Thanh

This chapter recounts Thanh's time in serving the National Liberation Front (NLF), the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV), and eventually the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV). It talks about Thanh's work with the foreign relations office in Hanoi and her assignment to escort journalists Wilfred Burchett and Madeleine Riffaud after the Geneva Accords. It also describes Thanh's duty of being a translator and assistant to Mme Nguyen Thi Binh, on the Central Committee of the NLF, where she traveled the world to meet with women's peace groups. The chapter looks into how Thanh was eventually assigned to the Vietnam mission to the United Nations. It also delves into Thanh's diplomatic career, in which she made immense personal sacrifices and was dubbed “Political Mother” by the Saigon sisters.

Strengthening Channels of Communication, 1968–1970

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