ABSTRACT
During the US War in Viet Nam, the Hanoi-based Viet Nam Women’s Union and the Union of Women for the Liberation of South Viet Nam both played integral roles in fostering a global women’s antiwar movement. Through meetings, correspondence, and the circulation of print as well as visual media, the two Viet Nam women’s unions (VWUs) actively nurtured US women’s interest in American foreign policy and military activity in Southeast Asia. Their ability to fuel a sense of moral outrage among women across national, cultural, racial, and class boundaries stemmed from a belief that all human beings, and especially all women, could share a sense of commonality and purpose. To convey this message, the VWUs reached out to women around the world and articulated a gendered critique of imperialism and militarism. Their efforts to promote an international antiwar movement were premised upon a belief in global sisterhood, projecting and cultivating a female universalism that simultaneously challenged and transcended racial and cultural divides.
