LBST 2101-211

Vietnamese Women:
Affected by the War
Kierston M. Sharp 11/8/2012

Kierston Sharp November 8, 2012 LBST 2101-211 Dr. Massino

Vietnamese Women Affected by the American War

When the Vietnamese War is studied focus I primarily set on the men in hand to hand combat with the enemy whether it was the Viet Cong or the Americans. At times, the fatality numbers released to the public were inaccurate due to the oversight of women and children civilians. My name is Chau Nguyen and I was just a 10 year old girl living My Lai in 1968. For the last four and a half decades I have lived with the pain of sights seen beginning in my childhood. I still reside in Vietnam and I see the effects the American War continues to have on generations beneath me. I would like you to consider the importance of not only my story, but the many women like me as well. Your curriculum should articulate more of the struggles women faced during these hard times. Also, children should be educated on a more peaceful way to deal with difficult and volatile situations. I will share with you some of my experiences to shed light on the horrors we face and why war is not the answer due to its effects on innocent people. Everyone in the village was going about their normal business on March 16, 1968. Doing chores and working hard was our daily routine for sustained life. The war had affected

everyone but we were forced to continue on as usual. Later on that day, I was in the house sweeping and I heard a huge ruckus from outside. Peeking out from the tiny window in our hut I saw white men, US troops, ransacking peoples houses and pulling them outside. I was horror stricken. Why My Lai? The able men from our village were all gone it was just us children with our mothers and elderly grandparents. We were no threat to anyone. Before I could make sense of what I was seeing before me my mother came running in from the back of the house. Hysterical, she drug me out of the house just as the soldiers were doing to our neighbors. Gunshots and screams were pounding at my eardrums. I followed my mothers screeching words to lay face down in the ground and stay still. Try not to breathe heavy my darling and we will get through this, she said as she rubbed the blood of an unidentifiable body all over my clothes to look as though I had already been wounded. My mother knew that no one was safe unless they were dead. The few moments lying there, thinking that my life would soon end seemed endless. I obeyed and stayed so still. I didnt move to wipe a tear, sneak a peek, or scratch my ear. After what seemed like eternity it was all over. My mother and I were the only survivors when she finally shook me. No one else had thought as fast as she had. She had saved my life by making me play dead. The war had never come that close in contact with my real life but at that instant I realized that I was alive while my friends, cousins, and neighbors were all dead. I was considered lucky, but was I? Those people got put out of their misery while I have lived with the pain of that day for years. I hope my story has touched you and tugged on your heartstrings a bit. While yes, the men in combat dealt with death and gruesome sights regularly, I was a young child who witnessed US troops massacre my entire village. Our stories also deserve to be told in order to fully encompass perspectives of the war. It was seemingly all a misunderstanding of cultures and

the decision to not accept a particular one. America, as the worlds melting pot should be the most understanding and accepting nation in the world. These stories, along with the stories of American military wives should be shared and taught to students. When they pity both sides of the spectrum, only then will they realize how much of a better option peace between Vietnamese and Americans is; for the sake of both of our societies, families and cultures. Please take my plea into consideration and follow the lesson plan I have written for you to shed a new light on the war.

The American War Lesson Plan

Reasoning for the division of Vietnam into North and South (10 mins)

The Diem Regime (5 mins) Le Ly Haslips memoir (10 mins) The use of napalm and agent orange on civilians (10 mins) The My Lai Massacre (10 mins) Ceasefire and Fall of Saigon (5 mins)