But now aid is pouring in and lives are being saved on an enormous scale.
Some of today's victims were rescued from orphanages when aid poured in after Mr. Ceausescu's overthrow and execution in 1989.
Higher producer prices and favorable weather are leading to an agricultural recovery and foreign aid is pouring into Tanzania.
Through the cold war years, American aid poured into the country, no matter what sort of president was in power.
This was no accident: Soviet aid had been pouring into the country since 1955, when Nikita Khrushchev had visited.
Military aid to support the rebel coup is pouring in from Maurevia, Brungaria's powerful province in the north.
Economic aid poured into Honduras, quickly making it one of the top-ten recipients of US military and economic aid.
American aid pours into the country, $3.5 billion during the last decade, almost $14 a second in recent years.
Now that foreign aid is pouring into Aceh, the province is more tempting to the army.
Since foreign aid from many countries poured into the famine area, a wide variety of non-Russian accounts can be consulted.