Women of Vietnam War Bachelor’S Diploma Thesis

Masarykova univerzita Filozofická fakulta

Katedra anglistiky a amerikanistiky

Bakalářská diplomová práce

Anna Mária Pisoňová Anna Mária

2017 Anna Mária Pisoňová

17 17

Masaryk University Faculty of Arts

Department of English and American Studies

English Language and Literature

Anna Mária Pisoňová

Women of Vietnam War Bachelor’s Diploma Thesis

Supervisor: Jeffrey Allan Smith, M.A., Ph.D.

2017

I declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.

………………………………………………… Author’s signature

Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor Jeffrey Allan Smith, M.A., Ph.D. for his valuable advice and comments. Furthermore, I would like to thank my family for support and those few special people who patiently listened to my complaints along the way and did not even once show how annoying I was.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1. Introduction………………………………………………………………….……………1

1.1. Le Ly Hayslip’s When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman’s

Journey from War to Peace…………………………………………………………...3

1.2. Lynda Van Devanter’s Home before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in

Vietnam……………………….…………………………………………….…………5

1.3. Vietnam War…………………………………………………………………………..8

2. Motivation and Propaganda……………………………………………………………10

3. Disillusionment…………………………………………………………………………..20

4. Life after the War……………………………………………………………………….28

5. Conclusion………………………………………………...... ……………………………36

6. Works Cited and Consulted…………………………………………………………….41

1. Introduction

Traditional view of conflicts presents the idea that “men make war, women make peace” (Turnip 3). However, reality is different. Women have always formed an important part of armed conflicts, whether as nurses, camp followers, or soldiers. Nevertheless, omitted from the scholarly papers, they had become almost invisible and wars in general were considered as an exclusive matter of men. Fortunately, this trend has been changing, as more and more women talk about their wartime experiences.

Referring to such tendencies, this thesis focuses on the depiction of the Vietnam

War in the memoirs of Le Ly Hayslip and Lynda Van Devanter. When Heaven and Earth

Changed Places and Home before Morning offer portrayals of the Vietnam War through the eyes of two young women that stand on the opposite sides of the conflict. If it were not for the Vietnam War, they would probably have nothing in common. Le Ly Hayslip comes from a Buddhist patriarchal family and grows up with no opportunity of formal education.

She works in rice paddies and is supposed to marry a boy from the neighbouring village whom her parents have chosen for her. Lynda Van Devanter is a young American Catholic woman attending a nursing school while her parents supports her on every step of her way.

These two completely different lives are interrupted by the war that eventually proves that there are rather similarities than differences between the two women. Through comparison and analysis, the thesis examines their attitudes towards the conflict. In three chapters of the thesis, it follows the changing nature of Le Ly’s and Lynda’s position towards war.

The first chapter investigates the various influences in their early lives that Le Ly

Hayslip and Lynda Van Devanter are exposed to. It puts the memoirs to a broader context of socio-historical events that either directly or indirectly led to their participation in the

Vietnam War. Furthermore, it examines the influence of patriotic upbringing on their perception of the world events. Last, it portrays the different techniques and devices that

Vietnam and the United States used to manipulate their citizens and tracks their impact with reference to the memoirs.

The second chapter focuses on gradual change of attitudes that both women undergo during exposure to the reality of the war. It analyses the elements that lead to the eventual turnover in Hayslip’s and Van Devanter’s perception of the war, such as harassment by the armies and sexual abuse that contributes to Hayslip’s disillusionment, and the constant exposure to death and emotional and physical exhaustion that influences

Lynda’s view of the conflict. In the end, it compares the initial motifs both women had for fighting and seeks to provide the answer to reason they prove ineffective in the end.

The third and last chapter examines Hayslip’s and Van Devanter’s lives after they left Vietnam. First, it portrays the consequences that the war has upon their lives, such as the ordeal of living far from the family that Hayslip experiences, and the post-traumatic stress disorder that Van Devanter suffers from. Second, it describes the humanitarian activities Hayslip and Van Devanter decide to perform and analyses their function in lives of both authors.

In general, the purpose of this thesis is to examine the aspects of the war mentioned above and to analyse their depiction on wartime experiencing women in When Heaven and

Earth Change Places and Home before Morning, for the thesis holds that the impact of war on women serving in military are often overlooked. Using the technique of comparison, the thesis also tries to find the similarities and the differences between Le Ly Hayslip and

Lynda Van Devanter and to explain the findings by putting them into the socio-historical background of the contemporary Vietnam and the United States. As both women were

raised in the backgrounds typical of mainstream citizens of Vietnam and the United States,

they might be used as the representatives of young women of both nations.

1.1 Le Ly Hayslip’s When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman’s

Journey from War to Peace

The memoir of Le Ly Hayslip not only reveals her personal experiences of the war,

but serves as an analysis of the wartime Vietnam, too. Being a peasant girl, she represents

the majority of citizens - the people for and by whom the war was originally fought. From

her perspective, the reader gets to know the Vietnam War as the majority of Vietnamese

people perceived it. As Brian Hallett states in his review, “she puts the fleeting American

war into proper perspective by marginalizing it, by making us aware that there was not just

one war going on in Vietnam but several” (194); thus reveals not only the communism –

democracy war that is predominantly covered by media, but also the religious war between

Catholics and Buddhists, the ethnic war between Vietnamese and immigrants from

Cambodia and China, and the struggles between inhabitants of the rural areas and

inhabitants of the cities (194).

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places “details [Le Ly Hayslip’s] wartime

coming-of-age through four distinct identities: as Viet Cong child soldier, Saigon

housekeeper, low-level military base racketeer in Danang, and assimilated Vietnamese

American refugee” (Fitzsimmons et al. n. p.). Born in 1949, Le Ly Hayslip is a sixth and

the youngest child in the Phung family. After the end of the French Indochina War, she

experiences a short period of peace before her village gets swollen up by the Vietnam War.

Her childhood is marked by the Viet Cong propaganda, her parents’ patriotism, and her

role as a woman within a patriarchal society. In the Vietnam of 1950s and 1960s, the

gender roles of traditional rural population are strictly settled and unchanging. The 3

arranged marriages are still common despite the “Marriage and Family Law, passed in

1959 and implemented in 1960” [that abolished] arranged marriages and granted freedom

[to men and women] to make their own decisions” (Wisensale 80). Moreover, formal education for a girl is almost non-existent; instead of that the emphasis is put on her preparation for a life of a wife and a mother, which is supposed to be girl’s main goal in life. Last, but not least, such hierarchy of society expects a woman to enter the marriage as a virgin.

This indoctrination makes it easy for Viet Cong to manipulate young Le Ly

Hayslip, until they accuse her of treason with no apparent reason and sentence her to death.

Moreover, it also contributes to her understanding of own personality after she has been raped by the men who are supposed to execute her. She sees herself “dishonored for every decent man” and “no more than the dirt” (Hayslip 84) instead of blaming the men of causing her sufferance.

Not only is this the turning point of her perception of war, it also strongly influences her future actions and self-reflection. After the rape she is forced to escape to

Saigon with her mother where she works as a servant girl. There she falls in love with Ahn

– the head of the family and, affected by her previous sexual experience that already ruined her chances to get married, makes love to him. He leaves her pregnant and she is once again forced to leave. She comes to Danang, where she works as a black marketer. During this time, she survives two more attempts of rape, prostitutes herself, survives domestic violence, and experiences two betrayals by American GIs.

After such traumas and disappointments, she starts to perceive love as a business contract, following the example of the bar girls emerging in big cities during the Vietnam

War. She applies it when meeting Edward Munro – her future husband. Although she

“certainly didn’t love him, or even like him very much (Hayslip 259), she ends up

marrying him because of his offer of life in the United States. Thus, it is because of the loss

of ideals about love and acceptance of relationship that works more on a principle of legal

contract (Lim 84) than anything else that enables her to escape Vietnam in the end.

Simultaneously, another narrative depicts Hayslip’s return to Vietnam in 1986 as an

American Viet Kieu – an overseas Vietnamese, and a writer. This storyline focuses mostly

on her humanitarian plans and the re-encounter with the remnants of her family. She has

to struggle with the reality of communist regime in Vietnam and to face different political

ideology that her brother promotes. However, it also symbolizes the end of war within

herself and reconciliation with the tragedies she survived. It is only when she comes back

to Vietnam after the end of the war that she is willing to fully accept her identity as an

American-Vietnamese and comes to terms with the conflict that affected lives of her, her

family and many others.

1.2 Lynda Van Devanter’s Home before Morning: The Story of an Army Nurse in

Vietnam

Memoir of Lynda Van Devanter offers an insight to the mind of an “archetypal,

young, Catholic, patriotic nurse” (Austin 8) who gradually changes to a Vietnam veteran

activist fighting post-traumatic stress disorder. It depicts the year of duty in Vietnam that

Van Devanter largely spends at Pleiku 71st Evacuation hospital which is located in the area

with the heaviest casualties (Bailey n.p.). Subsequently, the memoir focuses on the years

after her return to the United States and it concludes the story with Lynda’s journey to

Vietnam ten years after the end of the conflict. Her memoir “was acclaimed as a crucially

important contribution to the understanding of the war and of the war nursing experience

more generally” (Acton and Potter 154). 5

Beginning in September 1968, the memoir portrays an all-American, patriotic, young woman that makes fun of military schooling at Fort Sam in Houston, assured by the army officers that nurses do not get into combat. The awakening comes even before arriving in Vietnam, when Van Devanter’s plane falls into fire “in the middle of [their] final descent to Nan Son Nhut … To hell with “Ask not…” and all those other high- sounding phrases. There were people on the ground who were trying to kill us. I’d had enough of this grand adventure.” (Van Devanter 76-77). Facing the reality, she has no other choice only to accept the fact that the Viet Cong do not see the difference between a nurse and a soldier. They all the same to them. Home before Morning further depicts Van

Devanter gradual adaptation to the wartime life that consists of depleting duties in the hospital, alternating with parties in the “Bastille”, where alcohol and marihuana help the personnel to cope with the gruesome events they experience. The parties offer a deformed perception of war reality that the soldiers bear. As the first rocket attack since Van

Devanter starts, she “immediately panicked and everything seemed to go black, [however] the others simply continued the party” (Van Devanter 90). Situation like this seems almost absurd and creates an association with Joseph Heller’s novel Catch-22.

Constant exposure to numerous dilapidated bodies, emotional and physical exhaustion and witnessing the brutality of both, American and Vietnamese soldiers gradually contribute to her change from a patriot to an anti-war movement supporter. In her memoir, she appallingly portrays the mas-calls that sometimes restrains her from leaving the OR even for 24 hours, all that without a break, or she describes vividly the uncanny disfiguration of enemy bodies.

Van Devanter also dedicates a great part of the description of the war to love relationships that she portrays as “island[s] of sanity” (105). During her stay in Vietnam,

she experiences couple of romances with fellow doctors and introduces the concept of

“geographical bachelors” – married men that are perceived as single while in duty.

Furthermore, she explains the strong fundamentals of wartime friendships and love. “In a war, in a situation where there is nothing remotely resembling sanity around you, you tend to find some sense of normalcy, some feeling of comfort, some communication with another person on a level removed from that environment of destruction” which eventually leads to “forming stronger bonds than you might have imagined in a peacetime world”

(105). However, these bonds function only during the war and none of her wartime friendships or romantic relationships survives the return from Vietnam to “the world” as she refers to the United States.

Relationships are among the issues that she deals with after the end of the war, too.

Not only she faces the lack of understanding from her family; as an effect of the post- traumatic stress disorder, she is also unable to find a stable partner and only experiences one-night-stands that eventually contribute to her deepening depression.

The after-war life, which is dominated by her fight with PTSD, devours the second half of Home before Morning. Here, Van Devanter struggles with a biased perception of

Vietnam veterans in the American society since the war happen to be seen as unjust or brutal. During the years that follow the war, she comes on the verge of suicide, until finding the reconciliation in joining the Vietnam Veterans of America. By providing help to other female veterans to come to terms with the war and by showing the urgency to talk about the wartime experiences that emerges from this project, she not only helps hundreds of other women who served in Vietnam, but also herself. Finally, “I’ve reached the point where I can truthfully say that the war has lost its ability to destroy me” (Van Devanter

303).

The memoir concludes in Lynda Van Devanter’s returning journey to Vietnam as a

member of Vietnam Veterans of America thirteen years after the first one. It is during this

visit that she reaches the ultimate inner peace with the war and learns once more to

perceive Vietnamese people rather as allies, instead of enemies. In the end, she finally

understands that “it wasn’t Vietnam that sucked. It was the war” (Van Devanter 314).

1.3 Vietnam War

Known as the Vietnam War by Americans and as the Resistance War against

America (or American War) by Vietnamese, the conflict in Southeastern Asia in 1960s and

1970s was a continuance of French Indochina War, which resulted in dividing of Vietnam

in two parts along the 17th parallel in 1954. The fact that the northern Democratic Republic

of Vietnam with Hanoi as the capital and the southern Republic of Vietnam with the

capital city in Saigon, did not share the same political ideology resulted in a bloody and

controversial struggle starting in 1964 and lasting for more than a decade. Democratic

South Vietnam was supported by the United States of America, while North Vietnam,

maintaining communism, was funded by the Soviet Union. These two superpowers,

competing in arm races during the second half of the twentieth century (period known as

the Cold War), used the Vietnamese conflict as a proxy war to demonstrate their power.

However, ordinary people saw it differently. For Americans, the Vietnam War was

mainly a fight between the democratic values of the western world and communism. On

the other hand, Vietnamese society motivated by Ho Chi Minh’s leadership resolved to

sacrifice everything for victory, seeing the war as the continuum of Vietnamese fight for

independence. This attitude gave them a considerable advantage, because, as later more

and more Americans turned against the war, Viet Cong still had a wide support among the

Vietnamese people, which made a great impact in the later stages of the apparently 8

inconclusive conflict. Towards its end, millions of people in the USA put pressure on

President Nixon to end the war, which dragged on for decade with no clear outcome, becoming the longest war in American history. The anti-war movement and Vietnamese perseverance in fighting together with other factors forced the American troops to leave

Vietnam in 1975, which enabled the reunification of the country under the communist regime in 1976.

The Vietnam War had devastating impact on both countries. The controversial outcome left American society suffering from PTSD, mourning the lost and with difficulty re-admitting the survived, who themselves faced the question whether it was worth the sacrifice. The Vietnamese had millions of casualties and refugees, land destroyed by heavy use of Agent Orange, and economic problems, which last until today. The individuals have also been facing the consequences of the war. The veterans had to cope with the war injuries, men exposed to herbicides were dying of cancer, women had troubles with giving birth to healthy children as a consequence of Agent Orange, and last but not least, the trauma of war enormously negatively influenced lives of millions of people who lost their family members, lovers and friends in the war, or who fought it themselves.

2. Motivation and Propaganda

Although Le Ly Hayslip and Lynda Van Devanter come from very different backgrounds, the motivation leading them to participate in the Vietnam (or American) War is, surprisingly, very similar. Both were shaped by their patriotic parents and exposed to propaganda. Religious motives also played a role in forming their ambitions to join the conflict. Combined, these elements create in Hayslip and Van Devanter belief in a higher purpose of the war which they want to achieve – Hayslip fights for freedom of her people, while Van Devanter tries to spread democracy through the world. It is important to understand that these two words, often used interchangeably among Western people, have completely different meanings for the authors of the discussed memoirs. For Hayslip, freedom means a united Vietnam with no outer power controlling the Vietnamese people; however, it is not necessarily restricted to a democratic Vietnam that western societies see as an analogue of free. Van Devanter, on the other hand, participates in the war because she believes in American democracy to be the best political system of the world that should be spread around the globe. She wants to free Vietnam from communism and its disastrous influence which, in her initial opinion, is the cause of the war. These different views on the conflict are imprinted to both women mostly by their families and authorities.

Parents principally play an important role in shaping one’s personality, Hayslip and

Van Devanter not being exceptional. Since Hayslip’s parents lived during the time of

French Indochina and helped to defend their country against French occupants, the patriotism and pride is naturally developed in them and forwarded to their daughter born at the end of the French government over Vietnam.

In a Vietnamese family, it is a mother’s task, especially in the times of war, to have knowledge of history and to bring up her children in patriotic way through “songs, stories,

and culture” (Janover 5). Hayslip’s mother follows her duty thoroughly and Hayslip is able to recollect many songs she was taught by her parents during her childhood that bear nationalistic meaning (e.g. 15). Moreover, her mother has a secret tunnel in the kitchen to help the Viet Minh fighters (Hayslip 25), predecessors of Viet Cong. Actions like this influence Hayslip’s vision of enemies and allies to a great extent. As a consequence, she often describes the French soldiers as threatening “burrowing animals” and “snake- monsters” (Hayslip 3) in her early childhood, while the Viet Cong are seen as “mysterious

[and] unseen [guards who] protected us as our ancestors” (Hayslip 25). Hayslip’s father is a patriot, too, and teaches her that “freedom is not a gift […]. It must be won and won again” (Hayslip 35). However, his pacifistic tendencies prevent him to encourage his daughter to get involved in the conflict. He wants her to marry a Vietnamese man, take care of her family, and honor their ancestors, and hence protect the cultural heritage of

Vietnam (Hayslip 36-37) instead of participate in the actual fight. Gaining the freedom for his nation is not of such importance to him as the well-being of his family. The contrast between his and his wife’s attitude is visible when Hayslip joins the Viet Cong cadre.

While her mother “seemed happy”, her father “looked at [her] […] as if he had seen, in my shining, excited, determined little face, the first casualty of our new war” (Hayslip 44).

Comparatively to Le Ly Hayslip, Lynda Van Devanter comes from a family with patriotic tendencies, too. The generation of her parents is the generation of World War II veterans and her father, although not an active participant of the war himself identifies with its legacy and passes it to his daughter, thus plays an important role in formation of Van

Devanter’s national pride. In general, World War II is seen in American society as the

“good war” because of its straightforward outcome and no direct influence on the geography of the confederation. What is more, after the World War II, the United States

gain a position of one of the two world superpowers with a strong economy, which unlike the economies of the European countries is not damaged by the war; on the contrary, the war actually makes America richer.

This, in general, supports the concept of American exceptionalism among its citizens who “belie[ve] that the United States is an extraordinary nation with a special role to play in human history; not only unique, but also superior among nations” (McCrisken

1). Van Devanter serves as an application of this belief. She highlights the feeling of being

“a citizen of the greatest country in the world [that] had taken root during talks with my father” (Van Devanter 30). The patriotism of her father, unlike hers, persists during Van

Devanter’s staying in Vietnam, too, and is expressed in his letters. He writes her multiple times that “I’m proud that you’re doing what you’re doing” (Van Devanter 114) and even suggests that he sees himself through her, since he was not accepted to the army during the

World War II by writing “you are me and I’m in. [...] (115). This attitude of his strongly contrasts with the approach of Hayslip’s father, who despite his strong patriotist belief, does not wish his daughter to fight for freedom. Lynda’s father, on the contrary, not only approves of his daughter’s involvement in Vietnamese conflict; he also expresses how proud he feels about it multiple times during the book. References like this advocate the difference in both men’s perception of the conflict based on their own life experiences.

However, more than by their parents, both women are influenced by propaganda of the authorities – Hayslip by Viet Cong and Van Devanter by the official propaganda of the

U.S.

Before further analysis of propaganda strategies of Viet Cong and the United States

Government and their outcomes presented in When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and

Home before Morning, it is important to explain what propaganda is. Nowadays, hearing

the word “propaganda” often immediately evokes negative connotation. However, as

Ralph K. White suggests in the article “Propaganda: Morally Questionable and Morally

Unquestionable Techniques”, “the core meaning [of the word propaganda is] an effort to influence the thinking of others in order to influence their behavior” which does not distinguish from the definition of the word “persuasion”, used with no negative tendencies at all (27). Moreover, such unfavorable perception of propaganda automatically creates prejudices against its performers. Hence, to be able to objectively discuss any organization or individuals engaging in propagandistic behavior, one has to distance themselves from the subjective feeling that this word echoes.

As Hayslip explains in her memoir, “[ordinary people of Vietnam] knew little of democracy and even less about communism” (11). Instead of the political regime that the peasants usually do not understand, culture, religion, and national freedom are of importance to them. Viet Cong values “matched, in one way or another, the beliefs we already had” (7), states Hayslip, thus it is easier for people to identify with Viet Cong instead of the Republicans. Their collaboration with the U.S.A. is, in contrast to the Viet

Cong, seen as a defense of “‘western culture’ – [which] meant bars, brothels, black markets and […] bewildering machines, most of them destructive” (Hayslip 10). Viet Cong

“[were], for the most part, our neighbors” (Hayslip 9) who were raised in the Central

Vietnam, hence they know the local culture and values and, unlike the Republicans, are relatable to the people. Last, but not least, they share the predominant Buddhist religion.

As Hayslip recalls in her memoir, “catholic Republicans spurned and mistreated Buddhists for worshipping their ancestors” (Hayslip 9). Viet Cong, in the contrary, understand the importance of the religion to Vietnamese peasants and support it.

As White’s article further presents, “people tend to believe those whom they like, feel warm toward, and do not suspect of wanting them to do them harm” (28). Viet Cong, considering their attitudes towards the villagers mentioned above, completely fulfil this statement and use it to their objectives. Thus, after gaining people’s trust, it is relatively easy to “enlist help in many small ways: boys carry messages, women prepare bandages, and the like” (White 30). In addition, children, such as Hayslip, are even easier to manipulate, than the adults, because of their immature black-and-white view of the world and automatic acceptance of the authority they have been taught since the early childhood.

They are shaped by education that teaches them “what they should know” (Hayslip 40) and secret meetings that gradually change their vision of morally acceptable and unacceptable things. Acts, such as “cheating, stealing from and lying to Republicans and their allies were not crimes” (Hayslip 43), on the contrary, refusing doing so might conclude in a punishment. Even more serious and disturbing appears the Viet Cong’s usage of children to “prepare or put finishing touches on booby traps and decoys” (Hayslip 42) and the way

Hayslip and other youngsters see it “still [as] a game” (Hayslip 42), instead of thinking of the fatal consequences the objects might cause to human beings. This raises a question of degree of morality of children’s involvement in such dangerous and deadly tasks.

According to White,

immorality lays not in action involvement as such but in the considerable element

of intimidation that accompanied it, in the hate-filled black-and-white character of

their philosophy, and in the other morally questionable techniques, including some

outright lying, that they [Viet Cong] apparently have rather consistently used (30).

However, the correctness of statement like this is arguable since the example Le Ly

Hayslip provides in her memoir proves that in certain contexts even action involvement,

usually an element of morally unquestionable styles of propaganda, could be used to perform morally questionable, even obviously wrong, activities. Nevertheless, it proves that various types of propaganda may overlap and be used at once.

The proof of propaganda’s efficiency is portrayed in When Heaven through the demonstrations of power Viet Cong fighters perform in the village and Hayslip’s change of attitude towards these actions. To ensure the loyalty of the villagers and to scare potential republican informers, Viet Cong commit three demonstrative executions throughout the story – one is of Hayslip’s republican-favoring teacher, the other two are of the teacher’s brother and a republican informer. Hayslip’s perception of these executions changes completely under the influence of Viet Cong’s propaganda. When seeing the murder of her teacher, she shows a considerable degree of distress, arguing that “he was so nice to us! He never hurt anyone!” (Hayslip 39) and she needs her father to explain to her the circumstances of his death. Later, however, when the bodies of the two other victims are found, she admits that “I felt, deep, in my young girl’s heart, that he, like Manh, had gotten what he deserved” (Hayslip 40-41). Such strong propaganda influence on civilians is of a great importance, because in the total war of Ho Chi Minh, everyone regardless of age, gender, or social status, might prove useful.

At approximately the same time, young Americans find themselves under the constant influence of the Cold War propaganda of post-Second World War United States.

The “psychological warfare was designed, built, and refined under the presidency of Harry

S. Truman and eagerly molded by his successor, Dwight Eisenhower” (Rider 9). President

Eisenhower introduces the Domino Theory which supposes that if communism is not stopped, it would spread over the globe similarly to falling blocks of domino. As a consequence of this theory, strong anti-communist administration and massive propaganda

is applied within the USA and internationally through “bolstered operations in radio, press and publications, [and] film” (Rider 20), bearing the name the Campaign of Truth.

Although the United States do not use as open and brutal propagandistic methods as the Viet Cong and rely on more sophisticated types of propaganda through literature and movies, there are also straightforward slogans such as “Better Dead than Red” and

“Communism – America’s Greatest Enemy” which make the goal very clear – to eliminate the enemy before the enemy eliminates them. Gradually arising fear of communism escalates during the era of Senator Joseph McCarthy, during which communists in the

United States faced persecution and “fear of the taint of communism being attached by

Cold War crusaders was so pervasive that defense of academic freedom or First

Amendment rights became a risky act of defiance” (Deery 162). Put in other words, the anti-communist movement during this period grew to such extent that it even endangered the base stones of the U.S. politics of freedom of speech and religion, included in the first

Amendment of the Constitution.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, who held the office after Dwight Eisenhower, followed his policy and kept supporting the development of the anti-communist tendencies in

American citizens. It is his powerful inauguration address that spreads around the United

States of America and touches millions of people around the country at the beginning of the 1960s.

In the history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of

defending freedom in its hours of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this

responsibility – I welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places

with any other people or any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion

which we bring to this endeavor will light our country and all who serve it – and the

glow from that fire can truly light the world. And so, my fellow Americans: ask not

what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy, January 20, 1961

This speech, conveying the message of dangers that communism represents, also triggers the feeling of exceptionalism rooted in post-Second World War Americans, so, when the time comes to fulfil country’s expectations, numerous men and women answer the call, Lynda Van Devanter being one of them. She, as well as many others, feels to be “a part of a generation of Americans who were “chosen” to change the world” (Van Devanter

29), not knowing exactly where this “change” is going to lead her and her country.

As a supporter of the Domino Theory, John F. Kennedy believed in the just war in

Vietnam and implemented his vision on generation of young people, who were already enthusiastic by the patriotism of their parents living under the constant propaganda of the

Cold War. As Lynda Van Devanter states in her memoir,

I was a citizen of a greatest country in the world and was about to give part of

myself to keep America great. It was a feeling that […] had started to sprout on

January 20, 1961, when another Catholic, a young, vigorous man, told us that no

dream was unattainable (30).

Such naïve and blind belief in President Kennedy is not rare. Many other Vietnam

War contemporaries state that the administration of John F. Kennedy is among the main sources of their motivation to join the conflict. Overall, Kennedy “invoked the power and identification with ‘good’ myths, especially those associated with the political, spiritual, and artistic development of the United States. He also used strategic rhetorical references to presidents who have taken on mythic proportions” (Felkins and Goldman 449).

Moreover, as Felkins and Goldman further state, not only Kennedy’s life, but also his

tragic death is presented in mythical context - “the ritualistic murder of the folk hero as a messenger to the gods” (449). This “good myth” emerging around President Kennedy influences the whole generation of American citizens. In his appreciation from 2014,

Thomas Hauser describes Kennedy as “exciting and inspirational; handsome with dazzling charm, grace, and wit […] inspir[ing] much of what was good in the United States in

1960s” (197-198) adding in the end that “for an entire generation, [Kennedy] was our hero” (200). Yet other paper describes him as a representation of “a rebirth of hope, promise of youthful possibilities, and of individual commitment to create a better world”

(Felkins and Goldman 449).

These statements express the high status Kennedy maintains among the American citizens, which he uses when promoting the war in Vietnam. In his rhetoric he “elevate[s]

Vietnam from a civil conflict to a moral battle” (Bostdorff and Goldzwig 519), hence presents it as a noble cause that needs to be achieved. Connected to the over-positive associations most of the Americans bear with the persona of John F. Kennedy, and the conviction of their own exceptional position in the world, this create the population of thousands of people willing to fight a war for freedom ten thousand miles away from their homes.

Both, Le Ly Hayslip and Lynda Van Devanter, are exposed to patriotism and national pride since their early childhood, triggering the origins of their enthusiasm about the war. In their vision of the conflict, their parents, influenced by previous conflicts, play a significant role. On the top of that, their initial naivety and young age makes them the ideal targets of propagandistic techniques of the authorities on both sides, which promote the noble motifs of the conflict and encourage members of both – American and

Vietnamese – societies to participate.

3. Disillusionment

Another feature bringing both authors together despite the opposite sides of the war they originally stand at is the gradual loss of the illusion about the righteousness of the war they bear in the beginning. Their internal change does not occur over the night and both women undergo various stages before reaching the final anti-war attitude, which starts to develop mostly due to the lasting exposure to the numerous negative aspects of the conflict, such as harassing by the soldiers in the case of Le Ly Hayslip and the constant presence of death in the case of Lynda Van Devanter. Both of them, originally manipulated by the ideological propagandas of the authorities, seeing the war in the simple black-and- white manner, gradually lose their enthusiasm until reaching a stage where the war does not have any meaning anymore and (especially for Lynda Van Devanter) only one question emerges: Why? Further paragraphs are going to describe and analyse the journey both women experience until reaching the ultimate stage of disillusion.

As a child, Le Ly Hayslip dedicatedly helps Viet Cong by “warning [them] about enemy movements in my village” (Hayslip 47) despite of witnessing some of the Viet

Cong’s illegal activities. Until her 15th year of life, she sees herself more as a peacemaker and protector rather than a conspirator, convinced of the righteousness of the tasks she performs. However, her romanticized view of the conflict changes gradually until she perceives all people regardless of the goal they perceive in the war as someone to avoid and no to be engaged with.

This change in her attitude appears to begin after a fight of Ky La in 1964. In the battle, many Americans, as well, as Viet Cong fighters die and afterwards, both sides frustrated about its outcome harass the residents of Ky La even more than before. Hayslip recalls the numerous arrests of villagers disappearing “in smoke and prison trucks during

those first days after the battle” (63), just because they look suspicious to the soldiers.

After another ambush which takes place near Ky La,

the last of the [Republican] soldiers began shooting at random, hitting people and

animals that were unlucky enough to be caught in the streets. Others looted houses

near the center of town and set them on fire with lighters and gasoline. By the time

they have finished, the fire spread to outlying buildings and over half of Ky La was

in flames (70).

Such harassment and random killing is not exceptional during war conflicts and the example of Ky La is only one of thousands. The most extreme cases result in war crimes and massacres such as My Lai massacre performed by American troops, or Massacre at

Hue by Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army (however both massacres take place during or after the Tet Offensive, thus later than events in Ky La).

Yet another form of harassment is American tactics of Harassment and Interdiction fire, used heavily during 1966 and 1967. Its purpose is to “inspire in the enemy the fear of random casualties” (Hawkins 92); nevertheless, as Hawkins further explains in the article

“The Cost of Artillery: Eliminating Harassment and Interdiction Fire During the Vietnam

War”, “in wars without fronts […] profligate employment of such unobserved strikes offered few benefits and harbored a significant potential to harm Vietnamese civilians or their property” (92). Although H&I is eliminated by 1970, it ends in numerous civilian casualties, killed animals, and destroyed harvest, which, consequentially cause starvation of civilians and infections spread among people from the dead bodies of animals and humans. Hayslip describes lives of people in her village during the period of bombardment as “part of the endless machinery of terror, death, and regeneration” (71).

Nevertheless, republican soldiers are not the only ones bullying the civilians. To ensure their superior position, Viet Cong change their tactics, too. The propaganda in forms of lectures and songs is replaced by “a grip of terror on survivors” (Hayslip 63), unnecessary killing, and “justice meetings – moi chi di hop” (Hayslip 63) that serve more like public executions than legal proceedings. The killing performed by each side eventually becomes so frequent and its causes are so unimportant that “we even stopped wondering which side had done the killing. Someone might say, My ban – killed by

Americans, or simply dich ban – killed by enemy, without taking the time or risk of specifying which enemy it was” (Hayslip 64) and “our fear of the Viet Cong […] was almost as strong as the fear of the Republicans” (Hayslip 63). As a consequence, villagers lose their enthusiasm in engaging in fights and become suspicious and careful about what they say and whom they meet. Overall, the atmosphere in the village changes gradually to a day-to-day struggle for life.

Regardless of this, she stays loyal to the Viet Cong, until they accuse her of treason and sentence her to death because she is released form a republican prison too soon

(Hayslip 78). However, men who are supposed to execute her, rape her instead and let her go under the threat of killing her if she tells anyone. After such trauma connects with all the previous experiences of fighting and killing, Hayslip is left with no illusion about the war that goes on in her country. The patriotism she felt for her country before turns to anger towards

both sides in this terrible, endless, stupid war [who] had finally found the perfect

enemy: a terrified peasant girl who would endlessly and stupidly consent to be their

victim – as all Vietnam’s peasants had consented to be victims, from creation to the

end of time! (Hayslip 84).

The rape concludes in a “turning point in Hayslip’s engagement with the world”

(Lim 83). Thus, before reaching maturity, Hayslip is left with no faith in Viet Cong and no illusion about justice and righteousness of the war. Furthermore, as she is forced to leave

Ky La, she also changes her attitude towards life in general by deciding to “only flow with the strongest current and drift with the steadiest wind – and not resist” (Hayslip 84).

Last, but not least, the process of disillusionment includes her realization that due to the constant bombing and spreading of napalm through the country by American troops the pure and free Vietnam she seeks to preserve is no longer achievable. Instead of that, “it had become a fight to see just how much and how far the Vietnam of my ancestors would be transformed” (Hayslip 158).

Identically to Le Ly Hayslip, Lynda Van Devanter’s personal experiences of the war connected with general course of events in Vietnam and in the United States result in the lack of her confidence about engaging in Vietnam. As her time in Vietnam passes, she repetitively poses a question why there is a war in the first place, although at the beginning she seems to have a clear and satisfactory answer.

During the first weeks, she states in her letters home that “every day we see more and more why we’re here” (113), describing the simplicity of the indigenous people and their need for American freedom. She asks her parents to display the American flag and be proud of her (113) and among other recruits in Vietnam promotes her view of fighting for a

“noble cause to preserve democracy” (87). Her patriotism and blind belief in the righteousness of the war is being challenged by others, who have been serving in Vietnam for a longer period of time, especially her lover Carl Adams. When he talks to her about his perception of the war,

[she], of course, tried to prove him that the war was a noble cause to preserve

democracy.

“You really believe that?” he would ask quietly.

“Of course I do.”

“Is that why you always wear that rhinestone flag on the lapel of your fatigue

shirt?”

“I think we should be proud of our country, Carl,” I said, “and proud of our flag.”

“So do I,” he answered with sigh. “But I’m afraid this time, we may find that our

country is wrong” (Van Devanter 87).

The innocent, black-and-white view of the war she favors diminishes within first six months of her duty under the constant exposure to death, stress, and exhaustion which she has not been prepared to. After four months in Vietnam, “this war was beginning to look different that the one I had believed in only a few weeks earlier” (Van Devanter 134).

The propagandistic videos of nurses shopping and having their hairstyle done in Saigon seem to be unreal and Kennedy’s “Ask not…” and the noble cause of the war is not visible among the dying soldiers in Pleiku.

One of the moments which strengthen the process of her disillusionment is the unnecessary degradation of Viet Cong’s corpses by American soldiers. Although she has seen “the gooks” (Van Devanter 135) to do it before and was “outraged by the scene”

(135), after she sees the same procedure being done to the Viet Cong prisoners of war, she

“realize[s] that our clean-cut, wholesome American boys could be as brutal as the ‘godless communists’” (Van Devanter 135).

Van Devanter’s reflection on the war is further embodied in the letters she sends home to her parents. At first, in summer 1969, “it hurts […] to see the paper full of

demonstrators” (Van Devanter 113), however later she herself expresses the desire to join the protesters “and march with them to make the politicians understand the terrible price

Vietnam was extracting from our young” (159), seeing them “as allies rather than adversaries” (Zaretsky 120).

Yet another factor supporting the growth of disillusionment is the constant physical and emotional exhaustion. As an army nurse, Van Devanter spends much of her time with wounded soldiers who see her as confidante, seeking “a woman’s reassurance as they wondered whether their girlfriends would reject them because of their injuries” (Stur 105).

Nurses are expected to stay feminine and sensitive when comforting the injured ones, on the other hand, however, they have to express toughness that is needed in the war zone during the mas-calls and duties, some of which are as long as 24 hours. According to

Heather Marie Stur, “female nurses in Vietnam straddled a line between the girl next door, providing an image of home to wounded men, and a combat soldier, who came face to face with the fear and death that accompanied the war” (106).

This duality is hard to achieve in the war. As Van Devanter exposed to the misshapen bodies of soldiers, she is advised not to think of the soldiers she works on as human beings, “but merely bodies” (Van Devanter 97). Moreover, multiple times during the memoir she reminds herself to stay tough and not to let her feelings overcome her.

Such advices result in loss of her femininity that nurses are supposed to represent for the soldiers. In Stur’s publication, she states that “staying feminine became an impossible task” (106). This oppression of her emotions collaborates with her arising disapproval of

Vietnam War.

Escalating doubts, exhausting emotional struggle and gradual disgust with the war reach the ceiling when she is unable to save one particular patient – a soldier whose face

has been blown off and who dies while she is holding his hand. After his death, “a profound change had […] come over me. With the death of Gene, and with the deaths of so many others, I had lost an important part of myself. The Lynda I had known before the war was gone forever” (Van Devanter 171). According to Paula Bailey’s paper “The Best and the Worst Times: American Nurses in Vietnam”, cases like this one “were traumatic […] for the nurses, for they felt guilty that nothing could be done to save them” (n.p.). This sense of guilt is expressed in Van Devanter’s memoir, too, through the mental breakdown following Gene’s death. “That moment forces a confrontation with the larger meaning of the war contained in the injury and refuses to allow [Van Devanter] to return to her role as a detached automaton” (Acton and Potter 153). She no longer understands the meaning of the Vietnam War and is fully aware of the change her generation is undergoing because of it. Her new perception of the war is expressed in a powerful monologue about the

American participants of the war.

Maybe there were people in Vietnam who spent their entire tours motivated by

blind patriotism and an unquestioning belief in the American way of doing things.

[…] Maybe there were some American soldiers who […] could avert their eyes

from their buddies who were dying. Or from the young children without limbs. Or

from the Vietnamese women who were forced to prostitute themselves to stay alive.

Maybe there were some normal, healthy, all-American men and women who could

spend 365 days in that crazy environment and never once asked why. If there were,

I never met them (179-180).

Compared to Le Ly Hayslip, Lynda Van Devanter’s shift from a patriotic army nurse to an anti-war movement supporter is caused by completely different reasons. She does not think about the “attacked Mother Earth” that Hayslip sees as the “highest crime”

(Hayslip 158), neither has she experienced major sexual harassment. Her disillusionment comes mainly from the constant exposure of death and subsequent questioning of the importance of the motifs to fight and of reliance of the U.S. government. As mentioned in the previous chapter, Hayslip fights for free Vietnam, and despite of realizing that the

Vietnam of her hopes is not possible to achieve, she still believes in the original thought of importance of freedom for all people. On the other hand, Van Devanter’s involvement in

Vietnam is motivated by her belief that the spread of democracy is right and needed.

However, as her motif is facing the reality of the Vietnam War – the brutality of the soldiers, constant death, and twisted morale, eventually she does not find it a sufficient enough reason to fight for and gradually turns against the war. This main difference between the two women may occur because of the very nature of both beliefs. While

Hayslip’s desire is very personal, thus providing more willingness to fight for it, Van

Devanter’s motif is more abstract and more easily to be destroyed when put to the non- idealized actual war. Moreover, Hayslip, although later not engaging in the war anymore, fights to protect her own country, while Van Devanter tries to expand her belief outside of the USA. This also may strengthen Hayslip’s motivation more than Van Devanter’s. In conclusion, however, none of the two motifs prove to be strong enough to keep the women believing in them when displayed to the costs that the war brings with it and result in both women questioning the sense of the conflict at some point.

4. Life after the War

The aftermath of the war is one of the main elements that differ in the memoirs.

Although both women dedicate parts of their works to descriptions of their lives after the war, while Hayslip does not elaborate on her life immediately after leaving Vietnam,

Lynda’s life after coming from Vietnam takes almost half of the memoir. She focuses on the effects of the post-traumatic stress disorder from which she suffers for many years after the end of the Vietnam War, incapable of achieving inner peace. In contrast, Hayslip’s memoir skips this part of her life and focuses more on her return to Vietnam as Viet Kieu –

Overseas Vietnamese, and her perception of Vietnam influenced by the American capitalist regime she has been living in for last fifteen years. Although these different perspectives on the war create a clash at first glance, eventually both women manage to come to the same peaceful conclusion. Le Ly Hayslip realizes that there are no enemies, just victims in the war, who share the responsibility for it and Lynda Van Devanter understands that “It wasn’t Vietnam that sucked. It was the war” (314).

The process of this realization is not directly explained in Hayslip’s memoir, however, the narrative implies that her Buddhist belief may have played a major role in her conclusion that “the least any of us did – was our duty” (11). Retrospectively, she does not see the war as a fight of the allies and the enemies. Instead of that, she perceives people involved in the war as “brothers and sisters” that god has made of people “by mingling our blood and tears on the earth” (11). As she recalls the countless casualties of the war, either anonymous American G.I.s and Vietnamese, or spirits of her family members, all of them are referred to as the victims of the war rather than the performers.

According to Buddhist principle of dependent origination or “that more-than- physical bond between beings everywhere and at all times” (280) as presented in Hayslip’s

memoir, “nothing can exist on its own and everything is dependent on other things” (Der-

Ian Yeh 92). This belief leads in Buddhist Vietnam War literature to depicting “an understanding of social reality in which everyone shares responsibility for violence and injustice” (Kocela 2). Such shared responsibility is found in Le Ly’s memoir, too, as she often uses “we” narration, identifying herself with the group, whether it is the Viet Cong children, the Vietnamese peasants, or the bar girls in Saigon. Moreover, the principle of dependent origination further influences her perception of the war itself. As she sees the cemetery of victims of the war, she remembers that “this was, after all, one war for one country. Past differences in politics, religion, status, physical beauty and prowess – even race – are now dust like the victims themselves” (228). No one anymore labelled as a

“good guy” or a “bad guy” in the war that was led by everyone, because all people are responsible for it to the same extent. This responsibility unites people despite their differences instead of dividing them to those more and less responsible for the conflict.

The Buddhist way of reconciliation is further emphasized through talking to Le

Ly’s mother. She says that “you’ve [Le Ly] completed your circle of growth [by coming back] – the karma that brought you into the world. If you come back again, it will be part of another, new cycle – not the old one. Your past is now complete. The war for you is over” (245). By coming back to Vietnam after the end of the war, Hayslip has to overcome her fear and accept the possibility of being captured by the officials and of being rejected by her family. Shortly after arriving in the Ho Chi Minh City, she is scared and uncertain,

“a prisoner of my feelings” (Hayslip 104). The recollections of war time make her cry and she lacks the feeling of safety. She is suspicious and mistrustful to the Vietnamese officials and to her siclo-driver, which emphasizes her change from a Vietnamese to an American.

It is only after encountering Ahn and her family that she starts to understand the purpose of

her journey and “by reencountering her companions [is] told the purpose of her life”

(Hayslip 280). Hence, her mother signifies that by facing these dangers and accepting the possibility of her karma turning against her, Le Ly Hayslip’s reconciliation with the war is completed and she can eventually move further, leaving the war behind her.

Hayslip’s homecoming intertwines the two things –reconciliation with the war and her future plans, through introducing a new activity that Hayslip dedicates her life to – humanitarian help to the Vietnamese. In 1988, she establishes the first non-governmental humanitarian organization East Meets West Foundation. Similarly to Lynda Van

Devanter’s later involvement in VVA Women Veterans Project after overcoming the main effects of the PTSD, Le Ly Hayslip also wants to help the victims of the war she identifies with. She is a representation of a concept of an “emblematic victim” that Viet Than

Nguyen introduces, “simultaneously preform[ing] the function of witness to the collective suffering of the Vietnamese and hav[ing] a power of forgiveness as a victim” (Lim 79).

This motivates her attempts to help her former accusers of treason through offering them a humanitarian support.

She enters Vietnam in 1986, “at a time of considerable risk for returnees, given the lack of political relations between the United States and Vietnam” (Nguyen 2). The normalization of diplomatic relations with Vietnam was enacted only in 1995 during the presidency of Bill Clinton. Thus, Le Ly Hayslip faces during her visit the suspiciousness of

Vietnamese officials and distrust of people who have “troubles believing that the U.S.

Government has let me come freely to Vietnam” (Hayslip 118). The skepticism of

Vietnamese government touches the humanitarian work, as well. “Humanitarian motives don’t make much sense to them. […] They find it impossible to believe that anyone from the West could be interested in helping the Vietnamese people while their government is

communistic” (Hayslip 57). The contrasting attitudes of both nations are embodied in

Hayslip, “half Vietnamese, half American” (Hayslip 136). However, it is the power of forgiveness, suggested by Jeehyum Lim, which puts her above the cultural clash and enables her to see both – Vietnamese and Americans, as her “brothers” and “sisters” instead of enemies and allies, despite of her own capitalist attitudes. In the argument with her brother Bon who works for communist party in Vietnam, she tries to explain the theory of sameness, she believes in, to her brother. “Bon Nghe, you’re a Communist, but you’re not my enemy. You might call me a capitalist, but does that make me your enemy? I don’t think so. […] I think too many people in Vietnam and in the United States put labels on things they don’t know anything about” (265).

This attitude, however, is also an origin of the naivety she bears towards her work as a humanitarian. When Bon asks her about the motivation of “the Vietnamese in the

United States or any other Americans to help” (266), she replies “It’s easy. I will simply ask them. […] I will simply tell them: Our brothers and sisters under the Communist roof are in a dark age and need a little light” (266). Retrospectively, Hayslip admits her premature optimism. “I was very optimistic about the prospect of my humanitarian work and made many mistakes on the way” (Lim 87-88). Furthermore, she describes the difficulties to gain support of people in the United States.

Because of the U.S. embargo against Vietnam, not many people were open-minded

or had enough heart to help our people who live there. Every time I gave speech or

tried to raise funds for the foundation, the right-wing Vietnamese in the U.S.

protested and boycotted my foundation and my name (Lim 90).

Such distressful attitudes may be consequences of the Cold War as well as of collective trauma experienced during and after the Vietnam War. Although the beginnings

are troublesome, Le Ly Hayslip eventually succeeds in establishing prosperous humanitarian organizations in the United States. These operate and help the poor not only in Vietnam, but in other countries affected by conflicts, too.

Le Ly Hayslip’s reconciled, almost spiritual retrospective view of the war is put to a strong contrast with the emotional breakdowns of Lynda Van Devanter depicted in Home before Morning. Unlike Hayslip, who, by coming home “completed [her] circle of growth”

(Hayslip 245), Lynda Van Devanter’s memoir offers an insight to a woman Vietnam veteran’s mind affected by the post-traumatic stress disorder, coping with nightmares and anxiety. Besides of the mental problems she suffers from, Van Devanter also faces the prevailing anti-war opinions of the American society, which perceive her as one of the

“baby-killers, misfits, and fools” (Van Devanter 209) instead of a “person of courage, a champion of democracy, [and] an ideal against which all citizens could measure themselves” (209) that veterans of the previous wars are believed to be. Last, but not least, she criticizes the lack of acknowledgement of women veterans in Vietnam that later motivates her to start Women Veterans Project as a part of Vietnam Veterans of America.

Post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, is “a mental health condition that’s triggered by a terrifying event” (“Post-traumatic Stress Disorder”). This generates three clusters of symptoms according to Margaret Lindorff – “arousal, re-experiencing, and avoidance” (n.p.).

Arousal symptoms include irritability or outbursts of anger, difficulty

concentrating, and sleep disturbance. Re-experiencing symptoms include

flashbacks, intrusive thoughts, nightmares, and emotional distress or physiological

arousal when reminded of the trauma. Avoidance symptoms include avoiding

thinking of the event or reminders of the event, low interest in activities,

detachment or distance from others, and emotional numbing (Lindorff n.p.).

Lynda Van Devanter shows several of them, describing mostly the nightmares.

Those have already started in Vietnam, following her to “the world” and causing her distress and depression.

The young man came back into the dream as he had so many nights before. He was

wearing fatigues and a boonie hat, but the clothes were all bloody. There was a

large hole where his belly used to be. He had no arms and legs and his face was

blown away. He whispered something that I couldn’t hear. He wanted me to come

closer. Struggling against my inclination to run, I put my head so near to the spot

that had once been his lips that I got blood on my cheeks. The soldier kept

whispering one word: Why? (234)

Absence of the answer of this question haunts Lynda Van Devanter throughout the years. “The politics of meaningless death and the community of young men and women who carried the burden of that meaninglessness” are among the central themes not only of her memoir, but also of memoirs of other nurses serving in Vietnam (Acton and Potter

151). The inability to find a meaning for the deaths is connected with the sense of guilt that

“arises out of witnessing deaths, surviving where comrades did not” (Acton and Potter

181), the failure to save everyone and letting people struggling for life behind them. This guilt shows as soon as entering the airplane from Vietnam to the United States. Van

Devanter recalls the feeling of guilt and sadness because “we have all left friends (208).

Yet another woman veteran admits that when leaving Vietnam she “was feeling as [she] was leaving her family behind and that [she] was abandoning them” (Coffee 4:30).

The meaningless deaths and guilt, however, are only two of many elements influencing the outburst of PTSD. Many former army nurses have troubles finding a stable job and a partner. It is also common for veterans not to blend among the friends and family, because the events they witnessed build an imaginary wall between them and they do not understand each other anymore. Lynda Van Devanter finds out in the very first day after her return that “Vietnam would never be socially acceptable. Not here, not anywhere in the world” (221). After few unpleasant encounters she decides to “simply deny that

[she] was a Vietnam vet” (225). This silence and isolation create the sense of loneliness and, eventually, when combined with the rest of factors, result in Van Devanter’s inclines to committing suicide (249). Only after making a psychologist appointment and further examination of her symptoms she understands that her state is not unique.

According to “Findings from the National Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study” conducted in 1990, approximately 27% of women veterans show lifetime prevalence of

PTSD signs after coming back from Vietnam theater area (Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia)

(Price, n.p.), Lynda Van Devanter being one of them. She returns from Vietnam in 1970 and evinces signs of PTSD through majority of the memoir, which concludes on Memorial

Day of 1982. However, throughout 1970s, PTSD is considered to be exclusively combatant’s issue. Nurses, however “were exposed to combat every day […] in the wounds of the soldiers they cared for” (Stur 106) “It was not until women such as Van

Devanter discovered the relationship between their own post-war symptoms and those defined as symptoms of PTSD years after their return from the war that they recognized their own experience as traumatic” (Acton and Potter 154).

Not only regarding the treatment of PTSD are the women veterans invisible. In the years during and following the end of the Vietnam War, there are no organizations for

women veterans. Even the representatives of Vietnam Veterans of America express surprise when they learn about Lynda’s military past. “Women veterans! We forgot all about women!” (Van Devanter 288). Eventually, Van Devanter finds new enthusiasm in

“Women’s Project that would bring the plight of women vets to national attention” (Van

Devanter 290). She devotes her life to broadening people’s horizons about women veterans, but similar to Le Ly Hayslip attempts with providing humanitarian help to

Vietnamese, Lynda, too has to conquer obstacles. One of them is the lack of interest of ordinary people about the issue. When she tries to publish her memoir for the first time, the editor refuses it, because “nobody wants to read that kind of book” (Van Devanter 291).

Also, she meets no success in raising funds. However, the project gradually gains recognition, helping also Van Devanter to come to terms with the war within her.

Similarly to Le Ly Hayslip, Lynda Van Devanter, too, finds the new purpose of life in helping other victims of the war. Both of them provide counseling for people they relate to themselves. The difference is that while the humanitarian project of Hayslip is a consequence of her reconciliation with the war, for Van Devanter VVA Women Veterans

Project presents one of the stages of gradual acceptance of the event. Eventually, she also visits Vietnam, twelve years after leaving it during the war as a part of VVA’s efforts to

“open dialogue with the Vietnamese” (Van Devanter 304). While Hayslip’s return to

Vietnam means coming home, for Van Devanter it is a journey to the country that re- occurs in her nightmares. For both of them, however, it is a visit of a country that none of them has known in their lives – peaceful Vietnam. It is this former crime scene that now allows them to remember their friends and family members that died in Vietnam/American

War with peace within them.

5. Conclusion

In spite of the opposite sides Le Ly Hayslip and Lynda Van Devanter represent in the Vietnam War (and in this thesis), despite different motifs and beliefs they went to the war with, and contrasting social backgrounds, their attitudes towards war change in the course of time just in the same pattern. Both of them experience initial enthusiasm about the conflict triggered by their parents’ upbringing and agitation of politicians.

Subsequently, they undergo the process of disillusionment, and eventually adopt the totally opposing attitude towards the war then in the beginning. After the end of the war, both of them find the reconciliation with the past tragedies by helping other victims of conflicts around the globe and conclude the process by revisiting Vietnam.

Put in the broader context of the Vietnam and America of 1950s and 1960s, their wartime experiences might be applicable to lives of thousands of others. Le Ly Hayslip and Lynda Van Devanter might serve as representatives of many Vietnamese and

American women, who, willingly or not, become part of the war. Thus, stepping out of the anonymity and offering their stories to people might, in a sense, also remove the anonymity of numerous others Le Lys and Lyndas in both countries. Moreover, by presenting their inner thoughts and beliefs, Le Ly Hayslip and Lynda Van Devanter are easily relatable to. Hence, anonymous people who are easily judged for their actions suddenly become identified as real human beings with names and dreams. While reading

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, readers find themselves supporting the Viet

Cong, although they hate them while reading Home before Morning and vice versa. And conversely, while Americans at the beginning of the first memoir are readers’ enemies because Hayslip perceives them so, in the latter one, they favour Americans, because Van

Devanter does, too. Last but not least, both authors demonstrate the reality of the war in the stories that are

not nice, neat stories. There was love, but no cute little love stories; heroes, but not

grand, heroic war stories; winners, but you had to look hard to tell them from the

losers. … [T]here were no knights in shining armor rescuing damsels in distress.

The stories, even the funny ones, were all dirty. They were rotten and they stank

(13).

Through eyes of these two young women, the reader gets an insight to the Vietnam

War that has so far been promoted mostly by male American soldiers. This different perspective enables the readers to see not only the killing in Vietnamese jungles and constant death, but also the indirect consequences of war, such as prostitution of

Vietnamese girls, love in the combat zone, and deficiency of emotions that have to be suppressed during the war. As Lynda Van Devanter states “there were no knights in shining armor rescuing damsels in distress” (13). Instead of that, there are individuals who under the specific conditions commit war crimes and humiliate enemies’ bodies with no apparent reason. As both memoirs demonstrate, distinguishing the good ones from the bad ones in the war becomes impossible.

The comparison of the two texts reveals yet another issue. By emphasizing the similarities of the two women, who are supposed to be very distinctive, it ironically manifests the resemblance that all people share. It proves that on both sides of one gun, there is a human being with exactly the same flaws, emotions, drives nursed by hate- speeches and with the same feeling of righteousness. “War destroys so many things, and one of the first to go is the ability to think of the enemy as human beings with a history and a future” (312), Lynda Van Devanter writes towards the end of her memoir, during her

after-war visit of Vietnam. It is only then that she suddenly perceives Vietnamese as

“individuals … not merely extensions of a war” (310). Le Ly Hayslip, likewise, sees

Americans as animalistic monsters at the beginning of her book and only after the experience when an American helicopter saves her from being raped “it occurred to

[her] … that many things [she] had previously seen from one side might, in fact, have other perspectives” (140).

By presenting their experiences of war in their books, not only do they individualize both sides of the conflict but they also prove that despite everything, there are no significant differences among people. In the end, it seems, everyone just tries to protect what they believe in and to stay alive.

When Heaven and Earth Changed Places and Home before Morning belong to the genre of Vietnam narratives that emerged after the war. The thesis uses these memoirs as samples of the Vietnam War’s depictions written by female writers and performs a comparative analysis of the books to find out whether the same pattern of behaviour occurs. In conclusion, it proves that both authors apply the same structure of narrative to depict the war in spite of the differences between them. Although the sample is small, an assumption might be made that other female writers portraying the Vietnam War (daringly also war in general) would portray the war in precisely the same way as Le Ly Hayslip and

Lynda Van Devanter do.

As the Vietnam War is one of the most controversial wars in American history, the over and over re-emerging element is the questionable morality of actions performed by participants on either side. Both authors referred to the issue of morality and try to provide an apology for their actions by offering background information about the influences that have shaped their behavior. They also dedicate parts of the books to racism, point out a

particular event that serves as a breaking point in their attitudes towards the war and provide the depiction of inner struggle of coping with the consequences of one’s decisions.

These topics, however, are not distinctive to women writers. They are also covered in memoirs of male American veterans, such as Ron Kovic’s Born on the Fourth of July.

He, too, undergoes a change from an all-American boy inspired by the speech of a marine recruiter to a cripple anti-war activist, hence epitomizing the male counterpart of Lynda

Van Devanter. The reason why a significant number of Vietnam War memoirs share the same narrative regardless of gender and nationality of their authors might be a consequence of the attitude of the American society towards the conflict. Many of the memoirs are written by American veterans or for American audience. It is important that a memoir carries out a message relatable to its readers. Thus, presumptively, as the society generally perceives the Vietnam War as an unjust conflict, only the authors who share the similar world view with the masses of the American population would publish their memories of the war.

Nevertheless, there are other themes that female and male authors appear to portray differently in their memoirs. Women dedicate a great part of their works to the depiction of sexism and harassment by male soldiers. These topics are touched upon only slightly in the male memoirs and in general do not gain a lot of attention. Female authors seem to spend more time to discuss the issue of gender inequality because they are directly affected by it.

Numerous female American recruits report becoming victims of sexual harassment performed by their male counterparts. Such incidents are usually omitted in the male narratives. Equally, Vietnamese women are portrayed only as prostitutes and Viet Cong spies. Women writers elaborate on these topics more, possibly as part of the therapy helping them to accept the events.

Many questions arising from the war topic e.g. sexism, harassment, trauma deserve much more attention. Further research may be conducted on a bigger sample of women war memoirs to prove that the proposed pattern found in the case study chosen is applicable to a larger scale. Last but not least, a detailed comparison of male and female war memoir would add value to an overall research on how the war is constructed in both, minds of sexes and in the discourse of entire society.

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ENGLISH SUMMARY

This Bachelor thesis deals with two Vietnam War memoirs by women writers – namely When Heaven and Earth Changed Places by Le Ly Hayslip and Home before

Morning by Lynda Van Devanter. Both memoirs describe the war-time experiences of the authors, as well as their lives after the end of the war. Through comparative analysis, the thesis examines the attitudes of both women towards the Vietnam War and divides it into three chapters. The main goal is to demonstrate the similar pattern that both women follow in change of their approaches towards the war and explaining it by setting the memoirs into sociological background of contemporary Vietnam and the United States.

The introduction provides brief summaries of both memoirs in order to familiarize the reader with their plots and short synopsis of the Vietnam War.

The thesis itself is divided into three chapters, each discussing a different element of Hayslip’s and Van Devanter’s attitudes towards the war in chronological order. The first chapter analyses the impact of propaganda and family on both women, explaining the background of their initial enthusiasm about the war. Second chapter examines the disillusionment both women experience when exposed to the war reality. Third and final chapter talks about the aftermath that the Vietnam War has upon lives of Hayslip and Van

Devanter and analyses their ways to achieving reconciliation with the traumatic experiences.

Altogether, the thesis concludes in a statement that puts these archetypes of

American and Vietnamese women into a new perspective of being allies instead of enemies. It also finds a certain pattern of narrative followed in both memoirs and proposes this order to be used in other women war memoirs. Further research of the topic is needed to confirm or disprove the hypothesis.

ČESKÉ RESUMÉ

Tématem této bakalářské práce je rozbor dvou memoárů z války ve Vietnamu psaných z pozice ženy – jmenovitě When Heaven and Earth Changed Places od Le Ly

Hayslip a Home before Morning od Lyndy Van Devanter. Oba memoáry popisují zkušenosti s válkou očima autorek a jejich život, jež po skončení války následoval. Práce zkoumá – skrze komparativní analýzu - postoj těchto dvou žen k Vietnamské válce na půdorysu třech kapitol. Hlavním cílem je demonstrovat podobnost, s jakou ženy mění svůj pohled na válku, a blíže jej vysvětlit zasazením memoárů do sociologických souvislostí tehdejšího Vietnamu a USA.

Úvod této práce čtenářovi přibližuje téma shrnutím obou memoárů, spolu s klíčovými okolnostmi Vietnamské války.

Samotná práce je rozdělena do tří kapitol, ze kterých každá rozebírá jiný prvek postoje Hayslip a Van Devanter k válce v chronologickém pořadí. První kapitola analyzuje vliv propagandy a rodiny na obě ženy a vysvětluje pozadí jejich počátečního válečného entuziasmu.

Druhá kapitola zkoumá procitnutí, které obě ženy zažijí poté, co jsou vystaveny válečné realitě. Třetí, a zároveň závěrečná, kapitola hovoří o důsledcích Vietnamské války a vlivu na život Hayslip a Van Devanter a analyzuje způsoby, které oběma ženám pomohly ke smíření se s traumatickými zážitky z války.

Bakalářská práce vrcholí závěrem, který archetypy americké a vietnamské ženy posouvá do nové perspektivy, jež na ně nahlíží jako na spojence namísto nepřátel. Taktéž nachází určitý model vyprávění, který oba memoáry splňují a poukazuje na podobné modely, které jsou použity i v jiných válečných memoárech ženských autorek. K potvrzení

či vyvrácení této hypotézy by však byl potřebný další výzkum tohoto tématu. 45