Võ Thị Thắng

Võ Thị Thắng (10 December 1945 - 22 August 2014) was a Vietnamese revolutionary and member of the National Assembly of Vietnam.[1]

In July 1968, she was tasked by the Viet Cong to assassinate a suspected spy in Saigon. Arrested by the South Vietnamese government after the failed attempt, she was sentenced to 20 years of hard labour in Côn Đảo Prison. Upon receiving her sentence, she smiled and retorted that “your government will not last that long."[2] A photo of her smiling, taken by a foreign reporter, became a symbol of Vietnamese women in the war.[3]

She was released in 1974 under the Paris Peace Accords. She later served as the General Director of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism until her retirement in 2007.

Commemorations

A primary school in Havana, Cuba, is named after her.[4]

References
  1. "Võ Thị Thắng 'là người trong sạch'". BBC News. 2014-08-23.
  2. "Portraits of Vietnamese Women At War". Progressive International. 2021-03-09.
  3. "Bà Võ Thị Thắng qua đời". BBC News. 2014-08-22.
  4. "Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong visits Vo Thi Thang school in Cuba". Vietnam News Agency. 2018-03-30.


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