Hallie Murray - The Role of Women in the Vietnam War

Published in 2020 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC

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Copyright 2020 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC

First Edition

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Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Murray, Hallie.

Title: The role of women in the Vietnam War / Hallie Murray.

Description: New York: Cavendish Square Publishing, 2020. | Series: Warrior women in American history | Includes glossary and index.

Identifiers: ISBN 9781978514256 (pbk.) | ISBN 9781978514263 (library bound) | ISBN 9781978514270 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: United States. Army Nurse Corps-Biography-Juvenile literature. | United States. Army Nurse Corps-Biography-Juvenile literature. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975-Medical care-Juvenile literature. | Vietnam War, 1961-1975-Women--United States-Juvenile literature. | United States-Armed Forces-Nurses-Biography--Juvenile literature.

Classification: LCC DS559.44 M87 2020 | DDC 959.70437 B-dc23

Printed in the United States of America

Portions of this book originally appeared in American Women of the Vietnam War by Amanda Ferguson.

Photo Credits: Cover, p. RGR Collection/Alamy Stock Photo.

Contents

Introduction

I n the mid-nineteenth century, the country we know as Vietnam became a French colony. A century later, during World War II, it came under Japanese occupation after France fell to Nazi Germany and its allies. After World War II ended, Japan was forced to leave the country, and Vietnam was officially declared independent and renamed the Democratic Republic of Vietnam by its leader, Ho Chi Minh, on September 2, 1945. This wouldnt last, however. France wanted badly to take back its former colony.

At first, the United States was in favor of Vietnams independence, but the American government knew that Ho Chi Minh was a communist, and fear of communism was rapidly growing. The US government believed that if Ho Chi Minh turned Vietnam into a communist nation, other Southeast Asian countries would follow suit. If communism spread, then capitalist counties like America would lose trade partners and suffer major economic consequences. In order to limit Ho Chi Minhs power, the United States began to fund Frances efforts to fight Ho Chi Minhs army and regain control of Vietnam.

Despite this support, France was ultimately unsuccessful, pulling out of the country and the conflict in 1954. The United States worked instead to divide Vietnam politically, wherein Ho Chi Minh would govern North Vietnam, and Ngo Dinh Diem, an anti-communist, would govern South Vietnam until elections could be held in 1956 regarding reuniting the country under one of the two regimes. But it soon became clear that the Vietnamese people would largely vote for Ho Chi Minh, rather than the Americans preferred choice of Ngo Dinh Diem. So, with US government support, Ngo Dinh Diem cancelled the election.

Born in Vietnam around 1890, Ho Chi Minh first became involved in politics while living in France in the 1920s. After Vietnam gained independence from France, he was elected president of the country.

Robbed of their democractic power, many Vietnamese citizens were upset, especially those who supported the communist cause. Communist sympathizers in Vietnam joined together into a large political organization called the Vietcong and raised a large guerrilla army in order to overthrow the South Vietnamese government. The United States began to send soldiers and other military personnel into Vietnam to support South Vietnam and Ngo Dinh Diem, and by 1965, America had officially declared war on North Vietnam.

By 1969, more than half a million US troops were stationed in Vietnam, and many more military personnel, including nurses and other roles usually filled by women, had been flown in to engage in the conflict. The US Department of Defense kept no official records specifying the number of women who served in Vietnam, but most sources estimate that between 1962 and 1973, seven thousand to twelve thousand women were assigned to active military duty in the country. The vast majority of these women served as nurses, and all were volunteers.

Although women were not allowed to participate in combat for the first two centuries of Americas existence as a country, women have always played a role in the United States military history. While some women did disguise themselves as men in order to fight on the front lines, many countless others engaged in wartime activities at home and behind the scenes, especially in espionage and nursing roles. Some of the most famous spies of the Civil War, including Belle Boyd and Rose Greenhow, were women; in World War I and II, thousands of women held noncombat positions such as mechanics, spies, telephone operators, test pilots, clerks, and nurses. In theory, this allowed men who traditionally held these posts to serve on the battlefield.

American president Dwight Eisenhower (left ) shakes hands with Ngo Dinh Diem, the president of South Vietnam (right), in May 1957. Secretary of State John Dulles stands in the center.

By the time of the Vietnam War, women had been much more fully integrated into the military, though they still werent allowed to engage in combat. Programs that were set up during World War II, like the Womens Army Corps, welcomed volunteers. Many people in America were against the war in Vietnam, but that didnt negate the fact that serving in the military could offer good opportunities for women that werent necessarily available in civilian jobs.

In the late 1960s, professional opportunities for women in the United States were largely limited to teaching and nursing jobs. Some women viewed serving in Vietnam as an adventure, while others felt obligated to do so out of a sense of duty to their country. Still more were tempted by the militarys offer to pay for their education.

Most nurses served a standard one-year tour of duty, and most of these women were in the country between 1969 and 1971, at the time when the greatest number of US troops were stationed in Vietnam. Nurses worked in facilities at all different stages of the conflictsome worked in field hospitals, near the front lines, while others served in surgical facilities or triage units. The few women who werent nurses worked as military intelligence officers, translators, clerks, and flight controllers. In addition to those who served in the military, more than twenty thousand civilian women, including journalists, teachers, and humanitarians, served in Vietnam with organizations such as USAID and the Red Cross.