https://www.thesaigonsisters.com/home daily 1.0 2020-07-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1593560097180-0E0OB5EQJQH9U7GFDXR6/Saigon+Sisters+Cover.jpg Home - Born into privilege. raised in prestige. Nevertheless, they resisted. The Saigon Sisters shares the stirring accounts of nine remarkable women who met at an elite secondary school but forsook safety and comfort to fight for their country’s independence. In this book, “destined to be a classic” (filmmaker Ken Burns), the Sisters recount their lives—and double lives—juggling their roles as family members and freedom fighters. Through regular bombing runs, years in the jungle facing malaria and deadly snakes, and a complicated post-war period, these women persevered and ultimately reunited. Their stories are a testament to quiet strength and the enduring bonds of lifelong friendship. https://www.thesaigonsisters.com/sisters daily 0.75 2020-08-04 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594335659956-8MESD7NQ9ZXS1JBSHNX0/IMG_0085.jpg Sisters Trang (left) with Sen and Le An in the courtyard of Lycée Marie Curie, c. 1948. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594942778159-PAYRTF5TFI3J8S9683NZ/IMG_0051.jpg Sisters In July 1949, the Lycée Marie Curie awards ceremony booklet lists Minh ("Cecile") second under "Prix de Tableau d'Honneur" (Honor Roll). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595022926174-9P1KKA85W4OX8OWZGYN4/IMG_0003+%282%29.jpg Sisters Le An as a young girl sporting a French-style beret in Saigon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595282745596-I4B616OEN5WGBGO1HEYG/IMG_0010.jpg Sisters Sen (front, second from right), nicknamed "beauty queen" by her friends, with Le An (front, far right), Trang (front left, in dark skirt), and literature teacher Mme Ourgaud (back, center), c. 1948. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595284723136-FL08K5CEH7ULCOHOE5UT/IMG_0083+%283%29.jpg Sisters Tuyen, fourth from left, marches in a demonstration with respected teacher Mme Ourgaud (Jan. 1950). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595370844369-5920HWVVSSWY09QLKGR3/IMG_0052+%283%29.jpg Sisters In the program for the Lycée Marie Curie awards ceremony in 1949, Lien An ("Simone," listed here by family name "Ho Thi") gains honorable mention in Vietnamese language and history. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595548140696-MWSTKC9G96CZ4N78GEJB/IMG_0014+%282%29.jpg Sisters Xuan, born in 1930, and her father, whose family held land along the Cambodian border: "He loved to farm and checked his crops daily, riding his horse in jodhpurs and knee high leather boots." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595627894319-8RK1ACGX85MMF7UEXPKT/IMG_0080+%282%29.jpg Sisters Oanh (left) and her sister Cut go "Catinater," a popular pastime of strolling down Saigon's premier avenue to see and be seen (c. 1948). Oanh notes the French black Renault on the left. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596565914235-G54RWC1H2EO4V1H10X0P/IMG_0015.jpg Sisters Thanh (left) with her siblings Trang and Minh. Inscription from Thanh to author in Sept. 1995: "This is a very old and very precious photograph." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594335406636-BSW79NLI9D22VUHD53TU/IMG_0057.jpg Sisters Under the auspices of the High Commission of France in Indochina, a "Distribution Solennelle des Prix" takes place at Lycée Marie Curie on July 9, 1949. On page 37, receiving the Prix d'Excellence and Prix de Tableau d'Honneur: Trang ("Lucie"). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594941476080-0M1KR17VXAA3YGY2IMWO/IMG_0050+%282%29.jpg Sisters The High Commissioner of France in Indochina selects Thanh as the best student at her level for distinguished study and behavior: a prestigious regional award. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595022980830-4ZUZ8GCS5LQZ3VRI3G7H/IMG_0084.jpg Sisters Le An (left), next to Trang (ponytail) and Sen in front of the Lycée Marie Curie infirmary (Dec. 22, 1948). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595282323174-KYI80QC4MPYMIXR6PPB9/IMG+%282%29.jpg Sisters In addition to awards in classes including history and geography, “Cécile” earns honorable mention as first in her Vietnamese language class (Lycée Marie Curie, 1948-49). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595283121778-TAHR9RIS0ZBKFJAQH8JJ/IMG+%282%29.jpg Sisters Lycée Marie Curie report card on "Suzanne" (1948-49). In a class of 29, Sen places first in geography, natural sciences, and English. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595284601667-S2NKC1U1OMIGW5AHJAFP/IMG_0054+%282%29.jpg Sisters Tuyen, "Nicole," is a recipient of the Honor Roll Awards given by the minister of education of South Vietnam. The program for the July 9, 1949 award ceremony at Lycée Marie Curie also lists Tuyen for honorable mention as a student of Vietnamese language. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595371043406-24T17ES1OJDCXJS6W3PD/IMG_0022+%28sub+for+15%29%283%29.jpg Sisters Lien An (left) with Le An, being interviewed at the beautifully decorated home of Mme Tuong in 1989. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595547891310-ECYLT5VSC5LQW4L9C6N9/IMG_0002+CX.jpg Sisters In 1938, when Xuan is seven years old, her father sends her to "the best French school available”—St. Paul's de Chartres in Saigon, a boarding school run by French and Vietnamese nuns. Xuan is in front of Sister Thérèse (standing by window on right). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595627917225-RS4KOFNDMJL3Q9UBMOGE/IMG_0079+%282%29OanhCatinat.jpg Sisters Oanh (right) and "eldest sister" in front of Lutèce Café, the entrance to "Passage Eden" theater across from the Continental Hotel, which offered a "favorite sidewalk café for chatting—part of 'Radio Catinat'" (c. 1950). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887036600-Y1NG8SISN1406588KPGR/1+-+IMG_0073+%283%29.jpg Sisters After graduating and taking different paths in 1950, the Saigon Sisters meet again in 1981 at the death ceremony of their childhood friend Suong. Pictured is Suong's altar at the home of her mother, Mme Tuong, who becomes a surrogate mother to the Sisters and hosts many gatherings in her art-infused home. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979632909-6UL4Y7HZHMOAJVEGBJQ8/1+-+IMG_0013+%282%29.jpg Sisters In 1918, the French built Lycée Marie Curie in Saigon, the capital of the colony of Cochinchina. All the Sisters attended the lycée, some as boarding students and others as day students who walked or bicycled to campus. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594016974183-9JDBLJJDKU7N9U4EYZYB/IMG_0054.jpg Sisters Thanh also receives the Award for Excellence and Honor Roll Award from the minister of education in South Vietnam. At the same time as she shines academically, her political activities draw the less public attention of the committee on discipline. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594335405462-SUS705DE0FW1S2K5ZDHP/IMG_0083.jpg Sisters Trang (far right) marching in a demonstration in Jan. 1950 with Mme Ourgaud, a lycée professor supportive of students protesting the French administration. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594942732937-KJN1GZQKAE7NBBRZUJVA/IMG_0015.jpg Sisters Minh (right), with siblings Trang (center) and Thanh in 1950. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595023195310-5I8FHD5GFUWS15E87M0J/IMG_0081+%282%29.jpg Sisters Le An in black pajamas participating in the resistance (July 7, 1950). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595283220988-RBCO72NN41QCUKQTY31F/IMG_0007.jpg Sisters Sen and her friend go "Catinater" (strolling down Saigon's main boulevard, rue Catinat) with a "surveillante" from Lycée Marie Curie, Mme Egère, c. 1949. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595284831665-1M55OT3HZZH2Y91ZBAC0/IMG_0001+%282%29.jpg Sisters Tuyen (far left), with some of the Saigon Sisters and other former classmates at Lycée Marie Curie in 1985. At such gatherings, Thanh recalls, Tuyen would sing as "our nightingale.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595371104934-GSPXS0U29T328WSNTHH8/IMG_0027+%282%29.jpg Sisters The Saigon Sisters gather in the room the author rents from Tien in 1989. Left to right: Tuyen, Xuan, Oanh, Minh, Thanh, Lien An, and Tien (seated); Trang and Sen (standing). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595547894946-IDBBDM9RP1J3I78EBGZO/IMG_0017+%282%29.jpg Sisters In 1950, Xuan is sent by her father to study abroad in safety; she departs Saigon by boat, traveling on a French Indochinese passport issued in Saigon on May 31, 1950. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595627935094-J2UH55WC2R8CNCZ4MGB1/IMG_0035+%282%29LMCOanh.jpg Sisters Scores for Oanh ("Lucie") in her class of sixteen at Lycée Marie Curie, 1948-49. Coming in first in philosophy, physics, and math, Oanh ranks sixth in "Annamite," taught by Mlle Lanh, who describes Oanh as a "bonne élève" (good student). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887039495-MPPBKYTWTFAPO7J2HT0Y/3+-+IMG_0011+%282%29.jpg Sisters Mme Tuong (right), pictured with her daughter Suong in 1949, as the two—along with Mme Tuong's husband, a doctor—provide aid in makeshift tents to individuals wounded when anti-French riots erupt in fires and violence in downtown Saigon. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979628182-7101CRMT81OEOLL23TCC/2+-+IMG_0069+%282%29.jpg Sisters To protect against the sun, the lycée features colonnades, tall ceilings, thick walls, and a courtyard strewn with tall trees. Lycée Marie Curie is the only high school in the city to retain its original name. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594017022936-D88GVE1EC4YTGCV5SNIG/IMG_0093.jpg Sisters In early 1950, Thanh invites her friend Xuan to Tet (Lunar New Year) in a letter alluding to the end of their youth together at lycée and the impending changes in their lives. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594335403885-10X0VFWYC4IVGDNCRWF7/IMG_0014.jpg Sisters Trang (left), with Thanh, after joining the resistance in 1950. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594942758555-5ZK4IFQYO8Q4RTP50AR4/IMG_0001.jpg Sisters Minh (holding accordion) at Lycée Marie Curie in 1985, accompanied by a group including Tuyen (far left, silver ao dai), Sen (red ao dai), and Xuan, Le An, Thanh, and Oanh (right side of photo, from left to right). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595023242183-6IQ7T4XR8II00RWVOB6Y/IMG_0005+%282%29.jpg Sisters Le An holds up a certificate in the commune of Vinh Linh, Quang Tri province. She recalls heavy bombing because the bridge in Vinh Linh was on the frontier of the 17th Parallel (demarcating North and South Vietnam after the 1954 Geneva Accords). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595283429412-Y14YBI944A4MOT9NQA96/IMG_0012.jpg Sisters Sen in 1970 at the opening of her "petit salon de beauté" in Cholon: "Physical appearance influences a person's spirits; throughout the bad situations I've survived in life, I always tried to take good care of myself." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595285075250-MEMQ550XI56ZHU7KJCP2/IMG_0002+%282%29.jpg Sisters Tuyen (right) and Le An at a friend's home in Ho Chi Minh City (1989). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595371342851-BR0COC9B2XM52C2TOJCH/IMG_0071+%282%29.jpg Sisters Lien An in 1994 at one of Saigon's famous high schools, Le Quy Don, where she had served as headmistress from 1977 to 1986. In the late 1940s, several of the Saigon Sisters would walk from Lycée Marie Curie to this school—known then as Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat—to attend upper-level classes. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595547902905-4IMXW9NJC3Y6IPVTCDL6/IMG_0019+%282%29.jpg Sisters While living in Surrey-Guildford, Xuan's "Certificate of Registration" lists her nationality as French and her "Previous Nationality" as Vietnamese. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595627949463-101STXD7LREESLQF6RXN/IMG_0019+%282%29Viterbo.jpg Sisters In May of 1951, Oanh (center) is welcomed by Sister Theodine (left), the President of Viterbo College. Oanh is accompanied by Miss Louise Gerardy of Crossroads Student Center in Chicago. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887037392-62CHMQDILT2F1FMNN34Y/6+-+IMG_0024+%282%29.jpg Sisters Mme Tuong's living room, replete with ceramics, flowers, paintings, and pottery-lined shelves. Front row (left to right): Xuan, longtime friend Tien, and Thanh. Back row (left to right): Sen, Minh, Lien An, Le An, and Thanh. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979628256-4PKP4S2KHIIIMME0SLI0/3+-+IMG_0019+%283%29.jpg Sisters Notre Dame Cathedral was completed in 1880 with materials imported from France, including the ochre-hued bricks from Toulouse. Here, motorbikes and bicycles stream past on the street once named rue Catinat (now Đường Đồng Khởi), which the Sisters had promenaded down when it was Saigon's "place to be seen." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594335830390-WNCAIVLVFU1I6ZJGRGGY/IMG_0006.jpg Sisters Trang conducts the Ho Chi Minh City symphony orchestra. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594406999751-SHGTR98XL0HCT08S61N5/IMG_0014.jpg Sisters Thanh (right), with Trang, after they join the maquis in May 1950. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594942869281-W09T2KYZMEVNCUBTCBB6/IMG_0002_NEW.jpg Sisters Minh (left), with Thanh (center) and Trang in Ho Chi Minh City on Jan. 9, 2000, commemorating the 50-year anniversary of the "National Day of High School Pupils and Students." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595023421193-MUW59LKA562OZUJ4UYHA/IMG_0001.jpg Sisters Le An (left), with members of the artistic troupe that performed for the military in numerous locations. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595283473702-TV8YYYDIONOG1H4HMH4W/IMG_0001+%282%29.jpg Sisters In 1989, Sen demonstrates how she and the other Saigon Sisters would pen home-made leaflets with anti-French slogans. On a "palette" of white paste, they would write in dark purple ink and use onion-skin paper to draw as many copies as possible per inking. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595285178174-DY049XCNAFESC4BV349K/IMG_0014+%283%29.jpg Sisters The author, cassette recorder in hand, interviews Tuyen in 1990 at Mme Tuong's home—the place where, in 1981, all nine Sisters had come together for the first time since lycée, to commemorate the death anniversary of Mme Tuong’s daughter Suong. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595372384374-OGIA9591E7IXTE877K8K/IMG_0070+%282%29.jpg Sisters Lien An sits at one of the old wooden school desks in a Le Quy Don classroom (1994). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595547893247-56CEFES0YFT9RHA47C8A/IMG_0094+%283%29.jpg Sisters In 1953 and 1954, Xuan passes rigorous portions of the Royal College of Music exams, equipping her for a lifetime career in teaching piano. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595627962148-I5OJK5BST7NFJKYIVN5E/IMG_0020+%283%29.jpg Sisters Oanh (not pictured) writes: "Yearly summer meeting of Vietnamese Catholic Students Association in the suburbs of Chicago. Of the group, only two others and I are presently in Vietnam" (c. 1952). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887038668-MQUMX1XX2T989WE9YWJC/5+-+IMG_0001+%283%29.jpg Sisters Mme Tuong (back right) delights in hosting friends. Front row (left to right): Le An, Oanh, Xuan, and longtime friend Tien. Back row (left to right): Lien An, Sen, a friend, and Tuyen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979629064-4RYCEZ732ENW9L3Y0B3Q/4+-+IMG_0018+%283%29.jpg Sisters Across from Notre Dame Cathedral stood the Sûreté Général, French colonial security police. Several Sisters recall being held in the building's courtyard after participating in a student demonstration. (This building has since been demolished.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594018529356-JS394JPRXAQJ1STWHX2E/IMG_0006.jpg Sisters Thanh in 1989, revisiting the area southwest of Saigon where she had joined the maquis decades earlier. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594335407095-MN805UP8HZWFT4HCC0EJ/IMG_0007.jpg Sisters Trang (right), with siblings Minh behind and Thanh to her left. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595023492736-WOK4Z05GW5ANX4MBSSE9/IMG_0004+%283%29.jpg Sisters While on the move with her artistic troupe performing for soldiers, Le An relaxes in a hammock in southern Laos in 1971. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595283586634-U5PEIFNG1YUYAZBUWX49/IMG_0016+%282%29.jpg Sisters Sen's husband Nhieu, who studied at John Hopkins University, takes the author on a tour of one of his factories making medicines at affordable prices. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595283940992-S35VZ70L37VXXU9IDCG3/IMG_0013+%282%29.jpg Sisters Sen and her husband Nhieu at home (1996). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595285842073-6I8VUA9FPZG6D56XOAZE/IMG_0029+%282%29.jpg Sisters In 2010, Tuyen (center) stands with Minh (left), Trang (right), and another friend. Seated (left to right) are Thanh, Lien An, Oanh, Xuan, the author, Le An, and another friend. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595372484132-J1O5MAUMQ2I8AQVQCK1J/IMG_0001.jpg Sisters Lien An (left) is coaxed out of retirement to direct a small school, Truong Tuong Lai—"School of the Future"—for children with handicaps (1994). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595547898152-RZRSOC3K8VFAQ2BHXIKM/summer+2011+USADSCN3487_015+%282%29.JPG Sisters Xuan and Lau, after marrying in England in 1952, return to Saigon. They are pictured here, with Xuan's father in the middle, on the occasion of the opening of a bank (c. 1960). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595628000761-I73ZV6H6CDW7OO2K0BCG/IMG_0023+%282%29.jpg Sisters Oanh wins the 1953-54 Catholic School Press Association contest on creativity with her essay, "Getting Back to the Roots." The contest was a response to a pastoral letter criticizing a lack of creativity among American Catholics, deploring "mechanical brides" programmed by ads. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887035335-VYEJWQMYI5AD3JWZTTS2/4+-+IMG_0026+%282%29.jpg Sisters Mme Tuong welcomes eight of the Saigon Sisters to her home near Tan Son Nhat Airport. Front row (left to right): Le An, Lien An, Mme Tuong, Tuyen, and Oanh. Back row (left to right): Thanh, Xuan, Minh, and Trang. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979627258-9ZX3V2UTTA3T2YJ5VOZE/5+-+IMG_0020+%282%29.jpg Sisters Further down rue Catinat (now Đường Đồng Khởi) is a large square in which two renowned hotels face each other: the Caravelle, pictured, where American journalists often stayed while reporting the war, and the Continental, where Graham Greene began writing “The Quiet American.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594333458219-AXS125VCIWFMXKBOLNMD/Thanh+7.jpg Sisters Thanh, in mauve ao dai (3rd from right), with Trang and other Sisters celebrating the fiftieth anniversary of the Day of Students. (Jan. 9, 2000.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594336045699-LAD0RBAA89FAJBNILPRK/IMG_0015.jpg Sisters Trang (left), with sibling Thanh, in Saigon in 1990—40 years after they joined the resistance together. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594942892627-B5YB29S7K0LIL6MQ9KPK/summer+2011+USADSCN3632_142.JPG Sisters Minh at her beloved piano in the Binh family compound (downtown Ho Chi Minh City, 2011 ). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595286206576-CIVM5XHAY1RED0BAVD8I/IMG_0003+%284%29.jpg Sisters Tuyen, an avid traveler and explorer, enjoys a retirement trip to Dalat, an old French hill station, in 2012. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595372630583-L9S933I11KKB7TWUYQNO/IMG_0002.jpg Sisters "Truong Tuong Lai" is set up in a house; Lien An's office is in what had been the garage (1994). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595549157966-5KBKMWGMUXE7GGBMS2MO/IMG_0011.jpg Sisters Xuan shares her stories with the author in 1990 at Mme Tuong's home. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595628000491-GQ7H87CH0S8Y3JHXVJQ9/IMG_0032+%283%29.jpg Sisters Oanh's official transcript from the University of the Philippines, where she graduated June 7, 1972, with a Master’s of Community Development. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887039902-RYUSNN97WPNGY1AUCN50/8+-+IMG_0037+%282%29.jpg Sisters Mme Tuong (just off left edge of picture) sits at the head of a food-laden table, next to Thanh (left, with a gleam in her glasses), Minh, a friend, Sen's husband Nhieu, and Xuan's husband Lau. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595891160016-F0OF16QXY34TYL91XIA7/2+-+IMG_0031+%283%29.jpg Sisters Le An with some of the Saigon Sisters at Lycée Marie Curie in 1985. Seated (left to right): Thanh, Le An, Xuan, Oanh, Minh, and Sen. Standing: Tuyen (second from left) and three other friends. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979628068-TOL0CIJK21008B3EWOU6/6+-+IMG_0024+%282%29.jpg Sisters Between the Caravelle and Continental stands the French-built opera house where the Saigon Sisters attended concerts and plays in the 1940s. Drawing on Vietnam’s long history of resistance, the music and performances of Tuyen’s brother, Luu Huu Phuoc, and his friend Tran Van Khe inspired students to rebel against the French. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594333688203-72B8GGYUI4DIGUUP3WJ8/Thanh+8.jpg Sisters Thanh in a photo she inscribed to the author with this message: "Grandmother with grandson, whose name means 'the equitable,' a quality which is being appreciated these days. Ho Chi Minh City, October 19, 1992." https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594407287250-G4BNUYQ3BXV9Q4MWXJGQ/IMG_0034.jpg Sisters Trang (right), with her mother and author Patricia Norland in the Binh family compound (Saigon, 1989). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594942893737-QLFWCQN7A5F9TFZJC0F2/IMG_2699.JPG Sisters Minh (left) welcomes Tuyen and the author (not pictured) to the Binh family compound in June 2017. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595023558076-5WPJGSLEYK4SZZ1EJE80/IMG_0011+%283%29.jpg Sisters At a reunion in 1989, Le An and Thanh look over the black-and-white photos and souvenirs that Le An has preserved in an old tin box. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595284002606-9SZ0CKV8D68CEFKVIMXW/IMG+%283%29.jpg Sisters Sen and her husband Nhieu with the author at a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City (2010). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595286262336-DP683OPPZFKW21PXI8NA/IMG_2502+%283%29.JPG Sisters Tuyen visits the author at Tien's apartment in Ho Chi Minh City in 2017. (Tien, a friend of the Sisters, graciously invited the author to live in Tien's home in 1989-1990 while the author interviewed the Sisters.) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595549302152-311EABHXMR383EVQOS4A/IMG_0032.jpg Sisters Xuan in a quiet, contemplative moment at Mme Tuong's home (1990). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595628025416-6P12SYUY7ALZ0J44DYYJ/IMG_0001+%283%29.jpg Sisters Oanh practices tai chi in a park in Ho Chi Minh City (1989). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595890348842-1KYNYWI1388MOH0AVYPK/7+-+IMG_0036+%283%29.jpg Sisters Thanh, Le An, Lien An, and longtime friend Tien stand together in the driveway of Mme Tuong's home (1989). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979633600-TFD3BUZTMA4Q94K33SGI/7+-+palais.jpg Sisters The French allowed Gia Long Palace (now a museum) to be used by leaders of the State of Vietnam, including Tran Van Huu, who on January 9, 1950 ordered police to clamp down on anti-French student protests. His order resulted in the death of Tran Van On, a decisive moment in the Sisters' political awakening. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1594942916600-6YYZB4GX3JPN81SN8G3P/IMG_2686.JPG Sisters Minh in ao dai for a family portrait shared with the author in 2017. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595023648697-GV3GH19HXV17U1G3CIXS/IMG_0010+%282%29.jpg Sisters As Le An and Thanh reminisce about the resistance, Le An shows the author how she used to wind her scarf over her head to fight the sun. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595547886030-XIPCD6KFRJECHE4D3C43/IMG_0020+%282%29.jpg Sisters Xuan (right) with Oanh in 1994. The two share a love of flowers and plants, often exchanging them at holidays and other gatherings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595628051177-OF4FB6HGH2HY21TOKPY1/IMG_0019+%283%29.jpg Sisters Oanh relaxes in her small, simple home on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City (1994). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595890536384-NOBLO55FU4UAMJWADIO3/9+-+IMG_0027+%283%29.jpg Sisters In 1990, eight of the Sisters (all but Le An) gather in a room the author rents from the Sisters' longtime friend Tien. Seated (left to right): Tuyen, Xuan, Oanh, Minh, Thanh, Lien An, and Tien. Standing (left to right): Trang and Sen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979634731-ZNATSQXO1ZSF11ZUU90E/8+-+IMG_0017+%282%29.jpg Sisters Xuan plays tennis on a court once reserved solely for elites, behind Gia Long Palace. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595547885354-V9DJLV3IYVJFOJWEK3Z4/IMG_0021+%282%29.jpg Sisters Xuan and her husband Lau, at their home in Ho Chi Minh City in 1994, are considered "the" love story among the Saigon Sisters. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595628069106-GRUJQV7VJRA0F3IMB6J9/IMG_0002+%282%29Oanhsocial.jpg Sisters Lien An, Oanh, Tuyen, and Le An (seated, left to right) and Minh (standing) enjoy a dinner together in Ho Chi Minh City (1994). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887041416-SRIKNW8ZM8WQFCD86CXZ/11+-+IMG_0040+%282%29.jpg Sisters The Sisters gather with friends and family at Le An's house in 1998. Seated (left to right): Sen's son, Le An, Thanh, and Tuyen. Standing (left to right): longtime friend Tien, Lien An, Xuan, Oanh, a friend, Minh, Trang, and two more friends. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979634023-RNQZMTKX8UZTYLZHZ7GZ/9+-+IMG_0023+%282%29.jpg Sisters Lycée Chasseloup-Laubat, later renamed Le Quy Don, was Lycée Marie Curie’s counterpart for boys. Several Sisters attended upper-level classes here when they were students, and Lien An served as headmistress here from 1977 to 1986. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595547909673-M5C2STAUBNM1P5FWXT46/summer+2011+USADSCN3472_009.JPG Sisters Xuan (center) spends several years in Dalat after her husband passes. Here, she is standing among the flowers and plants in her lush, expansive garden, accompanied by her friend Tien, Tien's husband Phuoc, and the author (2011). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595628169417-3D7VQQMPQZEIZIN2ZPDG/IMG_0001+%282%29oanhtrang.jpg Sisters Oanh (right) and Trang pore over albums and other souvenirs at a reunion in 1989. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887041937-6YSFG7IV3LJF0DECW2QS/12+-+IMG_0033+%282%29.jpg Sisters Gathering on Jan. 9, 2000 to honor the 50th anniversary of the National Day of High School Students: Le An and Minh (left, in white ao dais), Xuan (orange ao dai), Thanh (purple ao dai), and Trang (black ao dai). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979634506-23Y99VJ1D2Q5PBX580YJ/10+-+IMG_0022+%282%29.jpg Sisters The Cercle Sportif was the premier sports club for colonial society elites, gaining notoriety for a large outdoor pool opened in 1933. Thanh recalls that a pool she used was called Neptune. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595628088668-64W794W48U8DVPRW0PVN/IMG_0001+%282%29.jpg Sisters Oanh passed away on May 1, 2009. This photo was given to family, friends, and social work colleagues at the service held in a building across the street from Notre Dame Cathedral in Ho Chi Minh City. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595887045209-ZZAAYV9V04MV7RSCG1NW/13+-+summer+2011+USADSCN3642_152+%282%29.JPG Sisters In 2011, the author takes a picture while attending a lunch with some of the Sisters. Left to right: Minh, Sen, Le An, Lien An, a friend, and Tuyen. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1595979638358-ZU373UWQ8NF1Z0JNJO8L/11+-+summer+2011+USADSCN3687_194+%283%29.JPG Sisters The Convent of Saint Paul, run by French and Vietnamese nuns, where Xuan schooled for four years in the late 1930s. Once a large complex, only parts of the campus remain. https://www.thesaigonsisters.com/author daily 0.75 2022-06-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1593900341383-GA971AFZ040RT6Y7KTDV/2013.12.19%2C+Kit+and+Angela+Wedding+%286b%29.jpg Author - Patricia D. Norland most recently worked as a public diplomacy officer within the US Department of State. Her work on The Saigon Sisters began during a 1988 visit to Vietnam, when she had the opportunity to meet the Sisters and conduct initial interviews. She has remained in touch with them ever since, and is honored to be able to help them share their inspiring stories with the world. Listen to Patricia Norland discuss her work: The Book in Brief Read a Cornell University Press interview of Patricia Norland: Q & A with the Author Read The Arlington Connection’s interview of Patricia Norland: ”Sisters” Leave Privilege To Join Resistance Read a blog post by Patricia Norland: Vietnamese Women, Privilege, and Persistence Listen to Patricia Norland’s podcast with Cris Alvarez: Military History Inside Out Listen to Patricia Norland’s podcast with Cornell University Press: 1869: The Cornell University Press Podcast, Episode 97 Read Patricia Norland’s letter in The Foreign Service Journal: Not Forgetting History (scroll to pg. 10) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1610574758228-1TWQKM4IQA744NV3Y75X/Screen+Shot+2021-01-13+at+12.07.05+PM.png Author https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1617341737804-VE8R94A7RPL2VH9XNM4M/Screen+Shot+2021-04-01+at+10.35.04+PM.png Author https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1d73a01b-ca50-4789-87e3-5ec077a177eb/Screen+Shot+2021-12-09+at+10.20.03+AM.png Author https://www.thesaigonsisters.com/praise daily 0.75 2025-05-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/0928a6ee-83c7-449f-b9c0-221fe9008de7/Screen+Shot+2022-03-19+at+5.23.17+PM.png Praise - choice OUTSTANDING ACADEMIC TITLE “The literature on the war in Vietnam includes hundreds of first-person sources by men on all sides in the conflict, but fewer than a dozen books about women are in print. Thus this collection of oral history interviews . . . is an important contribution. Norland focuses on a particular coterie of female peers educated at Lycée Marie Curie, the elite girls school in Saigon that served the daughters of Vietnamese who worked for the French. These privileged women were sisters in the cause of resistance who all engaged in resistance activities during the late 1940s and 1950s, some continuing throughout the entire wartime period. The individual stories are illuminating. While some of Norland’s subjects functioned under cover in society, others went into the field to assist the guerrillas in a number of ways. While many of these highly educated students of the arts provided morale-building by presenting plays, musical performances, and poetry readings for the troops, others performed manual labor. All paid heavy costs in their own lives. Norland’s interviews, conducted over a 30-year period (1988 to 2018), reveal reflection and introspection, poignancy and sadness, particularly regarding events transpiring after the ‘liberation’ of 1975 through their retirement years.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1612551281301-8QG3482X6IEVTQZXMGDP/Screen+Shot+2021-02-05+at+10.49.18+AM.png Praise - John Terzano, Cofounder of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for its International Campaign to Ban Landmines), Professor at the University of Dayton School of Law, and Cofounder of The Justice Project “The Sisters’ stories tell of a remarkable journey from lives of privilege to lives of hardship, sacrifice, pain and loss, all in the struggle for freedom and independence. While many Americans are familiar with the Vietnam Memorial Wall in DC and the thousands upon thousands of our stories of loss, sacrifice and heroism, few know the stories on the other side of the wall—the stories of the Vietnamese. This book, chronicling and bringing to light the lives of these extraordinary women, is both necessary and integral to truly understand America's war in Vietnam.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1593817669595-K8K1NLZ15IWZ0GGGC3PR/Firpo+Photo.jpg Praise - dr. christina e. firpo, Professor of Southeast Asian History at Cal Poly “The Saigon Sisters is a rare glimpse into the experience of young women during the Vietnamese Revolution, the Vietnam War, and communist Vietnam. Beautifully written, this book is a valuable contribution to women's history, as well as twentieth century Vietnamese history.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1593815545452-PFXIMPUG72UHPC6QBM0D/Burns+Photo.jpg Praise - Ken Burns, Award-Winning Filmmaker “Patricia Norland’s Saigon Sisters helps the reader understand why French recolonization, the hybrid radical Catholicism of Ngo Dinh Diem, and the American project of creating a new nation in South Vietnam were not going to work out as planned. In a crisp literary style, Ms. Norland tells the story of nine Vietnamese women, all classmates at Lycée Marie Curie (Elite High School), who join the Communist revolution. What holds them together throughout their lives is a shared understanding of Vietnamese society. The sisters intuitively know that something like Nguyen Du’s epic poem, The Tale of Kieu, represents the soul of Vietnam and cannot be easily appropriated by Marxist Leninism, France, Catholicism, or American Cold-War maneuvers. The Communists are clumsy in victory and their romanticism vanishes. None of the sisters is particularly privileged after 1975, despite deep revolutionary credentials. All had personal tragedies and hard times. What is profound about their story is that they don’t feel betrayed by the revolution. In a sense—what holds the sisters together—holds the nation together. Norland knows her material well. She has followed the lives of her subjects for over thirty years. The biographical sketches are introduced with very precise and accurate historical analysis. The nationalist puzzle is further understood by Norland’s remarkable portraits of supporting characters from all parts of Vietnamese elite politics. The most compelling is the quiet strength of the music professor Tran Van Khe and the wisdom of Belgian Catholic Priest Father Jacques, who was a mentor to both Ngo Dinh Diem and one of the sisters. This book is destined to be a classic.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596759983952-BPR5N70SKE5MIRIAW5L0/Screen+Shot+2020-08-06+at+5.26.00+PM.png Praise - christopher goscha, Historian and Author of Vietnam: A New History, Cundill History Prize Finalist “The friendship between the author and Nguyen Thi Oanh was such that Oanh introduced Norland to a ‘band of sisters’ with whom she had gone to high school in Saigon in the late 1940s before they joined the resistance war against the French in 1950. The ‘Saigon Sisters,’ as Norland calls them, form the basis of this remarkable book about the trials and tribulations of these women through two decades of war. What makes this book so important is that it takes us through the wars through the Sister’s eyes, or at least how they recalled it in conversations with the author between 1988 and 2017 as Vietnam opened to the non-communist world. We get a better idea of the choices that continued to confront each sister as the first Indochina War ended with an armistice at Geneva in 1954 and the (provisional) division of the country into two halves. Some sisters went north, some remained in the resistance in the south, re-christened the National Liberation Front in 1960. Each sister has a story to tell and each of them is well worth reading. There is a human touch to these souvenirs that will leave no reader indifferent.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596954316862-F4PWGI7FPDU6JRHBDV5B/Screen+Shot+2020-08-08+at+11.24.30+PM.png Praise - Murray Hiebert, Senior Associate at the Center for Strategic & International Studies and Author of Under Beijing’s Shadow: Southeast Asia’s China Challenge “Norland's remarkable book pulls back the veil on a little understood facet of the Vietnam war: young women from an elite French school driven to join the resistance first against France and then the United States. Through sensitive interviews she teases out the motives of city girls from well-heeled families heading to the jungles where they endured bombing raids, malaria, deprivation and the ache of leaving their children and parents behind.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/f8ac58fb-ec21-486d-b089-79abf888dae9/Karen+Gottschang+Turner Praise - karen gottschang turner, Professor Emerita at Holy Cross and Co-Author of Even the Women Must Fight: Memories of War from North Vietnam “This book is a gem because it offer a personal side, a women's story, of a war whose narratives have been dominated by men and by policy and military studies. Most of all, each of the women whose experiences are recorded here has a fascinating tale to tell.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/128e86a0-8b84-4ee5-80ff-c8131e5f4d2b/Sera+Koulabdara Praise - Sera Koulabdara, CEO, Legacies of War “The Saigon Sisters is a powerful and essential read for anyone seeking to understand how the U.S. war in Vietnam impacted civilians—especially the lives of young women who navigated those tumultuous years with courage, conviction, and hope. Patricia Norland offers us an intimate window into their experiences, decisions, and dreams for a better future for their country. As a Lao-American woman, I found their stories profoundly moving. So many of the experiences shared in this book echo the lives of my own parents and grandparents. The resilience, the struggle for identity, the enduring effects of colonialism and war—these are threads that continue to shape so many of our communities today. The Saigon Sisters is not just a book about the past; it’s a reflection on the forces that continue to define our present. It invites us to sit with uncomfortable truths while honoring the strength and complexity of the women who lived them. At Legacies of War, we deeply value the contribution this book makes to the broader historical narrative. We’ve proudly added it to our Legacies Library, and we wholeheartedly encourage everyone to read it with us.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1608511407936-D4NU6QHW2EBN4JOSOQKU/Screen+Shot+2020-12-20+at+4.43.06+PM.png Praise - Barry Healy, Reviewing The Saigon Sisters for the grassroots publication Green Left (full review available here) “To put it mildly, these stories are gripping. For most of French colonial rule, Vietnamese children were provided with second-class education. But after WWII the lycées were opened to the children of Vietnamese functionaries. Paradoxically, as Norland writes in the foreword, ‘the colonial classroom probably provided the best space for these privileged Vietnamese teenagers, boys and girls alike, to discover politics and develop a political activism that would push many of them into action’ . . . . As one of the women says, having studied the English, American and French revolutions in the Lycée Marie Curie: ‘We concluded we had to have our own revolution.’ . . . [F]or young women to defy their families, leave home and join the Viet Minh (later the Viet Cong) in the jungles or to work clandestinely for the resistance was as astonishing as it was courageous. . . . The privations they experienced for the cause were extraordinary. They demonstrated courage under bombs, dealing with deadly snakes and malaria in the jungle or under police surveillance in the city. One woman, needing to maintain her underground cover in Saigon, had to leave her new born daughter with her sister. She would occasionally organise a rendezvous so she could see her child, but the meetings had to be staged in such a manner that trailing cops would never recognise the connection between mother and child. The daughter would be left in a pram outside a shop while the aunt went inside. The mother would stroll along the street, stop and seemingly spontaneously, coo over the baby. Another mother, working in the North, had to leave her children with peasants in the countryside to escape Operation Rolling Thunder, the 1965-68 US bombing campaign. ‘On Sundays, I bicycled thirty or forty kilometres to see the children,’ she remembers. ‘I left at four in the morning, in the dark to avoid the bombing. Reaching their village around nine, I bathed them and cooked, and we ate together.’ She would get back to Hanoi about seven or eight at night. ‘All mothers did this; that’s what Sundays were for.’ . . . Taken together, [The Mountains Sing and The Saigon Sisters] offer inspiring stories about the strength of Vietnamese women and their powerful contribution to the struggle.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1618688129249-WQEI1RNJWNMKDMRDL7EY/Screen+Shot+2021-04-17+at+12.35.09+PM.png Praise - Shirley ruhe, Reviewing The Saigon Sisters for the local community newspaper The Arlington Connection (full review available here) “Patricia (Kit) Norland sat listening to a Vietnamese social worker in 1988 in Saigon as Oanh explained in beautiful English what it was like to suffer postwar trauma with poverty, unemployment, domestic abuse and street children. Norland was at that time working for a small non-profit organization dedicated to improving relations between their two countries in a time when there were no formal diplomatic relations. Norland returned to Vietnam a year later to interview Oanh and eight other women who had all attended the prestigious Lycée Marie Curie in Saigon and had left their lives of privilege to fight French occupation, each in her own way. Their stories are included in the recently-released book, Saigon Sisters. Norland explained the ‘Sisters’ lived in a cocoon of French society where the children were given French names, wore French skirts and had to salute the French flag. They didn’t even know what the Vietnamese flag looked like. As the women encountered the history of other countries during their studies at the Lycée, they realized they didn’t know the history of their own country and needed their own revolution. They wanted a more egalitarian society. Some took off their silk garments, donned black pajamas, grabbed their knapsacks packed with sandwiches by their mothers and headed across the street to the bus stop to join the revolution in the jungle. . . . Norland was fascinated by how these women who had attended the Lycée, the gold standard of education, and had the whole world at their feet could choose the revolution. These were girls who were expected to have few ideas, to care for the home. Reading and writing was enough. They were taught to smile, not to laugh; and to walk, not to drive. They wanted to live more; they wanted to be free. . . . Norland says part of the background surrounding what happened lies in the history of Vietnam fighting off invaders. In addition, the Sisters were a generation at the crossroads on the hinge of feudalism. Norland adds that you can’t underestimate the role of culture itself where music and literature are extremely powerful and inspired people to leave the classroom and rise up against colonialism. Listening to the ballads of Tuyen’s brother Luu Huu Phuoc, ‘Who would not have tears in their eyes?’ . . . . [The Saigon Sisters] is a book about politics and learning the lessons of the past as they apply to your own country’s struggles, and it is a story about how nine women broke through the barriers of tradition to fight for a new life.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1623188445085-WZOL7RNGWKH299UDZ3H8/Screen+Shot+2021-06-08+at+2.40.22+PM.png Praise - Phuong phan, Reviewing The Saigon Sisters for the Asian Review of Books (full review available here) “Norland first came to Vietnam in 1988 as a member of the US diplomatic corps aiming to build up diplomatic relations between the former enemies. She became friends with the women who would ultimately serve as her case studies, gaining their trust and recording their stories one by one over the years. The book’s strength derives from her evident ability to listen and to make space for her case studies to speak. She recedes into the background: there is no mention of her own experiences in and with Vietnam, or her impressions of the women she depicted. She gives them a platform to talk directly to the reader, and lets the reader take her place as a careful listener, thereby revealing the women’s double and even multiple lives, full of contradiction and inner conflicts caused by the complexity and long duration of the war years. From the perspective of these women, this was not just a hot war between two nations during the Cold War but also a civil war which tore apart friendships forged as classmates, stealing their youth, breaking families up through separation and death and ultimately defining both their lives and fates. The author also collected and included letters between these women and their friends, husbands and children, providing yet more insights into their characters and lives as women and mothers. . . . Some of them have passed away in the last few years while a few remain. One noted that their generation faced a ‘crossroads offering three choices: rebel against foreign domination, collaborate, or leave their beloved country.’ Another said that ‘We worked toward the same goal. We all want to serve this country. It is the flame that still burns.’ There may have been two sides in the War, but—despite the widespread pain and suffering of women throughout the country—only one people: what matters is the common pain and suffering for, as Thanh noted, ‘we are, after all, human beings.’ The Saigon Sisters is a substantial collection of thoughts, memories, moments of pain and joy in individual lives. Although their lives took different paths, these women shared the same spirit, shaped by the unquestioned love for their country and people. Their remarkable stories shift our focus of the war, and contribute enormously to a “herstory” of the wars in Vietnam.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1625870541153-002TOR0CMROVZNJYJILG/Screen+Shot+2021-07-09+at+3.40.54+PM.png Praise - ANH THU, Reviewing The Saigon Sisters for Fulbright University Vietnam’s website (full review available here) “[A] book of our times. While global challenges are creating a more and more disruptive and polarized world, [The Saigon Sisters] sends a vital message to the young generation about respect to others, giving back to the society, and selfless dedication.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/836f0a0f-d654-4186-bc21-9e773fd057a7/Screen+Shot+2022-06-23+at+4.20.25+PM.png Praise - nathaniel l. moir, Reviewing The Saigon Sisters for Pacific Affairs (full review available here) “In Vietnamese studies and books analyzing the wars for Indochina in the twentieth century, the amplification of women’s roles, perspectives, and voices is a salutary trend. Patricia D. Norland, a public diplomacy officer and former member of the non-profit organization, the Indochina Project, positively contributes to this development. In this informative collection of oral histories, nine women provided Norland with their personal stories and comprehensive thoughts . . . . Through separate and illuminating chapters, each of the different sisters recounts her political evolution after January 1950 . . . . The book is divided chronologically into two sections, with nine well-organized chapters each. Part 1 begins with the sisters’ descriptions of their personal and political lives at Lycée Marie Curie up until the time of the Geneva Accords in 1954. The second half of the book, which covers the sisters’ accounts from 1954 to 2017, demonstrates how revolution in Vietnam was political but also social and personal. New perspectives on familial obligations are woven into these women’s stories and they explain how they managed relationships in more modern ways as Confucianism receded and did not dominate their lives. Separate chapters, which focus on the individual accounts of the women Norland interviewed, are augmented by vibrant recollections of others connected with the women. In one case, one of the sisters, Xuan, and her husband Lau, worked together to publish the Saigon Daily News, which had a circulation of near 20,000 in Vietnam and abroad. . . . Lau’s commentary contextualizes his wife’s contributions while also demonstrating how couples and families managed to promote resistance to the Republic of Vietnam through diverse means. Such accounts add significant colour to Norland’s overall collection. A highlight in the same account includes how Lau mentioned meeting American newsman Walter Cronkite, who asked Lau, ‘How can the Viet Cong vanquish the Americans who are a thousand times better equipped than the French had been against the Viet Minh?’ To which Lau replied, ‘the Vietcong were 1,001 times better organized than the Viet Minh had been against the French.’ Such smart and evidently accurate remarks and analysis are common throughout this relatively compact and edifying book. The result one gains from reading this collection of oral histories is thus multi-dimensional and while focused on women, it rises above gender to evaluate the humanity these women promoted during a series of horrific wars between 1945 and 1975. This quality transcends gendered discussions in important ways, but the unique and remarkable stories these women share should encourage historians to include the book in graduate and advanced undergraduate forums. The book is authored, in many respects and as Norland seems to suggest, by the ‘Saigon Sisters’ themselves. However, the motivation, organization, and remarkable skill Norland brings to bear in producing this outstanding collection of revelatory views on revolution in Indochina demonstrates how valuable oral history can be and how it adds remarkable dimensions to other historical accounts. Also notable is how Norland articulates Vietnamese female-authored historiography in her succinct preface . . . . Instructors seeking to show students the rich and growing amount of scholarship authored by women will benefit from how Norland frames this book in the field. It is quite easy, and motivating as well, to imagine a course on Vietnamese history after World War II that includes only work by women and with The Saigon Sisters as a pivotal work connecting them all. As a way of closing, one of the ‘sisters,’ Thanh, centred her thoughts on the powerful commonality that grounded her friends’ affinities even though they took different paths: ‘We found that, wherever we ended up, we all worked toward the same goal. We all wanted to serve the country. That bond ties us together.’ As Norland’s powerful oral-history recounting of the lives of this ‘band of sisters’ demonstrates, friendship and independence required vigilance but endured despite decades of war.” https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/52d951c9-df98-43e3-a2c5-53697575187c/Screen+Shot+2022-07-15+at+1.13.35+PM.png Praise - Talya Zax, Reviewing The Saigon Sisters for The Atlantic in an essay on “Biographies of Groups Who Changed the World” (full essay available here) “To read a good group biography is to come out with a different level of appreciation for the ways, trivial and tremendous, that humans influence one another. . . . Here are nine animating, searching, and interrogative titles with which to start. . . . [The Saigon Sisters] tells the stories of nine [Vietnamese women] who, after spending their childhoods secretly dreaming of Vietnamese independence, found surprising ways into the resistance. [The book] also tells how, after the end of the Vietnam War, they came to reconnect. In the end, they found, the privileges they experienced as children helped teach them the importance of the fight they would come to join. Their small group became its own source of revolutionary ferment: The sense of patriotism felt by each fueled the others, and set them on their extraordinarily courageous paths.” https://www.thesaigonsisters.com/supporting-characters daily 0.75 2020-08-03 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596052484832-VSNC4I8YK7SNITKGGD0N/4+-+Fig.+2.jpg Supporting Characters Mme Lanh at Lycée Marie Curie in 1948. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596054953075-JDCZERQI8T5IAGM9A027/6+-+IMG_0028+%282%29.jpg Supporting Characters Le Minh with (left to right) his wife Le An, Trang, and Thanh (c. 1990). The husbands of the Saigon Sisters supported their friendships and participated in many of the group's gatherings. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596051430167-EJWFEKBVG5TF5S5CS4C5/1+-+IMG_0026+%282%29.jpg Supporting Characters Tran Van Khe plays the dan tranh in an American family's home, after becoming friends with the author while in the United States on a scholarship in 1988. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596053697515-SS0W0XXRTZ9YMA22ALWH/Ourgaud.jpg Supporting Characters Mme Ourgaud at Lycée Marie Curie in 1948, in a photograph provided to the author by Thanh. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596055095286-XQO1X0TW3MTF1FI1MHT2/7+-+IMG_0021+%282%29.jpg Supporting Characters Lau and Xuan, considered "the" love story among the Sisters, at their home in Ho Chi Minh City in 1990. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596055440617-TQ247GQL2CFLF083D148/9+-+IMG_0033+%282%29.jpg Supporting Characters Oanh (left) sits next to Mme Me at her home, joined by two social work colleagues (1990). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596055774639-L1HQB7UNYW9CEI56YWJ0/11+-+IMG_0026+%283%29.jpg Supporting Characters Father Jacques (right) with Ngo Dinh Diem in 1955. Over time, Father Jacques would lose confidence in Diem as a leader of South Vietnam. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596476188663-SD7JRAYWQEZYCEJUAN9H/Mlle+Lanh.jpg Supporting Characters The Lycée Marie Curie July 9, 1949 “Distribution Solennelle des Prix” listing Mlle Lanh, with her full name, as teacher of Vietnamese. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596051453727-I7NR2J8KA4WAHEN2G59X/2+-+summer+2011+USADSCN3693_200+%282%29.JPG Supporting Characters After teaching in France for many years, Tran Van Khe returns to Ho Chi Minh City and establishes a museum in his home filled with Vietnamese musical instruments. He also writes his autobiography, and is photographed here signing Patricia Norland's copy (June 20, 2012). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596051467715-5QTT6NTB0MJY06UWCJW1/3+-+summer+2011+USADSCN3702_209+%283%29.JPG Supporting Characters Tran Van Khe at his home/museum in 2012. He passed away in 2015. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596052479813-R7TPZI20DMFZKFJKDT3H/5+-+IMG_0008+%284%29.jpg Supporting Characters Mlle Lanh on one of the occasions when she would escape the heat of Saigon with a visit to Cap Saint-Jacques (now Vũng Tàu). c. 1948. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596053958543-M2YYXDVGHRULO7NBVEDC/IMG_0083.jpg Supporting Characters Mme Ourgaud (center) participating in a Jan. 1950 demonstration with students including Trang (right) and Tuyen (fourth from left). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596055196823-X7KOTMP209TGGSHZPBRN/8+-+IMG_0038+%284%29.jpg Supporting Characters Lau (right) at a restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City in 1990, accompanied by (right to left) Mlle Lanh, Oanh, and Lien An. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596055439957-QPJ5IW0QPCGTX90NHE7E/10+-+IMG_0016+%283%29.jpg Supporting Characters Mme Me and her son at home in Ho Chi Minh City in 1990. On the wall behind them are photographs of three of Mme Me's sons, who died in December 1967, February 1968, and March 1968. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596055770524-7DH8VEDCBQQVYK07IZZH/12+-+IMG_0003+%282%29.jpg Supporting Characters The author and Father Jacques at his retirement home in Waterloo, Belgium in 1992. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/1596054029583-AUDS0I4L5IXRMBZLPVQ9/IMG_0010.jpg Supporting Characters Mme Ourgaud (back, center) with students including Le An (front, far right), Sen (front, second from right), and Trang (front left, in dark skirt), c. 1948. https://www.thesaigonsisters.com/update daily 0.75 2023-02-14 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/9797b5f0-97ca-48b7-807e-233abe2e529e/Minhpiano.jpg Update Minh serenades visitors on the piano. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/de571c42-94fa-4a7a-aad5-e5b74a3652b9/Minhaccordion.jpg Update Minh, with her accordion, launches into “Len Dang,” March of the Students, which rallied the Sisters to the streets in the 1940s. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/df50ce5f-93a3-4de6-b14a-0ad1773993f7/ReunionTuyenTien.jpg Update An emotional reunion between Tien (left) and Tuyen, 91, who lives with her son and family. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/8133033d-0b22-4410-9a9a-082550aaaa08/Oanhfriends.jpg Update Kit Norland meets with former colleagues and students of Oanh, the doyenne of social work in Vietnam. Indefatigable like Oanh, her friends are promoting social work in ways that include teaching, training, publishing, and counseling. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/4933077d-4b15-4340-8988-7a7dad0b6939/Opera.jpg Update The majestic French-built Opera House in the heart of Ho Chi Minh City. As young girls in the 1940s, the Saigon Sisters would dash up and down the aisles of the Opera House while subversive patriotic songs and plays were performed. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/23542941-c843-49a1-8a36-cc92b142dd64/Catinatpolicestation.jpg Update Once the French police station of the dreaded Surete Generale, where Sisters were held after a protest march in 1950; now a government office. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/7db31edf-45a3-474e-9b0a-7f06a95a18b1/LeQuyDon.jpg Update Le Quy Don, formerly Lycee Chasseloup-Laubat, the school where Lien An was Principal. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/7305d3bc-f33d-458a-8170-be1353c92128/LyceeMarieCurie.jpg Update Lycee Marie Curie, the one school that the Socialist Republic of Vietnam did not rename after 1975. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/8f9149ec-d939-4c71-b636-5d9950ea7023/MinEducationFrench.jpg Update The old French ministry of education building, now a museum. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5efa502acba64351c102edfa/95ba70cb-31c0-4b23-a1b7-c744ffe2c071/TranVanOn.jpg Update Across the street from the old French ministry of education building, a new statue honoring Tran Van On, who had joined students to protest in front of the ministry and was shot by French police. His death on January 9, 1950, galvanized students; it was a spark that burned hot and helped propel the Saigon Sisters to join the resistance and not look back.