Bye, Bye Miss American Pie: Wives of American servicemen in Southeast Asia, 1961--1975

Memories of women who were married to American servicemen during their husbands' tours of duty in the Vietnam War (1961--1975) offer a new perspective on this turbulent era on the home front as well as evidence of wives' contributions to change within the American military institution. Their history expands and complicates the history of 1960s activism and questions feminist theorists who assumed that military wives were passive and isolated from the civilian world. Ninety-eight interviews and written material from fifty Vietnam war wives provide insight into the Cold War military community in the 1950s and early 1960s and into the disruptions brought to the Armed Forces by an influx of young men and their wives between the mid-1960s and the 1970s.; The U.S. Armed Forces was overwhelmed by a marriage boom at the same time the military became embroiled in the Cold War mission against world communism. A set of benefits, expectations and demands was devised to protect defense funding and control the behavior of wives and families so they would not divert their men from their military duties. Wives' volunteer service was required to support and supplement the benefits package. Cold War wives employed survival strategies that included supportive communities of wives. Younger Vietnam wives helped disrupt the military community in the turmoil of the Vietnam War. Young couples left military life en masse as soon as possible, leaving the Armed Forces with a recruiting, marketing and manpower crisis in the 1970s all volunteer force. Vietnam wives who remained as career spouses often refused to carry on volunteer work in favor of their own pursuits, forcing defense policymakers to devise family services and recognize wives' right to their own career. In 1969, one community of both Cold War and Vietnam wives broke precedent, entered the political arena and organized as the National League of Families of Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia to advocate for their husbands and support the military establishment. The League gave the American silent majority a cause with which to oppose the antiwar movement. In addition, they created an initiative for a family-friendly Armed Forces in the post war period, significantly improving Department of Defense family policy.