what was life like for vietnamese woman and children during the vietnamese war?

Answer 1

It depended on where they were. In many villages, life was essentially unchanged. In Saigon, life went on as usual. People knew when to stay off of the streets but schools and the univesity continued as normal. People went to the swimming pools, had meals at restaurants, just much like you do today with the added luxury of TV. Life was no better or worse. However the media has depicted the brutalities of the war with graphic accounts and homeless victims streaming down highways to escape the fighting...yes, that happened and it was sad but sometimes we complicated their lives by forcing ourselves on them and making them targets of revenge or as the VC claimed to teach a lesson. In a small hamlet north of Danang, the village chief was overly friendly with Americans so the village was destroyed, the teachers and the village chief were murdered and the houses destroyed. USOM (now called USAID) rebuilt the huts using bricks and tin roofs...the Vietnamese refused to live in them because a falling bamboo wall might hurt but a brick wall would kill....while this was being done, the homeless from the village were sheltered in a refugee camp near the airbase. A B-52 that had engine trouble attempted to land at the airbase but the runway wasn't long enough and it cart-wheeled into the refugee camp. I was there for seven years and things were not always what the government or the press told you.

Answer 2

Very difficult. In my community there are many Vietnamese and we all went through the worst of Hurricane Katrina. Not one Vietnamese drowned. A man who speaks for them said the storm was not a big deal to them when compared to the Vietnam War. They have been living on their shrimp boats or in FEMA campers for over a year without complaint.

Answer 3

Hi Im a teenage girl with a grandpa who is a vietnam war veteran. He often tells me about his military experience even though his wife my grandma doesnt like it because she thinks his stories are too gory. Their lives were very hard. Often during the night viet cong or nva would come into their villages and execute those that they thought were symathetic to our side. They often made children approach americans with hand grenades and detonate them. American soldiers often were put in the position of having to shoot children. It was a terrible war.

My grandpa said that when he returned to the us people hated him and often the best he would get was pity or being ignored. My grandma met him because they are both Jewish and a friend of hers set him up with her. Her friend said that he was a vietnam veteran but was not crazy like the other veterans. Not only was he not crazy but my grandma said he was a loving man that she immediately fell in love with.
The spark is still there.

Answer 4

Like a migraine and a stomach cramp together in a hurricane.

Answer 5

Very unsettled and insecure.