Vietnamese Women Political Consciousness and Activism during the Vietnam War
From: Diane Fox
Date: Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 1:04 PM
Dear people on the list --
Below you'll find a query about women who led war-time opposition to the Diem and then Thieu regimes, and to the American presence. Though the query is long, I find it interesting, and so have put it all in. It's author apologizes for "going on" -- but I thought that some on the list might find some of her references useful -- or that they might spark other ideas to pass on to her. She is Lillie Chapman, a graduate student of history at Sheffield University, UK. who is preparing to do her doctoral dissertation.
Please reply to the list, since this may be of interest to many, and I will forward your messages to her.
thanks for any ideas --
Diane
Lillie's query:
I was hoping to look into the Women activists and protests during the time of the Diem/Thieu regimes. The women's opposition to their regimes and the American presence. There has been some writing on the extent of women's political consciousness during the French colonial rule but I can not seem to find anything during the period of the American war. Robert Topmiller wrote an article on the Buddhist women who opposed and demonstrated against the southern governments. However, I can not find his interviews that he instigated. Furthermore, this solely focused on Buddhist Women.
I have found a few leads.
This is a source I found on the 'Long-Haired' army's political front:
I have found another pamphlet stating that the 'long haired army'
capable of mobilizing millions of women throughout the country in
anti-war demonstrations.
I have thought also about the women in the 'third force'.
I have found a document/ pamphlet that also states that in 1970, while
working in the rice fields, a mother and daughter-in-law were raped
and killed by U.S. soldiers. The authorities reported that the women
had 'died from exhaustion'. A group of women in Saigon, who had never
participated in the national liberation struggle, organized the
'committee to Defend the Right to Live and the Dignity of the
Vietnamese Women'. They demanded that the dignity of women be
respected, that American troops were to be withdrawn and that a
coalition government in the South be formed.
Ngo Ba Thanh is an example. She was arrested on a number of occasions.
For example she was charged for organizing an 'illegal' organization
called the Vietnamese Women's Movement for the Right to Live.
I would like to also think about the fact that the struggle against
foreign domination has taught women that the liberation of women and
the liberation of their country cannot be separated and so they have
organized and fought in their different ways.
I got thinking about this topic
after visiting Vietnam 3 years ago. I visited the Saigon Women's
museum and remembered seeing striking photos of Vietnamese Women in
the street protesting against the Southern Regime and the American
presence. (I have seen the photo since on the TTU Vietnamese archive
but I can't seem to place it just now).
I would really love to research and write about
this topic for my dissertation. However, I am struggling to know what
steps to take next and specifically where to find the appropriate
primary sources...
Diane Niblack Fox
Visiting Assistant Professor
Anthropology and History
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street
Worcester, Ma 10610
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From: Hoang Ngo
Date: Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 2:33 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Diane and list,
During my dissertation research at Trung Tam Luu Tru Quoc Gia II in Saigon, I came across a handful of files on Mrs. Ngo Ba Thanh in Phông Ph? T?ng Th?ng Ð? Nh? C?ng Hòa.
The files I came across were by the police, so they were composed of monthly reports and leaflets the police collected. These files also had reports on the activities of Buddhists and ARVN veterans. It seemed that from 1972-1975, Mrs. Ngo Ba Thanh, who was leading the "Ph? N? Ðòi Quy?n Ðu?c S?ng" movement, joined forces with Buddhist monks and ARVN veterans to protest against the government for improvement of prison conditions and veteran benefits.
Besides the archives, I think it's worthwhile to visit the nhà truy?n th?ng at the big high schools, such as Nguyen Thi Minh Khai, or colleges in Saigon because members of the "Phu Nu Doi Quyen Duoc Song" movement might have been students at these schools. And I bet these schools must keep or collect certain printed matter to "prove" their place in the national struggle for independence.
I hope that helps. Take care.
hoang
PhD Candidate, History
University of Washington, Seattle
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From: <tobiasrettig@smu.edu.sg>
Date: Thu, Oct 27, 2011 at 7:25 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
Dear All,
David Hunt's new book has something on women based on American interrogations.
The Mel Halbach (right name?) Documentary on the long-haired warriors is also quite revealing.
Best,
Tobias
School of Social Sciences
Singapore Management University
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From: David Marr <david.marr@anu.edu.au>
Date: Wed, Nov 2, 2011 at 2:57 PM
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I first met Mme Ngo Ba Thanh in 1967 when she was detained at the Trung Tam Cai Huan Tan Hiep on the road to Bien Hoa. I was visiting my friend Nguyen Huu Thai, former head of the Saigon Student Union, who had been arrested the previous year. He introduced me to Mme NBT, who was being visited by relatives at an adjacent table. We met again in Hanoi in 1978 or 1980, when she was an energetic, sometimes outspoken National Assembly member from the south. She deserves biographical attention.
David Marr
ANU
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From: Sidel, Mark
Date: Thu, Nov 3, 2011 at 12:31 PM
Subject: RE: [Vsg] fwd: vietnamese women political consciousness and activists during the Vietnam war
To: Vietnam Studies Group <vsg@u.washington.edu>
I agree with David. I met Ngo Ba Thanh in the early 90s, when I was looking into the possibility of law-related programming for Ford; she was one of few going beyond economic law reforms to talk about the need for a broader vision of legal, judicial and constitutional reform.
Mme Thanh may have been beyond her prime at that time, and her southern roots but presence in Hanoi (from her base in the apartments over the textbook bookstore on Ly Thuong Kiet) understandably didn't seem to mesh well with those in charge of legislative, legal, judicial and security work. But the themes she and some others raised then have their legacy in a number of current debates -- on detention; "constitutional protection" and the calls for formation of a constitutional court, council or commission; the associational freedoms debate of 2005-6; land rights; and a number of other discussions..... NBT has an undeniable place in the continuing history of struggle for some sort of rule of law in Vietnam.
Nguyen Thi Oanh as well, of course, if we're talking about progressive southern women who made a transition into important progressive influences in the post-1975 era. Well after her death, as I learned while interviewing sociology and social work teachers at VNU on some work with the Asia Foundation last year, she is still cited by young sociology, social work and development teachers and activists as a key national figure in the development of their fields and their work (and most of them, at least in the north, never met her)....
Mark Sidel
University of Wisconsin-Madison