Vietnam War

==Women==
{{See also|Women in the Vietnam War|Timeline of American women in war and the U.S. military from 1945 to 1999#1965}}

===American nurses===
[[File:Second Lieutenant Kathleen M. Sullivan treats a Vietnamese child during Operation MED CAP, a U.S. Air Force civic... - NARA - 542331.jpg|thumb|A nurse treats a Vietnamese child, 1967]]

American women served on active duty performing a variety of jobs. Early in 1963, the [[Army Nurse Corps (United States)|Army Nurse Corps]] (ANC) launched Operation Nightingale, an intensive effort to recruit nurses to serve in Vietnam.<ref name="Norman">{{Cite journal |last=Norman |first=Elizabeth M. |title=Women at War: the Story of Fifty Military Nurses Who Served in Vietnam |series=Studies in Health, Illness, and Caregiving |journal= New Jersey Nurse |publisher=University of Pennsylvania |year=1990 |isbn=978-0-8122-1317-1 |volume=22 |page=15 |jstor=j.ctt3fhsqj |pmid=1570214 |issue=2}}</ref>{{Rp|7}} [[First Lieutenant]] Sharon Lane was the only female military nurse to be killed by enemy gunfire during the war, on 8 June 1969.<ref name="Norman" />{{Rp|57}} One civilian doctor, [[Eleanor Ardel Vietti]], who was captured by Viet Cong on 30 May 1962, in [[Buôn Ma Thuột]], remains the only American woman unaccounted for from the Vietnam War.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Vietti, Eleanor Ardel |url=http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/v/v600.htm |access-date=4 January 2018 |website=POW Network|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206161639/https://www.pownetwork.org/bios/v/v600.htm|archive-date=February 6, 2023}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite news |last=Fisher |first=Binnie |date=28 October 2001 |title=The last missing woman from the Vietnam War |work=Houston Chronicle |url=https://www.chron.com/news/article/The-last-missing-woman-from-the-Vietnam-War-2043691.php |access-date=4 January 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407114837/https://www.chron.com/news/article/The-last-missing-woman-from-the-Vietnam-War-2043691.php|archive-date=April 7, 2023}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Lloyd |first=Alice B. |date=29 May 2017 |title=Fact Check: Why Are So Few Women's Names on the Vietnam Memorial Wall? |work=Weekly Standard |url=http://www.weeklystandard.com/fact-check-why-are-so-few-womens-names-on-the-vietnam-memorial-wall/article/2008250 |access-date=4 January 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20220607104216/https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/weekly-standard/fact-check-why-are-so-few-womens-names-on-the-vietnam-memorial-wall|archive-date=June 7, 2022}}</ref>

Although a small number of women were assigned to combat zones, they were never allowed directly in the field of battle. Unlike the men, the women who served in the military were solely volunteers. They faced a plethora of challenges, one of which was the relatively small number of female soldiers. Living in a male-dominated environment created tensions between the sexes. By 1973, approximately 7,500 women had served in Vietnam in the Southeast Asian theater.<ref>{{Harvnb|Holm|1992|p=206}}.</ref> American women serving in Vietnam were subject to societal stereotypes. To address this problem, the ANC released advertisements portraying women in the ANC as "proper, professional and well protected." This effort to highlight the positive aspects of a nursing career reflected the feminism of the 1960s–1970s in the United States. Although female military nurses lived in a heavily male environment, very few cases of sexual harassment were ever reported.<ref name=Norman/>{{Rp|71}}

===Vietnamese soldiers===
Unlike the American women who went to Vietnam, both South and North Vietnamese women were enlisted and served in combat zones. Women were enlisted in both the PAVN and the Viet Cong, many joining due to the promises of female equality and a greater social role within society.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Wood |first=Jordan |date=October 2015 |title=Taking on a Superpower: A Salute to the Women of Vietnam |url=https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?&article=1340&context=kaleidoscope |journal=Kaleidoscope |volume=3 |issue=1}}</ref><ref name="BBC2016">{{Cite news |date=6 December 2016 |title=The women who fought for their country |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/in-pictures-37986986 |access-date=19 June 2018}}</ref> Some women also served for the PAVN and Viet Cong intelligence services. The deputy military commander of the Viet Cong, was a female general, [[Nguyễn Thị Định]]. All-female units were present throughout the entirety of the war, ranging from front-line combat troops to anti-aircraft, scout and reconnaissance units.<ref name="Herman">{{Cite news |last=Herman |first=Elizabeth D. |date=6 June 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Women Who Fought for Hanoi |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/vietnam-war-women-soldiers.html |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416233246/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/06/opinion/vietnam-war-women-soldiers.html|archive-date=April 16, 2023}}</ref> Female combat squads were present in the Cu Chi theater.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Nguyen |first=Hai T. |date=17 January 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} As the Earth Shook, They Stood Firm |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/as-the-earth-shook-they-stood-firm.html |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230416233245/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/17/opinion/as-the-earth-shook-they-stood-firm.html|archive-date=April 16, 2023}}</ref> They also fought in the Battle of Hue.<ref name=Bowden/>{{Rp|388–391}} In addition, large numbers of women served in North Vietnam, manning anti-aircraft batteries, providing village security and serving in logistics on the Ho Chi Minh trail.<ref name=Herman/><ref name=BBC2016/> Other women were embedded with troops on the front-lines, serving as doctors and medical personnel. [[Đặng Thùy Trâm]] became renowned after her diary was published following her death. The Foreign Minister for the Viet Cong and later the PRG was also a woman, Nguyễn Thị Bình.

[[File:WAFC-ARVN Pharmacist.jpg|thumb|Master-Sergeant and pharmacist Do Thi Trinh, part of the WAFC, supplying medication to ARVN dependents]]

In South Vietnam, many women voluntarily served in the ARVN's Women's Armed Force Corps (WAFC) and various other Women's corps in the military. Some, like in the WAFC, served in combat with other soldiers. Others served as nurses and doctors in the battlefield and in military hospitals, or served in South Vietnam or America's intelligence agencies. During Diệm's presidency, his sister-in-law [[Madame Nhu]] was the commander of the WAFC.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Shapiro |first=T. Rees |date=27 April 2011 |title=Mme. Ngo Dinh Nhu, who exerted political power in Vietnam, dies at 87 |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mme-ngo-dinh-nhu-who-exerted-political-power-in-vietnam-dies-at-87/2011/04/26/AFpwwF2E_story.html |access-date=4 February 2014|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111224025629/http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/obituaries/mme-ngo-dinh-nhu-who-exerted-political-power-in-vietnam-dies-at-87/2011/04/26/AFpwwF2E_story.html|archive-date=December 24, 2011}}</ref> Many women joined provincial and voluntary village-level militia in the [[People's Self-Defense Force]] especially during the ARVN expansions later in the war.

During the war, more than one million rural people migrated or fled the fighting in the South Vietnamese countryside to the cities, especially Saigon. Among the internal refugees were many young women who became the ubiquitous "bar girls" of wartime South Vietnam, "hawking her wares—be that cigarettes, liquor, or herself" to American and allied soldiers.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Gustafsson, Mai Lan |year=2011 |title=Freedom. Money. Fun. Love': The Warlore of Vietnamese Bargirls |journal=Oral History Review |volume=38 |issue=2 |pages=308–330 |doi=10.1093/ohr/ohr097 |pmid=22175096 |s2cid=7718015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Hunt |first=Richard A. |title=Pacification: The American Struggle for Vietnam's Hearts and Minds |publisher=Westview Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8133-3459-2 |page=40}}</ref> American bases were ringed by bars and brothels.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Barry |first=Kathleen |url=https://archive.org/details/prostitutionofse00barrrich |title=The Prostitution of Sexuality |publisher=NYU Press |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-8147-1277-1 |page=[https://archive.org/details/prostitutionofse00barrrich/page/133 133] |url-access=registration}}</ref> 8,040 Vietnamese women came to the United States as war brides between 1964 and 1975.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Trinh Võ |first1=Linda |url=https://archive.org/details/asianamericanwom00lind |title=Asian American women: the Frontiers reader |last2=Sciachitano |first2=Marian |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |year=2004 |isbn=978-0-8032-9627-5 |page=[https://archive.org/details/asianamericanwom00lind/page/144 144] |url-access=registration}}</ref> Many mixed-blood [[Amerasian]] children were left behind when their American fathers returned to the United States after their tour of duty in South Vietnam; 26,000 of them were permitted to immigrate to the United States in the 1980s and 1990s.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Lamb, David |date=June 2009 |title=Children of the Vietnam War |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/children-of-the-vietnam-war-131207347/ |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230524145514/https://www.smithsonianmag.com/travel/children-of-the-vietnam-war-131207347/|archive-date=May 24, 2023}}</ref>

===Journalists===
Women also played a prominent role as front-line reporters in the conflict, directly reporting on the conflict as it occurred.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Becker |first=Elizabeth |date=17 November 2017 |title=Opinion {{!}} The Women Who Covered Vietnam |language=en-US |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/opinion/women-journalists-vietnam.html |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0362-4331|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20230409152947/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/17/opinion/women-journalists-vietnam.html|archive-date=April 9, 2023}}</ref> A number of women volunteered on the North Vietnamese side as embedded journalists, including author [[Lê Minh Khuê]] embedded with PAVN forces,<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Stars, The Earth, The River {{!}} Northwestern University Press |url=http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/stars-earth-river |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180618025620/http://www.nupress.northwestern.edu/content/stars-earth-river |archive-date=18 June 2018 |access-date=1 June 2018 |website=www.nupress.northwestern.edu |language=en}}</ref> on the Ho Chi Minh trail as well as on combat fronts.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Lamb |first=David |date=10 January 2003 |title=Vietnam's Women of War |language=en-US |work=Los Angeles Times |url=https://articles.latimes.com/2003/jan/10/world/fg-vietnam10 |access-date=1 June 2018 |issn=0458-3035|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20221125194236/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2003-jan-10-fg-vietnam10-story.html|archive-date=November 25, 2022}}</ref> A number of prominent Western journalists were also involved in covering the war, with [[Dickey Chapelle]] being among the first as well as the first American female reporter killed in a war. The French-speaking Australian journalist [[Kate Webb]] was captured along with a photographer and others by the Viet Cong in Cambodia and traveled into Laos with them; they were released back into Cambodia after 23 days of captivity.<ref>{{Cite news |title=Kate Webb – Captured in Cambodia |language=en |work=UPI |url=https://www.upi.com/Kate-Webb-Captured-in-Cambodia/53871034760165/ |access-date=1 June 2018|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20180211072126/https://www.upi.com/Kate-Webb-Captured-in-Cambodia/53871034760165/|archive-date=February 11, 2018}}</ref> Webb would be the first Western journalist to be captured and released, as well as cover the perspective of the Viet Cong in her memoir ''On The Other Side.'' Another French-speaking journalist, [[Catherine Leroy]], was briefly captured and released by North Vietnamese forces during the Battle of Huế, capturing some famous photos from the battles that would appear on the cover of ''Life Magazine''.<ref name=Bowden/>{{Rp|245}}