S2E1: Go-Go Dancing with Bombs - Australian Vietnam War Entertainers

Women of War

Sequins, go-go boots, fringe bikinis, evening gowns...bombs? Welcome to Season 2 of Women of War where we continue the discussion of the war entertainer, this time in the humidity and red dust of Vietnam. In the midst of the horrors of war, these mythologised women offered soldiers’ a fantasy and an escape from the frontline for an hour or two. Join Hannah and Nicola as they learn what life was like for the women beneath the sequins and bop along to some fun tunes.

This episode contains references to murder, sexual assault, forced sex work and trafficking, racism and colonialism. It also contains some rude language. It may not be suitable for all listeners.

Women of War is written and recorded on Wurundjeri Land. We pay our respect to Elders past and present, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander listeners. Sovereignty was never ceded.

All efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of the information presented in this podcast however with the nature of historical research, there may be mistakes or inconsistencies.

An incredible thank you to Lorrae Desmond for her permission to use recordings of her tour rehearsals in this episode and a thank you to her good friend Gael Ballantyne for acting as our correspondent with Ms Desmond. We would also like to thank the National Film and Sound Archive and Angus Johnstone for providing us a copy of the recording itself.

Audio clips from:

Lorrae Desmond, Lorrae Desmond: Rehearsal Sessions for Tour of Vietnam, Sound Recording, Unpublished, 1965, 390710, National Film and Sound Archive.

David Reginald Combe, Lorrae Desmond Concert Party DPR/TV/1174, 16mm/b&w/sound (Phuoc Tuy Province, Nui Dat, Vietnam, 19 September 1969), https://www.awm.gov.au/collection/C273758.

Byron Charles Campbell, 7th Government Concert Party to Vietnam DPR/TV/636, 16mm/b&w/sound and silent (Vietnam: Phuoc Tuy Province, Nui Dat, 16 June 1967), www.awm.gov.au/collection/C256036.

ABC News, Australian Government’s Decision to Send Troops to Vietnam, videorecording/b&w/sound, 30 April 1965, https://abcspla.sh/m/153694.

Key resources used:

Siobhan McHugh, Minefields and Miniskirts: Australian Women and the Vietnam War (Sydney: Doubleday, 1993).

Ann-Mari Jordens, ‘Not “Apocalypse Now”: Government-Sponsored Australian Entertainers in Vietnam 1965-71’, Labour History, no. 58 (1990): 65–75, https://doi.org/10.2307/27508983.

Lynne McCormack, ‘Civilian Women at War: Psychological Impact Decades After the Vietnam War’, Journal of Loss and Trauma 14, no. 6 (2009): 447–58, https://doi.org/10.1080/15325020902925209.

John Murphy, A Harvest of Fear: A History of Australia’s Vietnam War (Sydney: Allen & Unwin, 1993).

Mitchell K Hall, The Vietnam War, (New York, NY: Routledge, 2018).

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