Kathryn J. Atwood - Courageous Women of the Vietnam War: Medics, Journalists, Survivors, and More

Bold Women of Medicine by Susan M. Latta

Code Name Pauline by Pearl Witherington Cornioly, edited by Kathryn J. Atwood

Courageous Women of the Civil War by M. R. Cordell

Double Victory by Cheryl Mullenbach

The Many Faces of Josephine Baker by Peggy Caravantes

Marooned in the Arctic by Peggy Caravantes

Reporting Under Fire by Kerrie L. Hollihan

Seized by the Sun by James W. Ure

She Takes a Stand by Michael Elsohn Ross

Women Aviators by Karen Bush Gibson

Women Heroes of the American Revolution by Susan Casey

Women Heroes of World War I by Kathryn J. Atwood

Women Heroes of World War II by Kathryn J. Atwood

Women Heroes of World War IIthe Pacific Theater by Kathryn J. Atwood

Women in Blue by Cheryl Mullenbach

Women in Space by Karen Bush Gibson

Women of Colonial America by Brandon Marie Miller

Women of Steel and Stone by Anna M. Lewis

Women of the Frontier by Brandon Marie Miller

A World of Her Own by Michael Elsohn Ross

Copyright 2018 by Kathryn J. Atwood

Foreword copyright 2018 by Diane Carlson Evans

All rights reserved

First edition

Published by Chicago Review Press Incorporated

814 North Franklin Street

Chicago, Illinois 60610

ISBN 978-1-61373-074-4

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Atwood, Kathryn J., author.

Title: Courageous women of the Vietnam War : medics, journalists, survivors, and more / Kathryn J. Atwood.

Description: First edition. | Chicago, Illinois : Chicago Review Press Incorporated, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. | Audience: 12+.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017040059 (print) | LCCN 2017040968 (ebook) | ISBN 9781613730751 (adobe pdf) | ISBN 9781613730775 (epub) | ISBN 9781613730768 (kindle) | ISBN 9781613730744 | ISBN 9781613730744(cloth)

Subjects: LCSH: Vietnam War, 19611975Participation, FemaleJuvenile literature. | Vietnam War, 19611975WomenBiographyJuvenile literature.

Classification: LCC DS559.8.W6 (ebook) | LCC DS559.8.W6 A89 2018 (print) | DDC 959.704/3082dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017040059

Interior design: Sarah Olson

Map design: Chris Erichsen

Image of Iris Mary Roser on from Ba Rose by Iris Mary Roser. Every effort has been made to contact the copyright holders. The editors would welcome information concerning any inadvertent errors or omissions.

Printed in the United States of America

5 4 3 2 1

Are you so smart that you truly know whos to blame? If you ask the Viet Cong, theyll blame the Americans. If you ask the Americans, theyll blame the North. If you ask the North, theyll blame the South. If you ask the South, theyll blame the Viet Cong. If you ask the monks, theyll blame the Catholics, or tell you our ancestors did something terrible and so brought this endless suffering on our heads.

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places

Vietnam is like a huge jigsaw puzzle where none of the pieces fit.

Ba Rose: My Years in Vietnam, 19681971

THE ECHOES OF THE VIETNAM War are heard in these gripping accounts of women from around the world who were, in various ways, deeply and passionately involved with the war. These disparate voices span three decades, illuminating the feminine face of war and adding to the undeniable legacy of womens involvement in its perils. First, author Kathryn Atwood gives us an important lesson in Southeast Asian history, beginning with 1945. She provides a historical chronology of the Vietnam War while directing a spotlight on the bravery and achievements of not only the risk-taking women who participated in the war but also those who suffered gravely from its consequences. Their recollections paint pictures for us, unforgettable portraits.

For me, there is something different about this book. When I finished the last page, engrossed in the lives of these featured women, I contemplated why I felt awe and remorse. I was shaken. The author takes us on a journey back more than a half century to a time of unspeakable brutality, exemplary heroism, loss, and hope. It was a time when most women who had stepped up to serve humbly declared, like the French nurse Genevive de Galard, serving in Vietnam in the 1950s, I only did my duty. Under harrowing conditions with dying men all around her, she, the lone woman, dressed wounds and kept up morale in the face of mounting casualties. We read her story here and know she is an indisputable hero.

We read Dr. Dang Thuy Trams diary entry about her patients: Your blood has crimsoned our native land. Your heart has stopped so that the heart of the nation can beat forever. Dr. Tram was dedicated to saving lives of the Communist guerrilla forces in underground hospitals very near to where my fellow nurses and I were saving lives of American soldiers in the 71st Evacuation Hospital, Pleiku, in 1969. She and I could not have been very far from each other. In her diary, she wrote of hatred for the invaders. That was me! I was the invader. We were women on different sides of the war, yet we both were passionate about our work, we both loved our countries, we both loved our patients, and we both fought despair in watching young men suffer and die. She was killed in June 1970. She died for her country, a hero to her people; she was buried on her sacred ground. US military women (eight nurses) died in Vietnam too, their bodies shipped home. Each one a hero.