculture and Nature News, Duong Trung Quoc shared a memory tied to Professor Nguyen Xien (1907–1997), Chairman of the Northern Administrative Committee and the first Director of the Vietnam Meteorological Service. A revolutionary intellectual, Xien made enormous contributions to flood control and dyke protection in the earliest days of the Democratic Republic of Vietnam.

“We must remember that right after seizing power, alongside battling famine, illiteracy, financial shortages, and both internal and external threats, the government’s top priority was dyke protection. That alone demonstrates how critical this work was for the country’s survival and development over the past 80 years”, Duong explained.

The first battle on the dyke front

In 1997, when Duong visited the 90-year-old Nguyen Xien, who passed away only months later, the professor was still sharp-minded. He was writing a letter to the National Assembly Chairman, urging deputies never to forget President Ho Chi Minh’s teaching on the duty to guard the dykes against floods.

As the first Chairman of the Northern Administrative Committee and Director of the Meteorological Service, Xien recounted that the first great battle between the revolutionary state and its people was waged on the dyke front.

The story began on August 28, 1945, ten days after the revolution triumphed in Hanoi. The Northern Administrative Committee was established, with Nguyen Xien appointed its head. Two days later, he also became Director of the Meteorological Service.

He and the committee immediately took over the colonial administration, set up local administrative committees, retained willing civil servants, and tackled urgent tasks, chief among them repairing dykes destroyed in the catastrophic floods of August 1945.

For 15 days and nights that month, torrential rains battered the North, causing widespread flooding on the Red River system. On August 18, multiple dykes broke, including Quang Cu, Diem Xuan, Luong Phuc, and those along the Cau, Day, and Lo Rivers. Vast swaths of farmland, nearly one-third of the region’s rice area, were submerged.

The crisis was compounded by political upheaval: the French colonial regime had been toppled by the Japanese in March 1945, Japan’s forces were preparing to surrender, and the Viet Minh were mobilizing for revolution. The colonial flood-control system had collapsed, communications were paralyzed, and in some places saboteurs worsened the damage.

The Northern Administrative Committee urgently sought to close breaches to save the October harvest and begin reinforcing weakened dykes before the 1946 flood season. But famine, war, and financial exhaustion left the government with little more than popular mobilization to rely upon.

On December 26, 1945, after consulting President Ho Chi Minh, the committee issued Circular 105/PY on dyke repair. It detailed the August flood’s destruction, costs already incurred, and plans for ten new dykes requiring six million Indochinese piastres and 1.5 million cubic meters of earth. Work had to start immediately and finish before the 1946 rains.

The grain fund and the first state commendation

The solution was bold: establish a “grain fund for dyke repair,” levied on landowners. Xien argued that flood prevention was primarily the responsibility of those who owned farmland. Landlords would contribute rice according to their holdings - 1 kg per plot under three plot (about one acre), 2 kg per mẫu for 3–10 plot, and 3 kg per plot above 10. Poor peasants without land contributed labor. Contracts for dyke construction were auctioned, with contractors paying workers in rice from the fund.

The approach was innovative and pragmatic. Though some feared it clashed with revolutionary principles, President Ho Chi Minh himself endorsed it, remarking: “Of course, contractors exploit. But right now, contracting to build dykes is an act of patriotism”.

With clear regulations for collection, accounting, and oversight, the Grain Fund became a cornerstone of early flood control. Despite sabotage from hostile groups, the work proceeded. President Ho Chi Minh personally visited Nam Dinh and Thai Binh to rally support, standing on muddy worksites to encourage peasants as they closed breaches at My Loc and Hung Nhan.

By May 1946, the repairs were complete, just in time for flood season. That same month, the government issued Decree No. 70, creating the Central Dyke Protection Committee, chaired by the head of the Northern Administrative Committee and staffed by experienced experts. It authorized rewards for those who contributed, punishments for neglect, and emergency powers to requisition materials and conscript citizens aged 18–35 for dyke defense. This “historic decree,” signed by President Ho Chi Minh, enabled the nation to withstand floods that year and beyond.

The very first commendation awarded by the independent Vietnamese state, signed by Acting President Huynh Thuc Khang, recognized achievements in dyke defense.

Soldiers guarding the people’s happiness

In later years, dyke management shifted to the Ministry of Transport and Public Works, then to regional war-time structures, and finally to nationwide systems after 1954. But the foundation was laid in those first months of independence, when flood control became both a government mission and a people’s movement.

President Ho Chi Minh never ceased to stress the importance of dyke defense. In June 1955, on the eve of Hanoi’s first rainy season after liberation, he wrote to the people and cadres of dyke provinces: “We must not be complacent. We must strengthen and guard the dykes to protect harvests and property. However high the floodwaters, the dykes must stand firm”.

The following year, he sent another letter, warning of heavy rains and calling for strict organization, solid leadership, and the mobilization of farmers, youth, and soldiers.

Historian Duong Trung Quoc reflected: “I once heard Nguyen Xien say that the dyke managers in those early revolutionary days were truly soldiers, utterly dedicated to their responsibility”.

For generations, dykes have been a priceless heritage passed down by ancestors, like the mythical crossbow trigger that protected the nation in legend. Neglecting them would bring disaster. That is why President Ho Chi Minh likened dyke protection to the vigilance of a sentry guarding the people’s happiness.