she got a call at 10:00 a.m. the morning of the supreme court argument. she knew she was arguing onehich case and so importantly, she was very the appropriate attire which otherwise could have been a death knell for her going forward that day, but was told that kennecott that morning thar two hours later she'd be arguine his seconds in court argument that day. she won that case as it turned out en masse via they appeared she forever used that as a targeted to her lawyers. always be prepared. to th >> we just have to minute but that i want to thank everybody for being at the seventh annual book festival. please check out john norris' book about crime journalist mary

mcgory. mary is@job -underscore eightsm. and -- and the book is a delightful read about history and i'm. marlene trestman, her book about betsy margo lane will inspire you and cause us to all be embedded in justice, and i labor laws and elsewhere because of her long career. check out their boat. check them out on social media. come to an secret and twitter and come here in person if you're not your person right now. gaithersburg is a great base to visit and this is a great book it thanks to you, thanks to c-span and thanks to john norris for the wonderful books.

[applause][inaudi [inaudible conversations] >> a name of my book is "beyond combat: women and gender in the vietnam war era." i wanted to write this book because as i read the worker is written about the vietnam war and the direct contemporary accounts of the war,

presidential documents, media coverage of the war, mount morris, those three things, i realized that women themselves were absent from today's stories, but ideas about women and gender were central. for example, the ways in which an american president or policymaker referred to vietnam as she ran a feminine way that this is a country the united states needs to come and save. also conversations about how we define soldiers come to the example the american man who is going now to bring democracy, to spread american foreign policy. all of these were tied into issues of gender. i wanted to know what the vietnam war story would look like if we put women and these gender ideas at the center of the story. americans who served during the

war maybe 1% of those were within. in terms of the military, american women serve primarily as nurses in the else's stare at the next biggest number of american women who served in the army corps. he only had about everything may be 800 american women who served in vietnam. over the course of the u.s. military presence from 1965 to 1972-73. american women serve to admit him as civilians through humanitarian organizations, through churches, mainly through the red cross. in terms of vietnamese women, from the american income of vietnamese women served a couple of functions that the u.s. military in vietnam. one of the functions was to serve as domestic for her son american bases. so washer women were washing american military uniforms, cooks that come and cook meals

for american servicemen. other types of domestic work. cooking in the kinds of things. interestingly, in that case what americans sometimes put discoveries these were women serving with the national liberation front or for what americans understand that the viacom. they would be coming in to be working on american bases and in those capacities they would either get information about what the u.s. military would be doing in the areas they were and where they would be measuring the distance from the base to a position in the field and later the launching attacks at a particular base. american veterans talk about this is the women would be cutting their clicks as a way to reference the distant from whenever the field position was that the attack would be launched to whip up baseless.

american women served entirely in south vietnam. that is where the u.s. ground forces were. so the u.s. military was involved with north vietnam in terms of tommy and north vietnam. the u.s. troops were on south vietnam citing that the south vietnamese army against the national liberation front of the viet cong in south vietnam. american women are saved in the south. some of them are stationed in thank god. others were stationed at bases throughout south vietnam. one of the major u.s. bases was one thing so there was quite a number of american -- women's army corps personnel who served. american nurses stared at hospitals throughout south vietnam. the red cross civilian volunteers served anywhere that

the right crust needed them to be pasted they could be in saigon, and other major city in south vietnam where they could be a small military installations out and remote areas out of the jungle, out in rural areas. american women were serving all throughout south vietnam. american women who served in vietnam found that the way they were treated be painted in part on who they were and are teammates. many of the women i interviewed beyond combat that the enlisted men treated them much better than the officers. that there were some officers who assumed that even though these are american women activists in the military are coming with major organizations like the red cross them and that they are somehow they are to available to officers, to be invited to officers parties and be buried be pretty and be an example of a pretty american

women or something lines hideous so that they are available to officers whereas almost every women i interviewed for "beyond combat" said that men appreciated them. they treated them as nurses shares, as a loved one, someone they wanted to protect and take care of. so that helped those women feel because they felt a closeness and develop bonds with the enlisted men come in and made them feel that their job is more valuable. however, it also could have the result of making their jobs really difficult. for example, one of the women that i interviewed talked about getting to know and enlisted men really well, so this is a women's event event cross. she had gotten to know this unit

of men, in particular they both played guitar. you kind of sit around and play american folk music on their guitars together and entertained the other troops while they are waiting to go out and play. one day she found out that this particular guy that she had become good friends with have been killed peachey told me after that she stopped learning names. she said there are probably guys on the wahoo by anyone the vietnam memorial that i don't know their names because it was just -- it became too hard to get close to these guys. so i decided a way to protect myself emotionally was to stop earning their names because of a group of men got killed them and started talking about their names, i wouldn't know where to place the names. that was a way to protect yourself emotionally. protecting themselves emotionally was something a lot of the women i talked to had to deal with. whether they were in the red

cross bringing entertainment programs for servicemen. they were nurses who are dealing with mass casualties. had a great way a way to protect themselves emotionally from dallas for them probably the most difficult aspect of their job. just as american women were bound for ideas about femininity come, the example bead girl next-door, but american women were meant to look a certain way. they were meant to interact with american servicemen and a certain way. american men in vietnam also were bound by chandra bose. -- gender roles. the american fighting man is rugged. he is brave. he is doing a for his country. he is fighting communism to further american ideals of the

world. americans that are also held to those ideas. for some american men, they actually began -- their experience but had to recheck these gender ideals. the way to prove your manhood is to fight in war. so that led to the development of the antiwar movement as a result of being in the time, seeing combat in feeling not like you're a man, billy cured human eyes. american men became talking about opposing more in the antiwar movement developed both in vietnam and back in the u.s. state that on bases where gis and veterans for publishing newspapers. they're speaking about against the war, joining antiwar organizations and the very thing

antiwar gis talk about is the idea that go into war makes you a man. what they found is when i'm fighting and killing people for seeing my friends and comrades being killed, i don't feel like a man. i feel like i'm less of a human. i feel dehumanized by geeks. not only am i against the war, but i'm also against these gender ideals that are constraining men and women say that minorities should prove your manhood you have cited. to prove your women had, you have to be pretty more address and remind them from home. both men and women are calling -- both men and women who serve for it are calling for rethinking a gender role is as the war ends. when women came back back from the vietnam war, some american women that i interviewed top about what they've been in vietnam they came back opposing

the war. even if they had gone believing in the cause. they saw what was happening in vietnam and they came back opposing the war. they didn't feel welcome in the antiwar movement or in the women movement. those who thought because of gender but they could do and that word is limited. they didn't fill ball club because they had not worked. they would go to a rally or try to join a women's group. once it came out they have served in the war, they felt that they were rejected because they were an extension of the american military machines. even if they wanted to oppose the war of art talk about how they would rethink gender norms, they didn't feel welcome in the groups did not. another say that women face coming back was what had the normal should not before they went to war was no longer

normal. they can jack and their friends wanted to go shopping or go to a party or talk about men. to them, some of those things just seem frivolous. they could relate to that type of life anymore because of what they had been initiated from vietnam. what they did in vietnam is the most powerful workfare and. she was a nurse in vietnam and then she came back and worked as a hospital nurse in the u.s. after she served. when i interviewed her, she top about how nothing she did in her career ever can match the importance of what she thought she was doing as a nurse in the town. that was hard and she still cried. in her interview she broke down in tears in terms of the casualties and the destruction

of young men that she saw that she's working in in military hospitals in vietnam. but she said even though that was so hard, nothing in my career said dan has compared to how powerful and how important i felt like i was serving in the arm. i also hope people understand how central ideas about gender are two were experiences. what it means to be a man, what it means to be a woman, how we define our allies and enemies, how we define countries that we engage with. please gender and gender language to make that language in that continues to be the case. i hope people understand the connection between gender and more as if they were to read "beyond combat."