madame nhu -- before the laws. so madame nhu recognized what her husband and her brother did that was the 50% of the population was being just ignored except by the communists were doing a great job of recruiting women. so madame nhu thought okay, let's give these women some rights and some power, and she did and sort of took it upon herself to be the voice of the women. she doesn't like most vietnamese women. she came from a very aristocratic family. they spoke french at the dinner table. so for her to suddenly declare herself a voice of the vietnamese woman was all presumptions. >> she couldn't msha's unable to write in vietnamese, is that correct speak what she didn't write, i mean she could, but she expressed herself most will only in french which is what of course she studied in school and what they spoke at home. so the other laws that she passed were a little ridiculous. i mean, thinking about them in context it seems to make sense. vietnam was a country at war and the north vietnamese, the communist were to

madame nhu -- before the laws. so madame nhu recognized what her husband and her brother did that was the 50% of the population was being just ignored except by the communists were doing a great job of recruiting women. so madame nhu thought okay, let's give these women some rights and some power, and she did and sort of took it upon herself to be the voice of the women. she doesn't like most vietnamese women. she came from a very aristocratic family. they spoke french at the dinner table. so for her to suddenly declare herself a voice of the vietnamese woman was all presumptions. >> she couldn't msha's unable to write in vietnamese, is that correct speak what she didn't write, i mean she could, but she expressed herself most will only in french which is what of course she studied in school and what they spoke at home. so the other laws that she passed were a little ridiculous. i mean, thinking about them in context it seems to make sense. vietnam was a country at war and the north vietnamese, the communist were to

i don't think they built madame nhu up. i don't really think that they liked her very much. >> we should point out too that she read them religiously and there's a point in the book where you tell her that david halberstam has just been killed in a car accident. he was in a car accident 2008 or something like that and you tell her, you break that news to her and she seems kind of saddened by it. it was a personal friend of hers someone she had known well. >> he said something about her like she was the only one in the family who needed how to do a parade. she raised her hand like mussolini. he said these things that in any other reading would be not complements but she was like a oh i remember him. he was a good reporter and he always told the truth. [laughter] >> one that note i i think we are about out of time. i want to thank you very much. [applause] >> outside the books are for sale. we hope you will pick up a copy. thank you. >> thank you everybody for attending and thanks to mr. banks and ms. demery. copies of "findi

madame nhu -- before the laws. so madame nhu recognized what her husband and her brother did that was the 50% of the population was being just ignored except by the communists were doing a great job of recruiting women. so madame nhu thought okay, let's give these women some rights and some power, and she did and sort of took it upon herself to be the voice of the women. she doesn't like most vietnamese women. she came from a very aristocratic family. they spoke french at the dinner table. so for her to suddenly declare herself a voice of the vietnamese woman was all presumptions. >> she couldn't msha's unable to write in vietnamese, is that correct speak what she didn't write, i mean she could, but she expressed herself most will only in french which is what of course she studied in school and what they spoke at home. so the other laws that she passed were a little ridiculous. i mean, thinking about them in context it seems to make sense. vietnam was a country at war and the north vietnamese, the communist were to

fest with monique brinson demery, author of "finding the dragon lady: the mystery of vietnam's madame nhu" >> are going undegood morning, . welcome to the 30th annual "chicago tribune" winters road lit fest. i want to give a special thank you to all of our sponsors. the authors book will be told in the main lobby and son outside of the auditorium. book signing will immediately follow the program. today's program will be broadcast live on c-span2's booktv. at this time at the end for a q&a session with the author would ask you to please use a microphone located here on the stairwell to my left. this way the home viewing audience can hear your questions. if you like to watch his program again, please note that i covered will re-aired tonight at 11 p.m. central time.