Beyond Combat Women and Gender in the Vietnam War Era

Beyond Combat investigates how the Vietnam War both reinforced and challenged the gender roles that were key components of American Cold War ideology. Refocusing attention onto women and gender paints a more complex and accurate picture of the war's far-reaching impact beyond the battlefields. Encounters between Americans and Vietnamese were shaped by a cluster of intertwined images used to make sense of and justify American intervention and use of force in Vietnam. These images included the girl next door, a wholesome reminder of why the United States was committed to defeating Communism, and the treacherous and mysterious 'dragon lady', who served as a metaphor for Vietnamese women and South Vietnam. Heather Stur also examines the ways in which ideas about masculinity shaped the American GI experience in Vietnam and, ultimately, how some American men and women returned from Vietnam to challenge homefront gender norms.

1. Vietnamese women in the American mind: gender, race, and the Vietnam War; 2. 'She could be the girl next door': the Red Cross SRAO in Vietnam; 3. 'We weren't called soldiers, we were called ladies': WACs and nurses in Vietnam; 4. Gender and America's 'faces of domination' in Vietnam; 5. Liberating men and women: anti-war GIs speak out against the warrior myth.

This book illuminates the crucial role the Vietnam War played in influencing gender roles in America. Heather Stur examines the ways in which ideas about masculinity shaped the American GI experience in Vietnam and, ultimately, how some American men and women returned from Vietnam to challenge home front gender norms.

Heather Marie Stur is an Assistant Professor of History at the University of Southern Mississippi, a fellow in USM's Center for the Study of War and Society, and director of USM's Vietnam Studies program. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin in 2008. Dr Stur is the author of several articles, including: 'In Service and in Protest: Black Women and the Impact of the Vietnam War on American Society' in Soul Soldiers: African Americans and the Vietnam Era; 'Perfume and Lipstick in the Boonies: Red Cross SRAO and the Vietnam War' in The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics, and Culture; 'Borderless Troubadour: Bob Dylan and the Music of the Cold War World' in Highway 61 Revisited: Bob Dylan from Minnesota to the World; 'The Women's Army Corps Goes to Vietnam' in America and the Vietnam War: Re-examining the Culture and History of a Generation; and 'Finding Meaning in Manhood After the War: Gender and the Warrior Myth in Springsteen's Vietnam War Songs' in Dancing in the Dark: Bruce Springsteen, Cultural Studies, and the Runaway American Dream. Dr Stur's research interests include gender and conflict, the US in a global context, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, the impacts of militarization on societies, and oral history.