The Saigon Sisters : : Privileged Women in the Resistance / / Patricia D. Norland.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Complete eBook-Package 2020
• VerfasserIn: Norland, Patricia D.,
• MitwirkendeR: Goscha, Christopher,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2020]; ©2021
• Year of Publication: 2020
• Language: English
• Series: NIU Southeast Asian Series
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (280 p.) :; 15 b&w halftones

The Saigon Sisters offers the narratives of a group of privileged women who were immersed in a French lycée and later rebelled and fought for independence, starting with France's occupation of Vietnam and continuing through U.S. involvement and life after war ends in 1975. Tracing the lives of nine women, The Saigon Sisters reveals these women's stories as they forsook safety and comfort to struggle for independence, and describes how they adapted to life in the jungle, whether facing bombing raids, malaria, deadly snakes, or other trials. How did they juggle double lives working for the resistance in Saigon? How could they endure having to rely on family members to raise their own children? Why, after being sent to study abroad by anxious parents, did several women choose to return to serve their country? How could they bear open-ended separation from their husbands? How did they cope with sending their children to villages to escape the bombings of Hanoi? In spite of the maelstrom of war, how did they forge careers? And how, in spite of dislocation and distrust following the end of the war in 1975, did these women find each other and rekindle their friendships? Patricia D. Norland answers these questions and more in this powerful and personal approach to history.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Timeline -- Part 1. THE CAUSE: Youth at Lycée Marie Curie to the Geneva Accords, 1954 -- 1. Thanh: “Our Hearts Beating for the Cause” -- 2. Trang: “Living a Contradiction” -- 3. Minh: “Generation at a Crossroads” -- 4. Le An: “The University of Life” -- 5. Sen: “A Question of Habit” -- 6. Tuyen: “A Chance to Succeed” -- 7. Lien An: “Deep Down, We Remained Vietnamese” -- 8. Xuan: “Liberty, Fraternity, and Equality Were Not for Our People” -- 9. Oanh: “I Did Not Become a Refugee” -- Part 2. WAR AND AFTERMATH: Geneva Accords to Today -- 10. Thanh: “We Are, After All, Human Beings” -- 11. Trang: “Prepared for Any Sacrifice or Risk” -- 12. Minh: “I Led Two Lives” -- 13. Le An: “The Theme of Our Work . . . Was Revolution” -- 14. Sen: “Working for the People, Not a Particular Party” -- 15. Tuyen: “Everyone Was Wrong” -- 16. Lien An: “We Understood What We Had to Do” -- 17. Xuan: “We Could Not Stay Indifferent” -- 18. Oanh: “French Are Very Nice in France and Very Colonialist in the Colonies” -- 19. Reuniting -- Epilogue -- Bibliography -- Index