Struggling for Peace: South Vietnamese Buddhist Women and Resistance to the Vietnam War

Although most histories of the Vietnam War portray South Vietnamese women as victims, prostitutes, or guerillas, this article examines their efforts to halt the war and bring peace to their country. Women stood at the center of Buddhist efforts to end the hostilities and engaged in numerous acts of protest, including self-immolation, to terminate the fighting. While their political and social activism continued their long history of battling to save their people, women who joined the peace movement risked prison, defied social norms, endured enormous pain, placed themselves in jeopardy, and sacrificed themselves to save their country. Working for peace remained their primary motivation, but some women may have believed that by destroying themselves, they could escape patriarchy and reincarnation forever. The women who immolated themselves appear to have achieved perpetual gender neutrality in contemporary Vietnam.