There was one essential voice I wanted to interview in 2018-19 while researching my book Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America.
A few years earlier, my colleague Craig Werner and I had written We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, which placed popular music at the heart of the American experience in Vietnam. Rolling Stone named it the Best Music Book of 2015. That experience inspired me to broaden the conversation beyond music and examine memory, healing, and reconciliation in postwar America.
As I assembled a long list of Vietnam veterans, historians, writers, musicians, and activists to interview, one name quickly rose to the top: Diane Carlson Evans—Vietnam combat nurse, veterans advocate, and founder of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Foundation, whose efforts led to the first national memorial honoring the American military and civilian women who served in Vietnam.
Was I ever glad I reached her.
Sadly, we lost Diane this past week, and the world—especially the Vietnam veteran community—is diminished by her passing.
My conversation with Diane almost never happened.
When I called her home in Helena, Montana, in late 2018, she apologized and explained she was simply overwhelmed.
“I’m sorry,” she told me, “but I’m writing my memoir, proposing lectures, receiving awards and honorary degrees, and, well…I’m sorry.”
A few weeks later, though, Diane called back.
“Are you the guy from Wisconsin who wrote the book about Vietnam music?” she asked.
Before I could even answer yes, Diane was off and running, and I was doing my best to keep up.
“The debate about the Vietnam Women’s Memorial was raging in the 1980s,” Diane told me. “Some VIPs wanted to put up another statue of men who fought in Vietnam. I told my husband, ‘If they put up another statue of men, they’ll completely forget about the women.’”
Her husband asked, “Who’s going to do that?”
“And I knew in my heart,” Diane said, “that it had to be me.”
It was not an easy fight.
In 1984, Diane founded the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project, a nonprofit organization dedicated to three goals: placing a memorial near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring the 265,000 women who served during the Vietnam War; identifying those women and documenting their needs; and educating the public about the role women played during the war.
Diane Carlson Evans was right to insist their stories mattered.
But it took ten long years of lobbying, fundraising, political battles, and perseverance before the memorial finally became reality.
“Women are also soldiers,” Diane said. “Women also need to heal. Their service is worthy of honor and recognition.”
Who’ll Stop the Rain was published in 2019, and Diane’s voice became an important part of the book, offering invaluable insight into the meaning and legacy of the Vietnam Women’s Memorial Project. Later, Diane published her own remarkable memoir, Healing Wounds: A Vietnam War Combat Nurse’s 10-Year Fight to Win Women a Place of Honor in Washington, D.C., which received multiple awards and brought her story to an even wider audience.
Then, on May 30, 2021, I watched PBS’s National Memorial Day Concert, where one of the evening’s most moving tributes honored the American nurses who served in Vietnam. Diane was prominently featured in what became one of the night’s most applauded moments.
And the song chosen to honor Diane?
Carole King’s “You’ve Got a Friend.”
Perfect.
Thank you for being our friend, Diane.
Rest in peace, my Vietnam sister.
Vietnam veteran Doug Bradley is the author of five books, including Who’ll Stop the Rain: Respect, Remembrance, and Reconciliation in Post-Vietnam America, co-author with Craig Werner of We Gotta Get Out of This Place: The Soundtrack of the Vietnam War, which was named best music book of 2015 by Rolling Stone magazine, and DEROS Vietnam: Dispatches from the Air-Conditioned Jungle, now available as an audiobook. His music-based memoir, The Tracks of My Years, was released by Legacy Book Press in 2025.
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