Double Veterans: An Analysis on Multiple Perpetrator Rape During the Vietnam War
Date
2025
Authors
Cunningham, Coco
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University Of Victoria
Abstract
Acts of sexual violence during the Vietnam War often remain overlooked as individual issues or being confined to the 1968 My Lai Massacre. However, qualitative research suggests that acts of sexual violence were frequent during the war and might have played a larger role than previously conceived. My project aims to understand the role that acts of sexual violence, such as multiple perpetrator rape, played during the conflict. Through critical discourse analysis alongside feminist historiography, I have conducted research on whether or not these acts of multiple perpetrator rape were individualistic issues purely for sexual objectives, or if they played a larger, strategic role during the war, particularly in building cohesion among troops. There remains a lack of acknowledgment of the presence of strategic rape during the war, which is what this thesis intends to address.
Description
Keywords
multiple perpetrator rape, Vietnam War, Vietnam, historiography, wartime rape