These women were both victims, split by a force they couldn’t control

Image at the DMZ and Ho Chi Minh Museums chosen by Lily Farrell as special to her from the trip.


Lily writes:

Seeing the Vietnamese perspective made me reconsider how we tell stories of war

This photo, displayed in both the Hanoi Ho Chi Minh and the DMZ Museums stood out to me as a symbol of hope and reunification and how the war affected everyone, whether in North or South Vietnamese. When we learn about the Vietnam War, we learn about the two sides, North and South, but not about the people who were caught in the middle, who played no part but were simply victims of both sides. This image makes me think if there is ever a good and bad side in a war, or just two sides who are equally as bad as each other. To us, the North Vietnamese were the villain’s and we were the heroes, but to the North, we were the villain’s and they were the heroes. They committed atrocities, but so did we, and we were fighting for what we believed was a noble cause and so did they. Being able to see this war from the Vietnamese perspective changed how I saw not only the Vietnam War, but every war when Australia and America are viewed as the heroes, as I am now able to see that even though we may be fighting an enemy, their stories still deserve to be told because they lived, loved and lost just as we did - in many ways their stories are the same as ours. I now want to research soldiers and stories of both the North Vietnamese/Vietcong and those caught in-between, to know the stories of those who were fiercely against us and those who were victims, as these two women were. These women were both victims, split by a force they couldn’t control, and we as a country played a role in their suffering. This image and many others throughout this experience forced me to think about and debate some difficult questions that I have yet to answer;

What are the stories of the enemy?

Whose stories deserve to be told?

Is there ever a ‘good’ side in a war?