She Waged War: The Viet Cong’s Female Fighters

Image: A Viet Cong guerrilla stands guard in the Mekong Delta. “You could find women like her almost everywhere during the war,” said the photographer. “She was only 24 years old but had been widowed twice. Both her husbands were soldiers. I saw her as the embodiment of the ideal guerrilla woman, who’d made great sacrifices for her country.” 1973.

In Vietnam’s vast, dense jungles, where the forest canopy swallowed the light and the country’s terrain defied the enemy’s attempts to navigate it, a quiet revolution took place not just of ideology, but of identity. Among the major stories overlooked during the Vietnam War has been the role that women of the Viet Cong played in the conflict. Their presence on the battlefield challenged not only the mighty American Armed Forces but also the traditional assumptions of gender, agency, and resistance that underpinned the very concept of conflict. In this space, we attempt to highlight their stories, so prominently etched in their faces, and in the grit of their uniforms, and the silences between gunfire.