Nurses In Vietnam War Essay

Although American women never got drafted to join the troops fighting in Vietnam, they still had positions where they contributed to the war effort. During the war, the various positions women worked in ranged from jobs requiring trips abroad to roles where they remained in the home front, showing their support there. Some women became nurses and journalists, going overseas as part of the American cause. Other women stayed at home, waiting for their loved ones fighting in Vietnam. On the other hand, a different group of women, those who were against the Vietnam war, joined the legions of Americans who protested the war effort. These women fought against what they considered the ruthless murder of their fellow citizens, and a bloody war which
Although the American Nurses Association found there to be a miniscule number of casualties for nurses in Vietnam, the fast-paced job exhausted many women after their tour of duty, leading to what Vuic calls the reason only a few nurses elect to stay and assist in the field hospitals after their tour ended. As a result, a continuous need for nurses remained, even as more nurses streamed into the country to assist in the regional medical centers located throughout the area as part of the military’s attempt to minimize the shortage of
However, to these journalists, covering the war provided them with a chance to cover a major story, even if the war placed them in a dangerous scenario. Because of such an interest to report on the events of the war, hundreds of accreditations were handed out. Though, as Hoffman mentions, only “approximately 70 women whose print or broadcast stories or newspaper or magazine photographs established them as working journalists in Southeast Asia from the early 1960s until the mid-1970s”. Regardless, these women fought for their places on the front line of battle, working to show their skills and prove to their male counterparts and to the military officials that they deserved to be