Rape during the Vietnam War
[6] Some American veterans[vague] believe that sexual violence against Vietnamese women was motivated by "racism, sexism, or a combination of both" as a result of the strong social reform movements that were roiling the United States in the early 1970s.
The extent of these relationships' sexual consent is still debated;[12][13] one Japanese study determined that over half of Lai Đại Hàn births had resulted from rape.
[5]: 47 According to Kerry Crawford, rape of Vietnamese women was a "normal operating procedure",[16]: 13 [15]: 194 and brothels were built inside military installations to maintain morale and discipline.
[16]: 13 Approximately 100 recruits who were interviewed in Cam Ranh Bay, Vietnam, had little to say about the war's greater difficulties since "the men’s personal concerns were mostly sexual.
According to Daddis, military leaders were likely aware of this, as one deployed officer noted that his in-processing briefings covered topics ranging "from the current Viet Cong infrastructure to the common venereal diseases in Vietnam.
According to Gibson, U.S. soldiers would rape Vietnamese girls, then kill them in horrific ways, including allegedly making their "stomachs explode" by sticking "hand flares" inside their vaginas.
[15]: 195 The incident on Hill 192 refers to the kidnapping, gang rape, and murder of Phan Thi Mao, a young Vietnamese woman[23]: 1 by an American squad during the Vietnam War[23]: 1 on 19 November 1966.
The same article from The Hankyoreh in April 2015 also reported quotes from the interviews of ten elderly Vietnamese women who said they were victims of sexual assaults perpetrated by the South Korean military during the Vietnam War in Bình Định Province.
[further explanation needed] They said that Ku's statements of about the actions of the South Korean military during the Vietnam War were all "falsehoods and forgeries", that the victims were just "Viet Cong disguised as civilians", and that "no sexual violence occurred".
[11] South Korea has never recognized allegations of sexual assault by its forces against Vietnamese women and girls (some as young as 12 years old) or the children conceived as a result.
Justice for Lai Dai Han (JLDH) is a campaign group that is seeking recognition from South Korea for both the children born as a consequence of rape by Korean troops and their mothers.
[30] Also in 2019, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw asked the United Nations Human Rights Council to launch a comprehensive inquiry into sexual abuse during the Vietnam War, and has urged South Korea "to confront a murky period in its past.
Weaver argues that by acknowledging the atrocities committed by the U.S. soldiers in Vietnam, the American's ability to view the veteran as a victim would be "mitigated" or possibly "destroyed".
[5]: 5 According to Daddis, gang rapes were common throughout the war, allegedly because United States military personnel implemented a "systematic, purposeful command policy of violence" against the Vietnamese people.
[6] In South Korea, analyses of these works which problematize contentious Vietnam War recollections show "aesthetic, ethical, and political" restrictions and opportunities for depicting memories of sexual abuse and (un)conditional apologies during wartime in visual art.
[39]: 50 Furthermore, Peter Conolly-Smith argues that through using a bystander as the viewer of the sexual violence, the film absolves itself of responsibility, allowing a graphic reenactment of the act.
This leads to the conclusion that sexual violence in combat films prospers through a "confirmation (however critically it may be articulated) of American hegemony" that is achieved through the domination and subjugation of people, and particularly women, of colour.
[42] In her memoir When Heaven and Earth Changed Places, Le Ly Hayslip wrote about her experience of being raped by Viet Cong soldiers when she was fourteen years old.
The books Between Heaven and Earth by Le Ly Hayslip and Then the Americans Came by Martha Hess are said by Elisabeth Wood to provide a voice to women who were sexually abused during the war.
[5]: 7 In the book Against Our Will by Brownmiller, her chapter on war offers a thirty-page investigation of the sexual exploitation of women in Vietnam, citing information that has come to light since 1975.
