00:00:33.160 --> 00:00:37.327
(woman sings in foreign language)

00:02:29.366 --> 00:02:33.783
(woman speaking in foreign language)

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- [Narrator] So we have
an old saying in Vietnam,

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"When the enemy comes close to home,

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even the women must fight."

00:03:03.491 --> 00:03:07.658
(woman sings in foreign language)

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Our mother sang lullabies about the women

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of old riding on war
elephants against the Chinese.

00:03:24.660 --> 00:03:26.250
Brave women lost their lives

00:03:26.250 --> 00:03:28.503
to drive out the French imperialists.

00:03:29.670 --> 00:03:32.940
Young people in Vietnam
enjoyed a time of peace

00:03:32.940 --> 00:03:35.970
after Ho Chi Min's armies
drove out the French forces

00:03:35.970 --> 00:03:38.130
In 1954.

00:03:38.130 --> 00:03:40.920
We could marry, go to school,

00:03:40.920 --> 00:03:42.873
study, enjoy life.

00:03:43.860 --> 00:03:46.170
But after 1965,

00:03:46.170 --> 00:03:49.233
our country was divided
into two warring factions.

00:03:56.460 --> 00:03:58.480
And our lives changed forever.

00:04:00.288 --> 00:04:01.904
(children crying)

00:04:01.904 --> 00:04:04.571
(bomb explodes)

00:04:06.763 --> 00:04:09.346
(somber music)

00:04:30.069 --> 00:04:34.236
(woman sings in foreign language)

00:04:52.731 --> 00:04:55.314
(somber music)

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Millions of Vietnamese women
fought the war from fields,

00:05:22.207 --> 00:05:25.320
factories, and neighborhoods,

00:05:25.320 --> 00:05:28.497
some in organized militia
units like (foreign language),

00:05:29.790 --> 00:05:32.190
Chief of the (foreign
language) Village Militia.

00:05:33.270 --> 00:05:35.520
Our beloved feminist
poet (foreign language),

00:05:36.547 --> 00:05:39.547
200 years ago left us a poem called

00:05:39.547 --> 00:05:41.637
"At The Chinese General's Tomb."

00:05:43.687 --> 00:05:46.830
"I see it up there in
the corner of my eye,

00:05:46.830 --> 00:05:49.350
the Chinese General's tomb.

00:05:49.350 --> 00:05:54.350
If I could change my fate,
become a man of heroic deed,

00:05:54.420 --> 00:05:56.075
couldn't I do better?"

00:05:56.075 --> 00:05:58.658
(somber music)

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- [Woman] It was a terrible year.

00:06:02.090 --> 00:06:05.070
My mother did not want
me to go to the front,

00:06:05.070 --> 00:06:09.000
but my two brothers had been
killed by American bombs.

00:06:09.000 --> 00:06:11.880
I wanted to avenge my family.

00:06:11.880 --> 00:06:15.810
I thought if men could fight, so could I.

00:06:15.810 --> 00:06:20.810
When my workplace called for
volunteers, I was ready to go.

00:06:21.323 --> 00:06:23.906
(somber music)

00:06:41.708 --> 00:06:46.125
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:06:52.020 --> 00:06:55.020
- [Narrator] There were
98 girls and 92 boys,

00:06:55.020 --> 00:06:57.510
some just out of seventh grade.

00:06:57.510 --> 00:07:01.920
On July 16th, 1965, we left our families

00:07:01.920 --> 00:07:05.010
to join our big family, company, 814,

00:07:05.010 --> 00:07:06.693
to live and fight together.

00:07:07.590 --> 00:07:11.310
After four days of practice,
we began our long march

00:07:11.310 --> 00:07:12.603
to our destination.

00:07:14.310 --> 00:07:15.690
- [Narrator 1] We walked through valleys

00:07:15.690 --> 00:07:17.910
where white butterflies
fluttered like huge

00:07:17.910 --> 00:07:19.770
ribbons in the air.

00:07:19.770 --> 00:07:23.400
Sometimes we came upon herds of elephants,

00:07:23.400 --> 00:07:26.580
to the twitter of birds
and a shrieking of monkeys.

00:07:26.580 --> 00:07:29.820
We followed the tracks of deer
through the immense wildness

00:07:29.820 --> 00:07:31.623
that seemed to have no boundary.

00:07:36.810 --> 00:07:39.210
But the enemy will not let go of us

00:07:39.210 --> 00:07:41.653
even in these dark
recesses of the jungles.

00:07:43.349 --> 00:07:47.766
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:08:19.775 --> 00:08:22.275
(truck honks)

00:08:31.273 --> 00:08:35.690
(group speaking in foreign language)

00:08:41.471 --> 00:08:45.888
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:09:22.336 --> 00:09:26.753
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:09:42.943 --> 00:09:47.360
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:10:20.297 --> 00:10:22.880
(somber music)

00:10:40.444 --> 00:10:44.861
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:11:03.963 --> 00:11:06.546
(somber music)

00:12:02.177 --> 00:12:06.594
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:12:36.239 --> 00:12:38.888
(somber music)

00:12:38.888 --> 00:12:43.305
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:13:02.130 --> 00:13:03.570
- [Narrator] We loved the jungles,

00:13:03.570 --> 00:13:05.943
our shelter from the American bombs.

00:13:09.570 --> 00:13:10.980
But some of our groups sickened

00:13:10.980 --> 00:13:14.133
and some died from eating
poisonous plants and mushrooms.

00:13:14.970 --> 00:13:16.323
We all got malaria.

00:13:19.800 --> 00:13:22.380
The good rice and medicine
went to the regular soldiers

00:13:22.380 --> 00:13:24.783
on the march to the Southern battlefields.

00:13:25.920 --> 00:13:28.863
We sang songs to drown out
the sound of the bombs.

00:13:32.970 --> 00:13:35.820
We held hands to guide the
trucks along the safe paths

00:13:35.820 --> 00:13:39.303
during the night, our
white blouses, the beacons.

00:13:40.218 --> 00:13:42.801
(somber music)

00:14:17.609 --> 00:14:21.750
We worked as engineers,
sappers, road builders,

00:14:21.750 --> 00:14:24.660
and we make coffins and bury the dead.

00:14:24.660 --> 00:14:27.150
Men and women worked as equals.

00:14:27.150 --> 00:14:30.306
We carried AK 47s, told to stand up

00:14:30.306 --> 00:14:35.130
and shoot at the planes,
to tend to our own wounds.

00:14:35.130 --> 00:14:37.320
The truck drivers and the regular soldiers

00:14:37.320 --> 00:14:40.566
on the move to the southern
battlefields came first.

00:14:40.566 --> 00:14:43.149
(somber music)

00:14:47.376 --> 00:14:48.990
- [Narrator 1] It was a mournful day.

00:14:48.990 --> 00:14:53.280
Company 339 included an all female squad

00:14:53.280 --> 00:14:55.380
of 12 young girls.

00:14:55.380 --> 00:14:57.437
Led by a young woman
named (foreign language).

00:14:58.500 --> 00:15:00.420
During a fierce bombing attack

00:15:00.420 --> 00:15:04.050
they lost five members all in their teens.

00:15:04.050 --> 00:15:06.840
They buried them right
on the side of the road.

00:15:06.840 --> 00:15:10.440
During the males later, the
surviving girls continue

00:15:10.440 --> 00:15:12.540
to set up 12, 10 plates

00:15:12.540 --> 00:15:15.870
as though the five girls were still alive,

00:15:15.870 --> 00:15:18.843
and they took on the workload
of the dead comrades.

00:15:21.518 --> 00:15:23.910
- [Narrator] We buried our
comrades along the roads

00:15:23.910 --> 00:15:25.320
where they fell.

00:15:25.320 --> 00:15:28.533
Only the regular soldiers
rest in the cemeteries.

00:15:29.520 --> 00:15:33.150
Some of us tried to go back
to find and bury our dead

00:15:33.150 --> 00:15:35.790
because unburied dead haunt the living

00:15:35.790 --> 00:15:38.130
until they are put to rest.

00:15:38.130 --> 00:15:42.570
But over 300,000 souls are
still missing in action,

00:15:42.570 --> 00:15:44.520
and most of us can't afford the journey

00:15:44.520 --> 00:15:46.387
back into the battlefields.

00:15:51.295 --> 00:15:55.712
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:16:06.545 --> 00:16:10.962
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:16:47.803 --> 00:16:52.220
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:16:58.233 --> 00:17:01.734
(man speaking in foreign language)

00:17:01.734 --> 00:17:06.151
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:17:49.550 --> 00:17:52.467
(children playing)

00:17:54.908 --> 00:17:59.325
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:18:31.261 --> 00:18:35.678
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:19:15.930 --> 00:19:19.890
Vietnamese women have one
sacred duty above all,

00:19:19.890 --> 00:19:22.683
to bear children to
continue the family line.

00:19:23.700 --> 00:19:27.960
Women who remain barren take
a terrible chance destined

00:19:27.960 --> 00:19:31.170
to live and die alone with no one to care

00:19:31.170 --> 00:19:35.095
for them in old age or honor
their spirits after death.

00:19:35.095 --> 00:19:39.512
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:20:41.270 --> 00:20:43.560
We signed on for one year,

00:20:43.560 --> 00:20:45.630
but most of us stayed
in the jungles as long

00:20:45.630 --> 00:20:47.310
as our health held out.

00:20:47.310 --> 00:20:51.660
Some for 10 years, most
of us returned too old

00:20:51.660 --> 00:20:53.580
or too sick to marry,

00:20:53.580 --> 00:20:56.493
our families too poor to take us back.

00:20:59.919 --> 00:21:03.240
(somber music)

00:21:03.240 --> 00:21:06.180
Our government was too poor to help us,

00:21:06.180 --> 00:21:09.903
so we survived as best we could, again.

00:21:09.903 --> 00:21:14.236
(woman singing in foreign language)

00:21:24.481 --> 00:21:27.645
(man speaking in foreign language)

00:21:27.645 --> 00:21:32.062
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:21:46.531 --> 00:21:50.948
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:22:05.580 --> 00:22:07.920
We were neighbors in the
(indistinct) District

00:22:07.920 --> 00:22:09.780
when we went out to fight
and help each other.

00:22:09.780 --> 00:22:13.874
Now, every year we have
a reunion organized by

00:22:13.874 --> 00:22:15.360
(speaking in foreign language).

00:22:15.360 --> 00:22:17.460
She keeps track of us to tell us

00:22:17.460 --> 00:22:19.323
who has died and to help the sick.

00:22:20.496 --> 00:22:24.913
(woman speaking in foreign language)

00:22:26.370 --> 00:22:30.000
She collects funds to
help our poorest members,

00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:31.893
even though we have little to spare.

00:22:36.086 --> 00:22:39.003
(group chattering)

00:22:52.101 --> 00:22:54.684
(somber music)

00:24:12.517 --> 00:24:15.684
(lighthearted music)