Introduction

A single photograph provides one of the few pieces of evidence that Lorraine Gordon and Mary Clarke, both white members of the U.S.-based organization Women Strike for Peace (WSP), were the first American peace activists to interview Vietnamese officials in North Viet Nam after U.S. bombing began....

Connecting U.S. Intervention with Social Injustice, 1970–1972

After peace talks began in Paris, the female delegation of Nguyen Thi Binh, foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of South Viet Nam, spearheaded people's diplomatic efforts as Binh’s own poised, determined, and feminine presence on the world stage inspired countless women around the world. Complementing the PRG women's efforts, U.S. women activists continued to travel to Viet Nam—both North and South. The context of American women's activism had shifted in two significant ways, however. First, the incarceration of Vietnamese political prisoners in South Viet Nam in "tiger cages" came to light in July 1970. Second, the context of growing feminist sentiment colored the views of women peace activists. The U.S. military's complicity in the deplorable prison conditions in the South led women peace activists to perceive social inequalities in the United States as they also noted the distinguished positions of women in North Viet Nam. They came to describe Vietnamese women in the North as having gained "liberation" and claimed South Vietnamese society had actually deteriorated because of U.S. intervention.

Strengthening Channels of Communication, 1968–1970

At a time when U.S. women were pushed to the sidelines of antiwar protests because of a focus on draft resistance, American women’s peace groups carved out a place for themselves as middle-aged mothers of draft-age sons. This language paralleled that of Vietnamese women, who also described themselves as mothers of soldiers, allowing Vietnamese and American women to create an authentic bond between them as they also benefited from this language politically. While American women peace activists used this coalition to discuss the establishment of regular communication between POWs and their families in the United States, Vietnamese women publicly admonished the U.S. government's disrespect for life and praised the efforts of American mothers to maintain American ideals.

Mothers as Experts, 1965–1967

In an era when red-baiting still occurred, American women’s peace organizations often represented themselves as mothers concerned for the fates of their children when engaging in antiwar activism. This depiction mirrored that of Vietnamese women who also described themselves as mothers. Thus, the portrayal of women on both sides of the U.S. war in Viet Nam as first and foremost mothers was a mutual endeavor. Even so, Vietnamese women challenged American women’s version of motherhood as inherently peaceful and apolitical by promoting women's entrance into the military and politics. As some American women actively ignored stories of women's violence, others developed new perspectives on women's roles because of their repeated exposure to these alternative versions of motherhood.

Shifting Alliances in the Postwar Period, 1973–1978

With impending changes to the role of the United States in Viet Nam, the women’s antiwar diplomatic network established over the course of the war faced new challenges. The common enemy that had provided a means for U.S. and Vietnamese women to collaborate disappeared with U.S. withdrawal from Viet Nam. Humanitarian aid became a focus of American activists, but with increased monetary contributions on behalf of the American public came increased scrutiny of Viet Nam's domestic affairs—a space American women had diligently fought to preserve from U.S. government interference. At the same time, the United Nations’ declaration of 1975 as International Women's Year drew feminists' attention away from what was going on in Viet Nam to international and domestic women's rights issues.

Establishing Feminist Perspectives on War, 1969–1972

Conflict before, during, and after the Indochinese Women’s Conferences (IWC) in Canada in 1971 forced women's liberationists invested in hosting the IWC to contemplate why war was an important feminist issue. Before the conference even began, white women's liberationists debated the relationship between sexism and imperialism and fostered a rethinking of war's relationship to women and society. Much of the literature on second-wave feminism overlooks the international context, but I argue that the circumstances of the Viet Nam war generated feminist perspectives on military actions.

Conclusion

It seems remiss not to end a book ostensibly about the Viet Nam war with the acknowledgment that the memory of the war still divides U.S. society.1 Yet, evaluating American and Vietnamese women’s relationships leads to a different conclusion. By war’s end, women had created networks such that, despite national, social, political, and economic differences, they collaborated on terms dictated by those asking for assistance—the Vietnamese. Although these alliances did not continue in this manner, this story provides an example of women from the East and West or the Global South and Global North forming cooperative relationships against a common enemy, the U.S. government. They formed these alliances primarily for informational purposes at first, but soon the reasons on both sides for maintaining contact with one another expanded beyond these initial desires. As more and more Americans came to describe U.S. actions in Viet Nam in terms similar to those the Vietnamese used, groups of American activists identified more closely with the Vietnamese people. With this shiftcame new perspectives on U.S. society and multiple versions of feminism....

Developing “Third World” Feminist Networks, 1970

This chapter asks whether and how connections between American civil rights movements and socialist revolutions outside the United States shaped feminisms of women of color. Scholars have noted the domestic challenges women of color faced when they tried to fight for both race and gender issues—they were often expected to choose and were labeled "sell outs" if they worked in white women's groups. Vietnamese women, who fought for both their nation's sovereignty and women's rights, provided an important example to women of color—one they could use as an inspiration and as evidence of the inseparability of race and gender. Through the example of Vietnamese women, women of color rejected the false dichotomy of fighting for race or gender and insisted on struggling against all forms of oppression.