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Đặng Thùy Trâm

Vietnamese physician (1942–1970)

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionAug 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ910721 ↗
Source-derived summary

Đặng Thùy Trâm (November 26, 1942 – June 22, 1970) was a Vietnamese doctor. She worked as a battlefield surgeon for the People's Army of Vietnam and Vietcong during the Vietnam War. 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 Huế and grew up in Hanoi, 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 and began working as a battlefield surgeon.

Diaries

One of Trâm's handwritten diaries was captured by U.S. forces in December 1969. Following her death in a gun battle on June 22, 1970, a second diary was taken by Frederic Whitehurst, a then 22-year-old military intelligence specialist.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Đặng Thùy Trâm” is vietnamese physician (1942–1970). The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Đặng, Thùy and Trâm, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA dependable orientation record for establishing vocabulary, names and a first evidence trail. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1942, 1970, 2005, 1966—that can be checked directly. The authority record carries competing date values—1942-11-26, 1942-01-01—which should remain separate until their references and qualifiers are resolved. For this dossier, Đặng, Thùy and Trâm is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “vietnamese physician (1942–1970)” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q910721. VIAF identifies the subject as 325873. The Library of Congress control number is n2006210413. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 1 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1942, 1970, 2005 and 1966.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

Best used for
  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
Verify next

The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Đặng Thùy Trâm”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Đặng Thùy Trâm primary sources, Đặng Thùy Trâm archive and Đặng research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Đặng Thùy Trâm”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Subject index

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Đặng Thùy Trâm” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.