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The feminine term “nữ” appeared in Vietnamese historiography in the 1990s, to underline women’s specific forms of engagement during the revolutionary war as equal to, or perhaps even more heroic than, those of men. Based on new oral history sources from female and male guerillas known as the “Saigon Commandos”, this article examines the tensions inherent in writing a history of women during a time of war. Rethinking the gender of independence, while paying attention to the mechanisms of male domination, allows for the writing of a non-hagiographical history of the war, one that is closer to social realities.