Đặng Thùy Trâm (November 26, 1942 – June 22, 1970) was a Vietnamese doctor. She worked as a battlefield

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

for the

People's Army of Vietnam The People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN), officially the Vietnam People's Army (VPA; , , ), also recognized as the Vietnamese Army (), the People's Army () or colloquially the Troops ( ), is the national Military, military force of the Vietnam, S ...

and

Vietcong The Viet Cong (VC) was an epithet and umbrella term to refer to the Communism, communist-driven armed movement and united front organization in South Vietnam. It was formally organized as and led by the National Liberation Front of South Vi ...

during the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (1 November 1955 – 30 April 1975) was an armed conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia fought between North Vietnam (Democratic Republic of Vietnam) and South Vietnam (Republic of Vietnam) and their allies. North Vietnam w ...

. Her wartime diaries, which chronicle the last two years of her life, attracted international attention following their publication in 2005.

Early life

Trâm was born on November 26, 1942, in

Hanoi Hanoi ( ; ; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities in Vietnam, second-most populous city of Vietnam. The name "Hanoi" translates to "inside the river" (Hanoi is bordered by the Red River (Asia), Red and Black River (Asia), Black Riv ...

Vietnam Vietnam, officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam (SRV), is a country at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of about and a population of over 100 million, making it the world's List of countries and depende ...

, to a family of doctors that had spanned three generations. Her father, Đặng Ngọc Khuê, was a surgeon and her mother, Doãn Ngọc Trâm, was a pharmacist. Trâm was also the eldest of five siblings, which included three other younger sisters and a younger brother. She went to high school at Chu Văn An High School (Hanoi) and later attended the Hanoi Medical University during college. On December 23, 1966, Trâm, along with many other civilians, boarded a truck to the

Quảng Bình Province Quảng Bình was formerly a southern coastal Provinces of Vietnam, province in the North Central Coast region, the Central Vietnam, Central of Việt Nam, Vietnam. It borders Hà Tĩnh province, Hà Tĩnh to the north, Quảng Trị province, ...

and began working as a battlefield surgeon.

Diaries

One of Trâm's handwritten diaries was captured by US forces in December 1969. Following her death in a gun battle on June 22, 1970, a second diary was taken by Frederic (Fred) Whitehurst, a then 22-year-old military intelligence specialist. Whitehurst defied an order to burn the diaries, instead following the advice of a

South Vietnam South Vietnam, officially the Republic of Vietnam (RVN; , VNCH), was a country in Southeast Asia that existed from 1955 to 1975. It first garnered Diplomatic recognition, international recognition in 1949 as the State of Vietnam within the ...

ese translator not to destroy them. He kept them for 35 years, with the intention of eventually returning them to Trâm's family. After returning to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

, Whitehurst's search for Trâm's family initially proved unsuccessful. After earning a Ph.D. in

chemistry Chemistry is the scientific study of the properties and behavior of matter. It is a physical science within the natural sciences that studies the chemical elements that make up matter and chemical compound, compounds made of atoms, molecules a ...

he joined the

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, but was unable to reach anyone from the Vietnamese

embassy A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a Sovereign state, state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase ...

. In March 2005, he and his brother Robert – another Vietnam veteran – brought the diaries to a conference at

Texas Tech University Texas Tech University (Texas Tech, Tech, or TTU) is a public university, public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and called Texas Technological College until 1969, it is the flagship instit ...

. There, they met photographer Ted Engelmann (also a Vietnam veteran), who offered to look for the family during his trip to Vietnam. With the assistance of Do Xuan Anh, a staff member in the

Quaker Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestant Christian set of denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally, others referred to them as Quakers ...

office, Engelmann was able to locate Trâm's mother, Doãn Ngọc Trâm, and subsequently reached the rest of her family. In July 2005, Trâm's diaries were published in Vietnam under the title ''Nhật ký Đặng Thùy Trâm'' (''Đặng Thùy Trâm's Diary'' (''Last Night I Dreamed Of Peace'')), which quickly became a bestseller. In less than a year, the volume sold more than 300,000 copies and comparisons were drawn between Trâm's writings and that of

Anne Frank Annelies Marie Frank (, ; 12 June 1929 – February or March 1945)Research by The Anne Frank House in 2015 revealed that Frank may have died in February 1945 rather than in March, as Dutch authorities had long assumed"New research sheds new li ...

. In August 2005, Fred and Robert Whitehurst traveled to Hanoi to meet Trâm's family. In October of that year, Trâm's family visited

Lubbock, Texas Lubbock ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the county seat of Lubbock County. With a population of 272,086 in 2024, Lubbock is the 10th-most populous city in Texas and the 84th-most populous in the United States. The city is in the ...

, to view the diaries archived at Texas Tech University Vietnam Archive, and then visited Fred Whitehurst and his family. The diaries wer
translated into English
and published in September 2007. They include family photographs and images of Trâm. Translations of the diaries have been published in at least sixteen different languages. In 2009, a film about Trâm by Vietnamese director

Đặng Nhật Minh Đặng Nhật Minh (鄧日明, b. Huế, Vietnam, 1938) is one of Vietnam's foremost film directors. He began making documentary films around 1965 and is the first Vietnamese person to be awarded the Nikkei Asia Prize for Culture, in 1999. Hi ...

, entitled ''Đừng Đốt'' (''Do Not Burn It''), was released.

Death

Trâm was 27 years old when she died on June 22, 1970, in Đức Phổ,

Quảng Ngãi Province Quảng Ngãi is a northern coastal Provinces of Vietnam, province in the South Central Coast region, the Central Vietnam, Central of Vietnam. It borders Quảng Nam to the north, Bình Định to the south, Kon Tum province, Kon Tum to the ...

, Vietnam. She and another colleague were killed by a patrol from the US 4th Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment in a Free-fire zone while traveling on a trail in the ''Ba Tơ'' jungle in Quảng Ngãi Province.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Dang, Thuy Tram Vietnamese diarists 20th-century Vietnamese historians Military doctors Vietnamese military personnel Vietnamese physicians 1943 births 1970 deaths People from Hanoi Women in the Vietnam War Vietnamese people of the Vietnam War Women diarists 20th-century Vietnamese physicians Vietnamese women physicians Vietnam War casualties 20th-century diarists