Global Cold War and Local Struggle: The View from Stories of North Vietnamese Women during the Vietnam War

Co-sponsored with the Harvard University Asia Center

This talk explores the stories of ordinary women during the Vietnam War to understand this conflict in the context of the global Cold War. It pays particular attention to various personal decisions made by young North Vietnamese women regarding enlisting, fighting, and sustaining efforts, among other aspects. Drawing on oral history interviews with former women volunteers in the North, the talk presents the complex and diverse experiences, hopes, and negotiations of these young women. The talk also gives another perspective than conventional narratives that they were mere victims of the international ideological confrontation between the superpowers or that they were national heroines who fought for the cause of national liberation. Beyond the concerns of political elites and state-to-state relations in the Cold War world, this discussion may offer another perspective on the Vietnam War through the lens of the daily lives of ordinary people.