How are you GI 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. (VOV, 16 June 1967)

Born in 1931 as Trinh Thi Ngo and raised in North Vietnam, the daughter of a factory owner. With a pampered background she had an opportunity to learn French and English and become familiar with Western culture. When war with the Republic of Vietnam became likely in 1955 Trinh Thi Ngo joined the Voice of Vietnam, and ten years later as American forces streamed in her language skills became an invaluable propaganda tool.

Previously North Vietnamese radio stations broadcast programming that would fall flat to any Westerner, like stories about heroic tractor factory girls. The station then chose to broadcast popular music purchased off progressive minded anti-war activists who had visited Hanoi, intersperced with Trinh Thi Ngo's commentaries and news.

Despite her somewhat robotic intonation and unnatural sounding use of hip English slang, her soft feminine voice was welcomed by many soldiers who could pick up Voice of Vietnam in the field.

Many soldiers had doubts about the legitimacy of the Vietnam War or how the war was really progressing. They were interested in news that failed to get into the Stars and Stripes newspaper, like the riots in Detroit. However her role was also to demoralise the American forces, such as by reading out the names of soldiers who had died, and encourage soldiers to frag their superior officers.

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