Hanoi Hannah

In this Vietnamese name, the surname is Trịnh, but is often simplified to Trinh in English-language text. In accordance with Vietnamese custom, this person should be referred to by the given name, Ngọ.

Trịnh Thị Ngọ
Born1931 (1931)
Hanoi, Tonkin, French Indochina
Died(2016-09-30)30 September 2016 (aged 85)
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
NationalityVietnamese
Other namesHanoi Hannah
Thu Hương
OccupationRadio personality
EmployerRadio Hanoi
Known forBroadcasting North Vietnamese propaganda to US soldiers during the Vietnam War

Trịnh Thị Ngọ ([ṯɕïŋ˧ˀ˨ʔ tʰi˧ˀ˨ʔ ŋɔ˧ˀ˨ʔ]; 1931 – 30 September 2016), also known as Thu Hương and Hanoi Hannah, was a Vietnamese radio personality best known for her work during the Vietnam War, when she made English-language broadcasts for North Vietnam directed at United States troops.[1]

Early life

Ngọ was born in Hanoi in 1931.[2] Her father, Trịnh Định Kính, was a successful businessman who owned the largest glass factory in French Indochina.[3] She later stated that she grew eager to learn English because of her desire to watch her favorite films such as Gone with the Wind without subtitles. Her family provided her with private lessons in English. In 1955, when she was 24 years old, she joined the Voice of Vietnam radio station and was chosen to read the English language newscast aimed at listeners in Asia's English-speaking countries.[3][4] One of her tutors and mentors at the station was Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett.[3] At this time, she adopted the alias Thu Hương, meaning "autumn fragrance", as it was easier and shorter for her non-Vietnamese listeners.[4]

Career

During the Vietnam War, Ngọ became famous among US soldiers for her propaganda broadcasts on Radio Hanoi. Her scripts were written by the People's Army of Vietnam and were intended to frighten and shame the soldiers into leaving their posts. She made three broadcasts a day, reading a list of newly killed or imprisoned Americans, and playing popular US anti-war songs in an effort to incite feelings of nostalgia and homesickness, attempting to persuade US GIs that the US involvement in the Vietnam War was unjust and immoral.[1] US Navy ships and personnel were also targeted in her broadcasts, with Ngọ reading out the names of crew members and saying that they were all going to die.[5] She also received and played recorded messages from Americans who were against the war, saying later that she thought these messages were the most effective of all as "Americans will believe their own people rather than the adversary".[6]

A January 1966 Newspaper Enterprise Association article by Tom Tiede described the program:

Hannah's shows are invariably the same. After the news is an editorial denouncing U.S. escalation of the war. Then a recording by an Asian soprano who sounds as if she's having her ears pierced. Then, Mailbag Time ('write us for the truth, friends').[7]

One of her typical broadcasts began as follows:

How are you, GI Joe? It seems to me that most of you are poorly informed about the going of the war, to say nothing about a correct explanation of your presence over here. Nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what's going on.[8]

Few if any desertions are thought to have happened because of her work[9] and the soldiers "hooted at her scare tactics".[3] They were sometimes impressed, however, when she mentioned the correct location of their unit (when they would "give a toast to her and throw beer cans at the radio"), named US casualties and welcomed Navy ships into port with their correct arrival details and crew members' names.[5][9] There were exaggerated legends of her omniscience, with rumors that she would give clues about everything from specific future PAVN attacks to soldiers' girlfriends cheating on them at home.[9] In reality, most of her information came from publications such as the US military newspaper, Stars and Stripes.[3][9]

It has been claimed that US forces in Vietnam distrusted the U.S. Armed Forces Radio bulletins, and listened to Ngọ's bulletins for information from the U.S.[10] According to war correspondent Don North:

By zapping the truth through an ostrich-like policy of censorship, deletions, and exaggerations U.S. Armed Forces Radio lost the trust of many GIs when they were most isolated and vulnerable to enemy propaganda. It wasn't that Hanoi Hannah always told the truth - she didn't. But she was most effective when she did tell the truth and US Armed Forces Radio was fudging it.[9]

Ngọ's broadcasts ran for a total of eight years, with her final broadcasts airing in 1973, when most of the American forces were leaving.[11] In interviews in later years, she consistently stated that she agreed with the purpose of the scripts and never deviated from them; she believed that the United States should not have sent troops to Vietnam and should have allowed the country to resolve its situation itself.[4][11]

Later years

In 1975, after the war, Ngọ moved to Ho Chi Minh City with her husband.[9][11] She was offered a job on HCMC Television, but she chose to stay at home and take care of her husband, who had suffered a stroke. She died in Ho Chi Minh City on 30 September 2016 at the age of 85.[12][13]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Jeff Stein (3 October 2016). "Vietnam-era propagandist 'Hanoi Hannah' dies at 87". newsweek.com. Newsweek. Archived from the original on 9 August 2019. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  2. ^ Thanh Minh (28 January 2006). "Americans hear the 'Voice of Vietnam'". Voice of Vietnam (in Vietnamese). Archived from the original on 14 February 2011. Retrieved 24 June 2007.
  3. ^ a b c d e "Shock and awe, Hannah Hanoi style". Archived from the original on 22 August 2008. Retrieved 22 August 2008.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) Thanhnien News. Retrieved 22 September 2008
  4. ^ a b c Shenon, Philip (26 November 1994). "Ho Chi Minh City Journal; Hanoi Hannah Looks Back, With Few Regrets". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on 25 June 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  5. ^ a b Dickerson, Floyd F. (2011). Choices Guide Life's Journey. Publish America.
  6. ^ "TOP 17 QUOTES BY HANOI HANNAH | A-Z Quotes". Archived from the original on 13 August 2020. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  7. ^ Tiede, Tom, Newspaper Enterprise Association, "'Hanoi Hannah' Talks To GIs", Playground Daily News, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, Thursday, 6 January 1966, Volume 19, Number 340, page 5.
  8. ^ Hanoi Hannah, 16 June 1967
  9. ^ a b c d e f The Search for Hanoi Hannah Archived 16 July 2013 at the Wayback Machine, by Don North
  10. ^ "Their Voices Aroused G.I. Nightmares". 9 September 2015. Archived from the original on 22 October 2018. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  11. ^ a b c Lamb, David (4 April 1998). "'Hanoi Hannah' Fondly Remembers Her Role". Los Angeles Times. ISSN 0458-3035. Archived from the original on 24 December 2016. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  12. ^ Agence France-Presse (4 October 2016). "Hanoi Hannah, Vietnam war propaganda radio presenter, dies aged 85". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 17 October 2020. Retrieved 5 October 2016.
  13. ^ Mike Ives (4 October 2016). "Trinh Thi Ngo, Broadcaster Called 'Hanoi Hannah' in Vietnam War, Dies". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 26 January 2019. Retrieved 5 October 2016.

Further reading

  • North, Don (1991). The Search for Hanoi Hannah. Tucson, Arizona: Viet Nam Generation, Inc. Archived from the original on 28 January 2002. Retrieved 28 January 2002. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
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