美国国家公共电台 NPR 'Hanoi Hannah,' Whose Broadcasts Taunted And Entertained American GIs, Dies

'Hanoi Hannah,' Whose Broadcasts Taunted 1 And Entertained American GIs, Dies 

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All right, now here's a voice that many American troops came to know in Vietnam.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRINH THI NGO: How are you, GI Joe?

GREENE: The broadcaster, who the troops nicknamed Hanoi Hannah, died last Friday at 87 years old in Ho Chi Minh City. NPR's Anthony Kuhn has her story.

ANTHONY KUHN, BYLINE 3: Trinh Thi Ngo broadcast under the pseudonym 4 Thu Huong, or Autumn Fragrance 5. Pictures of her show a petite woman with curly hair and a broad smile.

At the height of the war, the Voice of Vietnam aired three 30-minute segments of hers a day. The North Vietnamese Defense 6 Ministry's propaganda department wrote her scripts. Their aim was to degrade U.S. troops' will to fight.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRINH: Defect, GI. It is a very good idea to leave a sinking ship. You know you cannot win this war.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WE GOTTA GET OUT OF THIS PLACE")

THE ANIMALS: (Singing) Girl, there's a better life for me and you.

KUHN: Trinh played rock tunes 7 such as "We Gotta Get Out Of This Place" by The Animals. She read the names and hometowns of GIs killed in action taken from the Stars and Stripes newspaper. She broadcast messages from U.S. anti-war activists 8, including Jane Fonda. She also highlighted economic and racial inequality in the U.S. and the Detroit riots of 1967.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRINH: Isn't clear that the war-makers are gambling 9 with your lives while pocketing huge profit?

KUHN: She did not talk about the horrible losses suffered by North Vietnam. U.S. troops generally dismissed her broadcast, but she knew that they at least listened to her. She said she found this out years later by watching Robin 10 Williams in the movie "Good Morning, Vietnam."

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "GOOD MORNING, VIETNAM ")

ROBIN WILLIAMS: (As Adrian Cronauer) Oh, my God. It's the wicked witch of the north. It's Hanoi Hannah.

KUHN: Trinh was born into a wealthy Vietnamese family in Hanoi in 1931. She studied English and loved Hollywood movies, especially "Gone With The Wind." In a 1992 interview with C-SPAN, she said she believed her own broadcasts.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

TRINH: Our program served for a cause, so we believed in that cause. So we continued to broadcast.

KUHN: After the war, Trinh moved to Ho Chi Minh City with her husband. She worked in television until her retirement 11 in 1987. She says she never joined the Vietnamese communist party and quickly forgot any anger she had felt against Americans.

Anthony Kuhn, NPR News, Beijing.