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Comment by achamayou | Hacker News Reader

It's unfortunate that the article does not provide any source for its central claim. All references in western literature point to quốc ngữ being by far the most widespread script by the beginning of the 1920s, largely owing to the colonial administration pushing for it aggressively.

There was no choice to make by 1945, and indeed none was made.

The population of Vietnam in 1945 wasn't anywhere near 45 million, instead it was a bit under 25 million. This article seems to have been written by someone who only has a strenuous grasp of Vietnam's history, and is very likely confusing the declaration of independence in 1945 with the reunification in 1975.

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In addition, I find the claim crediting the Communist government for adopting Latin character to be bogus. If this is true, then south Vietnam would be a lot more illiterate than the north and not the thriving commercial and research center it is today, simply because these government-sponsored programs would be most effective in the northern part where the central government is. In fact, the Communist government was driven out into hiding in rural area as soon as they declared independence. So they wouldn't have the time or mean to implement country-wide education reforms. As one data point, my grandma, who did not come from privileged background and was born in 1920 and like most of her peers spoke and wrote French and Vietnamese fluently, received all her education prior to 1945. I'm pretty sure the Latin writing adoption was started much earlier and it was more natural simply because it's closest to French, which was the official language at the time

I know nothing about Vietnam. But a trend in centrally controlled countries is often the further near the center one is, the more dependent on being fed they are.

The further away, the more they get used to feeding themselves, so when the state takes a reduced role in daily economic life, for example partially deregulating industries, as they have in Vietnam, those that were feeding themselves are now able to flourish, and where government subsidies are taken away, areas turn into comparative rust-buckets.

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