Spain's PM Sánchez Honors Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh

Spain's PM Sánchez Honors Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez placed a floral tribute at the mausoleum of Vietnamese communist leader Ho Chi Minh, according to images shared on social media. The gesture triggered reactions beyond protocol, touching on what some critics call a double standard in how Spanish politics handles historical memory depending on who is being honored.

The debate frequently cites 1.700.000 deaths attributed to Ho Chi Minh’s regime, though this figure is an estimate circulating among participants rather than consensus data from historians. The contrast drawn is that while the government makes Franco central to its memorial narrative, honoring a communist leader is treated as a routine institutional act without consequence.

Double Standards in Democratic Memory

Paradox lies at the heart of the issue. Some argue Sánchez doesn’t object to dictators per se, but specifically to Franco, because he deprived the PSOE of forty years of governance. Though harsh, this formulation describes a tension many consider real: the same executive pushing laws to review the Francoist past places flowers before a communist mausoleum without facing uncomfortable headlines.

This argument is reinforced by comparing figures. The most repeated calculation attributes 1.700.000 victims to Ho Chi Minh—a number handled naturally regarding Pol Pot or Mao in Western media, according to some, but blurred when applied to Vietnam. The lingering question is simple: why do some dictatorships merit condemnation while others only receive protocol?

Communism That 'Worked,' According to Defenders

Not all material points in the same direction. Part of the analysis argues that countries under communist regimes transitioned from feudal states to having education, housing, and employment, claiming communism was the only system allowing common people to live with dignity until elites dismantled it. This is the classic thesis: current capitalism, with €3.000 salaries and €1.400 rents, represents true exploitation.

In response, the strongest counter-argument notes that Vietnam, Cambodia, and China lived under psychopaths who kept populations in misery, and that China only began escaping poverty after abandoning Maoist economic principles. Hunger and repression in Cuba or North Korea are cited as proof that the model fails without markets.

Vietnam Today: Impressive Youth

Direct experience offers a nuance that breaks the pattern. Someone who worked four months in Saigon describes youth with healthier physical appearances than ever seen before: impeccable hairstyles even on motorbikes, clean, new, well-ironed clothes. Everyone. The contrast with today’s Spain, where the message originates, is bitter: thirty-six years of work and chocolate bread two weeks before retirement.

This testimony doesn’t deny victim counts but introduces an uncomfortable nuance: the country Sánchez visits today doesn’t resemble the one Ho Chi Minh left. The question is whether this is due to communism or its abandonment, and here the material disagrees.

War of Figures and Unreported Napalm

Victim accounting becomes a battlefield. Some material ironically suggests the Vietnamese communist ledger also includes US napalm deaths, wars, and weekend indigestions, reaching absurd totals. The implicit conclusion: estimates inflate or deflate depending on who signs them.

Counterarguments state that figures for Stalin, Mao, or Khmer Rouge are documented and widely debated by historians, and denying them out of ideological sympathy doesn’t make them disappear. Discussion shifts to Nixon and Kissinger’s responsibility for secret bombings in Cambodia, declassified by court order, and impunity for colonial crimes like Belgium’s in Congo or France’s in Algeria.

From Tribute to Pandemic: Thread Overflows

As often happens, the topic drifts closer to home. Comparisons emerge with pandemic management and 150.000 deaths attributed by one participant to the government, alongside mentions of nursing home elderly and Valencia flood victims. The Ho Chi Minh tribute becomes a trigger for broader reckoning.

Discussion also touches on Spanish emigration, citing INE data: during Franco’s era, about 240.000 emigrated annually, 0,68% of a 35 million population, versus over 1% today. This comparison fuels debate on whether Spain lives better or worse now, and if convergence with Germany, UK, and France is greater today than in the sixties.

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The floral tribute is small. What it reveals is larger: selective memory works both ways, and each side has its own mausoleum they refuse to abandon.