Synopses & Reviews
Beyond Combat investigates how the Vietnam War both reinforced and challenged the gender roles that were key components of American Cold War ideology. While popular memory of the Vietnam War centers on the "combat moment," refocusing attention onto women and gender paints a more complex and accurate picture of the war's far-reaching impact beyond the battlefields. Encounters between Americans and Vietnamese were shaped by a cluster of intertwined images used to make sense of and justify American intervention and use of force in Vietnam. These images included the girl next door, a wholesome reminder of why the United States was committed to defeating Communism; the treacherous and mysterious "dragon lady," who served as a metaphor for Vietnamese women and South Vietnam; the John Wayne figure, entrusted with the duty of protecting civilization from savagery; and the gentle warrior, whose humanitarian efforts were intended to win the favor of the South Vietnamese. Heather Stur also examines the ways in which ideas about masculinity shaped the American GI experience in Vietnam and, ultimately, how some American men and women returned from Vietnam to challenge homefront gender norms.
Synopsis
This book analyzes the Vietnam War, focusing attention on women and gender.
Synopsis
This book illuminates the crucial role the Vietnam War played in influencing gender roles in America. Encounters between Americans and Vietnamese were shaped by images the U.S. military, policymakers, and popular culture used to make sense of and justify American intervention and use of force in Vietnam. Heather Stur examines the ways in which ideas about masculinity shaped the American GI experience in Vietnam and, ultimately, how some American men and women returned from Vietnam to challenge home front gender norms.
About the Author
Heather Stur is an assistant professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi. Dr Stur has won fellowships from the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations, the Gerald R. Ford Foundation, the Doris G. Quinn Foundation, the Marine Corps Heritage Foundation, the University of Wisconsin, and Marquette University. She has published in several journals and collections, including The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics, and Culture; America and the Vietnam War: Re-examining the Culture and History of a Generation; Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan from Minnesota to the World; Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era; and Milwaukee History.
Table of Contents
1. Vietnamese women in the American mind: gender, race, and the Vietnam War; 2. 'She could be the girl next door': the Red Cross SRAO in Vietnam; 3. 'We weren't called soldiers, we were called ladies': WACs and nurses in Vietnam; 4. Gender and America's 'faces of domination' in Vietnam; 5. Liberating men and women: anti-war GIs speak out against the warrior myth.