A U.S. military convoy in Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Photo by Donn A. Starry / U.S. Army
Hanoi Hannah who taunted American GI’s dies
By Ernestine Chasing Hawk Native Sun News Today Editor
nativesunnews.today RAPID CITY –– Hearing the name Hanoi Hanna prompted an irate response from Lloyd Goings, an Oglala Lakota, who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam Era. Goings, who was stationed in Vietnam from 1967 to 1968, recalls Hanoi Hanna taunting American troops over North Vietnam radio, “We used to listen to her and she would say, ‘Good morning GI Joe. Why you come so far from home to die for no good reason?’ ‘Your wife is back home, your buddy is taking advantage of her,’ and ‘Black GI’s, why you die for white politicians.’” Hannah whose real name was Trinh Thi Ngo’s died on Sept. 30 at the age of 87. Dennis Seely, a Vietnam Veteran from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate who served in Vietnam in 1968 also remembers Hanoi Hanna, “She knew where our units were at A Shau Valley Hamburger Hill. I never knew what she looked like and now I know. “ She would announce in almost perfect English, “Why do you fight for a country that is going to treat you bad when you get home,” Seely recalls. “In Vietnam, she hurt us a lot.” Veteran war correspondent Don North writes, “Her name was Trinh Thi Ngo. She called herself Thu Houng – the fragrance of Autumn. We called her Hanoi Hannah. Her job was to chill and frighten, not to charm and seduce. Her English was almost impeccable and as North Vietnam’s premier propagandist she tried to convince American G.I.’s that the war was immoral and that they should lay down their arms and go home." Following are excerpts taken from various sources that recall the voice of Hanoi Hannah: “How are you G.I. Joe? It seems to me that most of you are poorly informed about the going of the war, to say nothing about a correct explanation of your presence over here. Nothing is more confused than to be ordered into a war to die or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what’s going on.” June 1967. Hanoi Hannah: “American G.I.’s don’t fight this unjust, immoral and illegal war of Johnson’s. Get out of Vietnam now while you’re still alive. This is the Voice of Vietnam. Now here’s Connie Francis singing “I almost lost my mind.” August. 1967. Hanoi Hanna: “We gotta get out of this place, if it’s the last thing we ever do. We gotta get out of this place, surely there’s a better place for me and you. The Animals. Now for the war news. American casualties in Vietnam. Army Corporal Larry J. Samples, Canada, Alabama … Staff Sergeant Charles R. Miller, Tucson, Arizona … Sergeant Frank Hererra, Coolidge, Arizona.” Hanoi Hannah, Sept. 15, 1965.
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