Vietnamese Women at War: Fighting for Ho Chi Minh and the Revolution

Women from Hanoi and the countryside fought alongside their male counterparts in both the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese military in their wars against the South Vietnamese government and its French and American allies from 1945 to 1975. In this volume, the author draws on interviews with many of these women and on an array of newly opened archives to illuminate the motivations, experiences, and contributions of these women, presenting not cold facts but real people. The author relates how this war for liberation from foreign oppressors also liberated Vietnamese women from centuries of Confucian influence that had made them second-class citizens. She reveals that communism's promise of freedom from those strictures influenced their involvement in the war, and also shares the irony that their sex gave them an advantage in battle or subterfuge over Western opponents blinded by gender stereotypes. As their country continues to modernize, this volume preserves these women's stories while they remain alive and before the war fades from memory. By showing that they were not victims of war but active participants, it offers a unique perspective on that conflict.