When Heaven and Earth Changed Places: A Vietnamese Woman's Journey from War to Peace

Content Warning: This section of the guide contains references to war and death.

Following the end of French colonialism in July 1954, Vietnam was divided into northern and southern sections. The North, led by Ho Chi Minh, was Communist and sought to unify the country, while the South was capitalist and allied with the French and Americans. Ngo Dinh Diem assumed the Presidency of the South but was assassinated in 1963, and leadership in the South remained unstable for the duration of the war. In 1961, a team of United States (US) military advisors reported the need for military and economic aid to help Diem defeat the Communist threat from the North’s military forces, the Viet Cong. By 1962, there were 9,000 US soldiers in Vietnam. In 1963, two US warships were attacked in the Gulf of Tonkin, prompting the Congress to pass the Gulf of Tonkin resolution. This resolution gave President Johnson broad powers to wage war. Bombing raids commenced, and US combat forces were deployed beginning in March 1965.

The sympathies of the Vietnamese people were more aligned with the Viet Cong, as the South was associated with foreigners and colonialism. The Viet Cong waged guerrilla warfare, in which the line between combatants and non-combatants was blurred. The civilian death toll was resultingly enormous, with an estimated two million Vietnamese civilians killed. At least another 1.1 million Vietnamese soldiers were killed. In 1968, the Viet Cong shocked Americans with the Tet Offensive. The Viet Cong attacked five large South Vietnamese cities, military installations, and many rural areas in South Vietnam on the Tet or New Year’s holiday. Although the North did not prevail militarily in this offensive, it was a psychological victory. US support for the war began to decline sharply and it was increasingly perceived as an unwinnable war. The US had an unpopular draft, and the death toll for US soldiers would ultimately exceed 58,000.

The US left Vietnam on April 30, 1975, with the North claiming victory. However, the war left the country in ruins. The people were impoverished, health care needs were enormous given the war’s casualties, and the countryside had been poisoned from Agent Orange, an herbicide mixture that the US sprayed to defoliate forests and farmland and that was highly toxic and linked to cancers. The Communist government had a punishing attitude toward those on the Republican side, who had to go to re-education camps. Many South Vietnamese fled the country at this time. When Hayslip returned in 1986, the North remained isolated, partly from US sanctions, and was just on the verge of opening itself to tourists from non-socialist countries. People still feared the government, and alternative opinions were not welcome.