Absolution

Absolution is set primarily in Saigon during 1963, against the backdrop of the escalating conflict in Vietnam. Tricia’s husband Peter is a civilian advisor for the US, one of the many young men sent by President John F. Kennedy to assist South Vietnam’s fight against North Vietnam. Alice McDermott uses the setting to explore the effects of the war on women’s autonomy and the conventions of traditional marriage.

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, was a conflict that took place in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos from 1955 to 1975. The origins of the Vietnam War date back to 1886, when France established the colony of French Indochina in Southeast Asia. Vietnam remained under French control until WWII. During the German occupation of France, Japan invaded Indochina, occupying the territory until their surrender in 1945. Nationalist revolutionary Ho Chi Minh led the Indochinese Communist Party, also known as the Viet Minh, in declaring Vietnam’s independence from France.

In the intervening decade, France fought to wrest back control of Vietnam but was forced to give up its remaining territories after the passage of the Geneva Accord in 1954. Vietnam was officially liberated from colonial rule and partitioned into two countries, North Vietnam and South Vietnam. While Ho Chi Minh ruled in the North, Catholic nationalist Ngo Dinh Diem became the prime minister of South Vietnam, installing a regime that promoted anti-communism. Continual fighting between North and South Vietnam eventually escalated into the Second Indochina War.

Meanwhile, in the United States, the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union stoked concerns about the spread of communism abroad. A widespread belief in the “domino theory,” which held that the spread of communism in one country would “topple” neighboring countries in a domino effect, led Kennedy to increase US aid to South Vietnam. Kennedy’s government lent support to Diem’s regime, viewing him as the strongest opposition to Ho Chi Minh. Diem proved an unpopular and authoritarian leader who showed extreme favoritism toward Vietnam’s Catholic minority while persecuting its Buddhist majority. With Diem’s regime weakened by controversy and protest, the United States government began covertly backing a coup against him, resulting in his assassination in 1963. The US did not officially enter the Vietnam War until 1965, two years after the events of Absolution. In the leadup to the US’s official entry into the Vietnam War, President Kennedy dispatched thousands of military advisors to Vietnam to train armies and provide military aid. Among their numbers were many married men who brought their families with them. The gendered expectations of traditional, heterosexual American marriages followed these couples to Vietnam.

McDermott explores this gender dynamic in Absolution. Military wives are viewed as dependents, their identities defined by their husband’s roles. They are expected to carry on the role of homemaker and represent their husbands well by learning intricate rules of social conduct. However, the reality of women in wartime did not always reflect these conventions. Discontented with sitting around all day while their husbands were away, many military wives became involved in activism during the Vietnam War, forming groups like the National League of Families, which campaigned to bring troops home. Still, others engaged in antiwar efforts, meeting with Vietnamese locals to protest the US’s intervention in the war. Engaging in this kind of work offered a sense of purpose outside of marriage and allowed women to step into positions of relative power in their communities.

Absolution delves into the lives of Charlene and Tricia, two military wives who spend a year in Saigon while their husbands are on assignment. Led by Charlene, the women engage in outreach and charity work, which ultimately leads them to develop their identities and confront difficult questions regarding morality, complicity, and absolution. McDermott draws on historical events to create a portrait of two women whose lives are deeply affected by their passing experience with the Vietnam War.