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'Hanoi Hannah,' Whose Broadcasts Taunted And Entertained American Gls, Dies

'Hanoi Hannah,' Whose Broadcasts Taunted And Entertained American Gls, Dies

One of North Vietnam’s most recognizable wartime voices fell silent last Friday, when former radio broadcaster Trinh Thi Ngo, dubbed “Hanoi Hannah” by American service members, died.

Her former employer, the government-run Voice of Vietnam, reported the news on its website Sunday. The radio service says Trinh was 87 when she died, though there are conflicting reports about the year of her birth.

Trinh broadcast under the pseudonym Thu Huong, or Autumn Fragrance. At the height of the war the Voice of Vietnam aired three 30-minute segments of hers a day.

The North Vietnamese Defense Ministry’s propaganda department wrote her scripts, she told the Voice of Vietnam. Their aim was to degrade U.S. troops’ will to fight, and convince them that their cause was unjust.

“Defect, GI. It is a very good idea to leave a sinking ship,” she advised her U.S. listeners in one broadcast. “You know you cannot win this war.”

Don North, a former ABC News reporter, remembers that “members of the special forces A-team would sit around at night and tune in around 10 o’clock to her broadcasts” in the Central Highlands of Vietnam in 1965.

“They would listen very carefully,” he adds, “you know, break out the beers and listen to Hanoi Hannah.”

North says that Trinh’s broadcasts had a “minimal” effect on her listeners. Part of this, he says, was because the signal strength of her broadcasts was too weak to be widely heard across the country. Because she broadcast in English, she was better known to Americans than Vietnamese.

Nor did most GIs find her message credible, North says.

“As she said herself, when she used interviews or tape sent to her from anti-Vietnam war people in the States, she thought they were more effective than her own broadcasts,” he says. Among the anti-war activists broadcast by Trinh was actress Jane Fonda.

Trinh received coaching in her trade from Australian journalist Wilfred Burchett, known for his sympathy for the North’s cause.

As part of North Vietnam’s efforts to demoralize U.S. troops, Trinh read the names and hometowns of GIs killed in action, taken from Stars and Stripes.

To reinforce her message, Trinh played anti-war folk tunes such as Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All The Flowers Gone?” and rock songs such as “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place,” by The Animals.

She also highlighted economic and racial inequalities in the U.S., and the Detroit riots of 1967.

“Isn’t it clear that the war makers are gambling with your lives, while pocketing huge profits?” she asked U.S. troops that summer. Trinh did not talk about U.S. victories or the horrible losses suffered by North Vietnam.

Trinh was born into a prosperous family in Hanoi, which was then under French colonial rule.

She studied English and loved Hollywood movies, especially Gone With The Wind. She volunteered to join the Voice of Vietnam in 1955.

“Our program served for a cause, so we believed in that cause,” Trinh told C-SPAN in a 1992 interview. “So we continued to broadcast.”

“She struck me mainly as an intellectual,” says North, who interviewed Trinh in 1976. “Certainly didn’t remind me of a strident propagandist at all.”

After the war Trinh moved to Ho Chi Minh City with her husband, where she worked in television until her retirement roughly a decade later. Her son left Vietnam and moved to the U.S., she told C-SPAN.

Trinh says she never joined the Vietnamese Communist Party, and quickly forgot any anger she had felt against Americans.

Article originally published: npr

 

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Comments

Civil War Marine - June 20, 2020

The V.C. never defeated us on the battlefield, rather the war was lost in Washington because of idiotic politics! sadly we fought another land war in Asia which was just as vicious and nasty as Vietnam! yet Washington never learns! the Philippine Insurrection lasted from 1898-1906 and in that conflict women children and the elderly were killed, whole villages erased and it was kill or be killed because the insurgents took no prisoners. sadly one Marine officer was court martialed for shooting a ten year old, yet in spite of all this the Corps managed to do it’s duty and kept itself accountable for it’s actions through out the conflict. war by it’s nature is terrible yet the Marines never lost their humanity or compassion. I think of general smedly butler who did not agree always with our foreign policy yet never stopped being a Marine or loving our country, his is an example we should always remember and emulate. semper fi do or die!

Ray H Phipps - June 20, 2020

Same here Bruce can’t stand the bitch.

Jerry D. - June 20, 2020

The new format sucks swamp water through a flavor straw. It’s awful. ALSO, THERE IS A RUMOR GOING AROUND THAT DON (SGT GRIT) BAILED AND SOLD THIS LASH-UP TO A DOGGIE. I DON’T KNOW IF THAT IS TRUE OR NOT BUT WOULD APPRECIATE SOME FEEDBACK ON THAT CLAIM.

GySgt G.R. Archuleta - June 20, 2020

I was never a D.I. at P.I. Retired in 1975. Semper Fi!

Ed Amos - June 20, 2020

Ironic, isn’t it? That her son moved to the U.S. Never really listened to her. AFRTS or “AFARTS” as we called it was out station of choice. Arrived in DaNang May ’65. Turned 18 in July in Chu Lai the same year, drinking Carling Black Label and Ballatines in a sand floor bar with barrels of sand by the front door “Clear Weapons Before Entering”. Twenty-two months in and out before leaving in May ’69. Back again in ’75 for the evac from DaNang to Saigon.

Silky - June 20, 2020

This new format sucks. Expect Hanoi Jane grave pissing line to be quite long. Agree that Sgt. Grit has gone down hill as prices for gear gone way way up.

R Dickerson - June 20, 2020

I am hoping to live long enough to piss on her grave.

jeb - June 20, 2020

Old Corps – Old Format.

Paul Kerwin RVN 1965-66 - June 20, 2020

I always had my suspicions that “Hanoi Hannah” and Jane Fonda were one and the same. Has anyone in the Hollywood area completed a health and welfare check on Fonda?

Dave Busby - June 20, 2020

I have to agree with the others wanting the old format back. This new one is NOT an improvement. Change is not always for the better. Remember “New” Coke?

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