Friday, May 01, 2015

Vietnam woman's quest for the truth about her mother...

When I was 16 months old my mother went to war. Duong Thi Xuan Quy became North Vietnam's first female war correspondent, but - and it's a familiar story in a country where three million died - she never came home. We are still searching for her remains.

My mother was 27 when she decided it was time to prove herself as a journalist. She sought approval from the family, pleading with her father to sign the papers and let her cover the Vietnam War. She told him this was the opportunity of a lifetime, a chance to witness history unfolding.

She chose to go to central Vietnam which had the reputation of being the fiercest battlefield in the conflict. Full of energy and determination, she left Hanoi and went on foot along the Ho Chi Minh trail - a network of jungle and mountain paths used by North Vietnam to send supplies and troops to the South.

She was the only woman in a group of more than 100 writers, artists, musicians and photographers on the trail at that time. More + pictures...

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