Women In the War
Heading into battle together.
"When war comes, even women have to fight" was an ancient saying in the country of Vietnam and the Vietnam War held no exception, many of the soldiers involved in in the Viet Cong army were women. They fought along side the men to defend their country with pride. Because of the length of this war it was also common for multiple generations of women in the same family to fight along side each other, sometimes even whole families fought together; husbands, wives, sons and daughters. During this war women most commonly held the positions of village patrol guards, intelligence agents, propagandists, and recruiters but some were also taught how to shoot weapons and lay traps which greatly helped in battle. Despite the fact that women soldiers was nothing new to the Vietnamese it was new to their opponents and because of this it is sometimes said that having women soldiers proved to be an advantage at times for the Viet Cong. Although not necessarily the case when fighting their South Vietnamese opponents, when fighting Americans the idea of these women soldiers sometimes shocked and blinded forces do to their own cultural gender stereotypes. Two of the most influential women in the Vietnam war were Nguyen Thi Dinh and Nguyen Thi Binh
Nguyen Thi Dinh
Madame Nguyen Thi Dinh
Nguyen Thi Dinh was one of the most influential women to the Vietnam War. Dinh was a founding member of the National Liberation Front, NLF, and played a vital during the Vietnam War. She was appointed chair of the South Vietnam Women's Liberation in 1965 and around the same time became deputy commander of the Viet Cong. As deputy commander Dinh held the highest combat position by a woman during the war. While in this position she helped to deploy three main tactics of the Viet Cong. Her tactic was to go in and win over the families of both men and women in order to successfully recruit them as soldiers. Another recruitment tactic used was the strategy of turning peasants against there landlords. This not only aided in recruitment but it also helped the Viet Cong to gain land. Dinh's biggest battle tactic was to attack the South Vietnamese and American soldiers during the night while there were still sleeping in order to catch them off guard when they were most vulnerable and easily defeated. Following the end of the war the reuniting of North and South Vietnam Dinh become the first female major general in the Vietnam People's Army. Nguyen Thi Dinh was also a Deputy Chairman of the Council of State until her death in 1992 as one of Vietnam's most prominent female leaders.
Nguyen Thi Binh
“Like many other countries, my country, Vietnam has lived through long years of wars which have ravaged this already-poor land and left behind millions of orphans, widows, disabled and missing-in-action. Vietnamese women. as part of their nation have been tested by harsh trials and countless hardships. They have derived therefrom their exceptional endurance and tenacity, their ability to survive and to persist in their full identity through the storms of life, just like the Vietnamese bamboo tree, which is supple but unbreakable, which bends under the wind but does not break, and which afterwards, stand again as straight and proud as before.” - Madame Nguyen Thi Binh
Nguyen Thi Binh was another important female Vietnamese communist leader. However, unlike Dinh, Nguyen Thi Binh worked for peace without involving herself in the violence of battle itself. Prior to her involvement with the Viet Cong Binh was a teacher during the French colonization of Vietnam. Binh began to participate in various intellectual movements against the French in 1945 and continued until she was arrested in 1951. During this time she officially joined the communist party in 1948. After being jailed by the French she was released two years later in 1953. Nguyen Thi Binh played a big role negotiating at the Paris Peace Conference. Binh was also a member of the Viet Cong's Central Committee and appointed vice-chairperson of the South Vietnamese Woman's Liberation Association. In 1969 Binh was given the position of foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam where she became a signer of the Paris Peace Accords which was an agreement supposed to end the Vietnam war and restore peace to the country as a whole. Binh played a major role in this document officially going into effect on January 17, 1973 despite the fact that the War was still not declared officially over until two years later on April 30, 1975. Immediately following the end of the war Binh was appointed Minister of Education of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. Years later she then served two terms as vice president of Vietnam, the first from 1992 until 1997 and the second from 1997 until 2002.