Gentle Warriors, Gunslingers, and Girls Next Door: Gender and the Vietnam War

Authors

Heather Marie Stur, University of Southern MississippiFollow

Document Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

1-1-2017

Department

History

School

Humanities

Abstract

The Vietnam War was the starting point for significant transformation in US military culture and the image of the armed services. The scholarship on gender and the Vietnam War constitutes a vibrant and expanding subfield of military and US history that intersects with the histories of women, gender, sexuality, diplomacy, and American culture. Many scholars have identified John Wayne as the most visible symbol of the benevolent gunslinger or gentle warrior in Cold War American popular culture, as his films offered Americans a metaphor for US engagement with the world. Women's rights activists expressed the discontent and isolation that May, Douglas, and Breines described in the women of 1950s and early 1960s suburbia. Red Cross donut dollies, WACs, and women Army nurses experienced the tension between their personal and professional advancement through military service in Vietnam and the traditionally feminine image they were meant to uphold- angels, girls next door, a touch of home.

Publication Title

The Routledge History of Gender, War, and the U.S. Military

First Page

116

Last Page

130

Recommended Citation

Stur, H. (2017). Gentle Warriors, Gunslingers, and Girls Next Door: Gender and the Vietnam War. The Routledge History of Gender, War, and the U.S. Military, 116-130.
Available at: https://aquila.usm.edu/fac_pubs/19338