Book Review: Healing Wounds by Diane Carlson Evans with Bob Welch (2020)
Synopsis: Like thousands of women, Diane Evans served as a nurse during the Vietnam War, patching up wounded straight from the front lines and often being the last face a soldier saw before he died. In 1983, 14 years after returning home, Diane found a new mission, making sure she and the women volunteers she served with received the same recognition as the men. While doing so, she was forced to do the one thing she had been avoiding, talk about what she had experienced.
Review: One of my mom's friends had given her a copy of Healing Wounds and it looked intriguing enough for me to ask her for an opportunity to read it when she was finished. I managed to read through the book in a fairly quick amount of time and can only describe it as inspirational.
One thing I learned when studying history is women's accomplishments are often diminished or even forgotten when the end result favors men. This is especially true when it comes to the history of war, when women are barely mentioned despite often being near or even on the front lines.
The mission Evans describes in her autobiography is a great example of that. On the surface, having a statue honoring the women Vietnam veterans placed near the Vietnam Memorial Wall and the Three Soldiers statue seems so uncontroversial, you would think it would be an easy sell. Yet, it took her nearly a decade and three presidents for it to finally come to fruition. The arguments she had to make and the objections she faced were eye opening and frustrating.
The part of the book that stood out for me though was her personal story, which also served as a way of telling the stories of the thousands of others who had served in a similar role. In addition to learning about some of the things she encountered while in Vietnam, her transition back to civilian life was just as intriguing and, at times, even a little heartbreaking.
There are a lot of places where you can read facts about Vietnam. The firsthand stories are what bring the event back to life for those of us who are too young to remember and even as the son of a Vietnam veteran who never talked about his time there, I found it amazing she had held things in for as long as she did before being forced to tell her story so a sculptor had information to work with when creating a prototype. Frankly, the fact she did have such a fight to get that recognition kind of angered me as a result of this.
Final Opinion: This is an interesting book that not only tells the story of the women who served in Vietnam but also a story about women in wartime in general from a first-person perspective. It's worth taking the time to read.
My Grade: A
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Here are some reviews of other books about women's history:
Book Review: Women in White Coats by Olivia Campbell (2021)
Book Review: The Pirate Queen by Susan Ronald (2007)
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