A Five Part Series from TTBOOK!

Public Radio International

Wisconsin Public Radio

WOMEN IN WAR

Program 07-10-28-A

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On the morning of June 22, 1970, a young North Vietnamese doctor was killed with a single bullet to the head by US soldiers. Among her possessions were a radio, bottles of Novocain, and a diary. In this hour of To The Best Of Our Knowledge, the story of the diary and the US Army Intelligence Officer who defied orders to burn the diary and instead saved it.

SEGMENT 1:

Carolin Emcke is a war correspondent and the author of "Echoes of Violence: Letters from a War Reporter." She tells Steve Paulson that what war survivors ask for most often is the chance to tell her their stories. Also, Nicole Smith pilots an Army Apache AH 64 attack helicopter. She is the only African American female to do so. Lt. Smith talks with Anne Strainchamps about the differences between men and women in combat

SEGMENT 2:

Hilla Medalia made a documentary for HBO called "To Die in Jerusalem." It's about a Palestinian suicide bomber and one of her victims. Steve Paulson talks with Medalia about the making of the film and the confrontation between the bomber's and her victim's mothers. Both had agendas and no one was listening to the other side. And we hear clips from the film. Also, Elizabeth Samet teaches literature to future Army officers at West Point. She tells Jim Fleming why her class reads Wilfred Owen and Homer, and what lessons they draw from the poetry. Samet is the author of "Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature through Peace and War at West Point."

SEGMENT 3:

In 1969, Frederic Whitehurst was in Viet Nam, burning captured enemy documents. He tells Anne Strainchamps that he saved the diary of a young woman, and many years later returned it to her mother. The diary has been published now as a book called "Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram." Whitehurst tells Anne that Vietnamese family has become his own, and we hear excerpts from the diary.

CD copies are available at 1-800-747-7444. Ask for program number 07-10-28-A.

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Books:

Carolin Emcke, Echoes of Violence: Letters From a War Reporter (Princeton)
Elizabeth Samet, Soldier’s Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point (FSG)
Dang Thuy Tram, Last Night I Dreamed of Peace: The Diary of Dang Thuy Tram Translated by Andrew X. Pham ( Harmony Books)

Websites:

• To read all of Wilfred Owen’s poem “Insensibility”:
  http://users.fulladsl.be/spb1667/cultural/owen/insensibility.html
• For more information and for when to watch “To Die in Jerusalem” on HBO:
  http://www.hbo.com/docs/programs/todieinjerusalem/index.html
• For more information on First. Lt. Nicole Smith:
  http://www.ausa.org/pdfdocs/ArmyMag/May07/avallone.pdf
• More on the diary of Dang Thuy Tram:
  http://www.randomhouse.com/crown/thuytram/index.html

Music:

• “Reckoner” and “Nude” and “Weird Fished” and “All I Need” and “House Of Cards” all off of Radiohead’s Inrainbows that was band-released from their website.

• “The Beautiful Tay Thi” and “The Wind Blows and Bends the Weeping Willow” both off of the CD “Viet Nam: A Musical Anthology of the Orient” which is part of the UNESCO Collection.

Distribution dates: week of 10/28/2007 - hour 1

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Questions and comments can be addressed to: flemingj@wpr.org

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