1968: The Global Revolutions

The Journal of Vietnamese Women, or Phu Nu Vietnam, publicized the militant vision of “socialist womanhood” promoted by leaders of the North Vietnamese Communist Party. During the years of the American War, cover photos almost invariably celebrated women in arms. Issues featured tales of personal experiences and moral stories that encouraged Vietnamese women to transform themselves and their lives to help better society. Stressing a complex combination of women’s liberation and civic responsibility, the journal’s ideal woman was simultaneously a freedom fighter and a traditional homemaker – or, in the words of a popular national slogan of the 1960s, “good at national tasks, good at household tasks.”