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Hanoi Hannah

Trịnh Thị Ngọ, also known as Hanoi Hannah, is a Vietnamese radio personality best known for her work during the Vietnam war, when she made English-language propaganda broadcasts for North Vietnam directed at US troops.

Ngọ was born in Hanoi in 1931 in a rich factory owner's family. She recalls that she grew eager to learn English because of her desire to watch her favorite films such as Gone with the wind without subtitles. Her family provided her with private lessons in English. When she was 25, she began reading the English language newscast for Vietnam’s national radio station, then aimed at listeners in Asia’s English-speaking countries.

During the Vietnam War in the 1960s and 1970s she became famous among American soldiers for her propaganda broadcasts on radio Hanoi (in fact, there were several "Hanoi Hannahs", but she was the senior and most frequently heard one). At that time, she made three broadcasts a day, reading the list of the newly killed or imprisoned Americans, attempting to persuade American GIs that the American involvement in Vietnam was unjust and immoral and played popular American anti-war songs in an attempt to incite feelings of nostalgia and homesickness amongst American GIs. Although she used the alias Thu Houng, (Vietnamese: "the fragrance of autumn"), the GIs usually called her "Hanoi Hannah" or "the Dragon Lady". Few if any desertions are believed to have ensued from her propaganda work and the soldiers "hooted at her scare tactics", but were often impressed by her military intelligence, when she mentioned the location of their own unit (whereupon it was customary to "give a toast to her and throw our beer cans at the radio") and listed specific US casualties. There were exaggerated legends of her omniscience, with rumors that she would give clues about everything from specific future Vietnamese attacks to soldiers' girlfriends cheating on them at home or jilting them. In fact, most of her information came from publications such as the US military newspaper, Stars and Stripes Below is an excerpt from one of her broadcasts:

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 or to be maimed for life without the faintest idea of what's going on. (Hanoi Hannah, 16 June 1967)

According to war correspondent Don North's assessment:

By zapping the truth through an ostrich-like policy censorship, deletions, and exaggerations U.S. Armed Forces Radio lost the trust of many GIs when they were most isolated and vulnerable to enemy propaganda. It wasn't that Hanoi Hannah always told the truth - she didn't. But she was most effective when she did tell the truth and U.S. Armed Forces Radio was fudging it.

After the war, she returned to live in Ho Chi Minh City with her husband. Ngo was by then better known in America than in her own country. She was offered a job on HCMC Television but instead stayed at home to take care of her husband who had suffered a stroke. She currently lives in Ho Chi Minh City with her family.

References in popular culture

Her voice can be heard in the computer game Battlefield Vietnam during Quang Tri and the reclamation of Hue over the public address system, as well as during the main screen if the player waits until after the LBJ quote.

She was also referenced by Robin Williams' character Adrian Cronauer in Good Morning Vietnam, being compared to The Wicked Witch of the West in the lead character's Wizard of Oz parody.