Madame Xuan Phuong

Picture a woman of the French Resistance, printing underground papers in her cellar, making bombs at her kitchen table, cycling across her country with codes hidden in her knitting.

And then spin the globe 6,000 miles and find yourself in Vietnam. Because this is what Madame Xuan Phuong did. As a teenager, Phuong fought in the jungles and mountains of Vietnam for her country’s independence.

We are delighted and honoured to be joined by a very special guest to tell Xuan’s story – Madame Phuong herself. In her nearly 100 years, she has fought for her country’s freedom and independence against three empires – Japan, France and America – and has sought to change the story we are to ready to hear about Vietnam.

I started with one simple revelation – a blindingly obvious one but one which realigned everything I thought I knew: in Vietnam, it’s not called the Vietnam War. It’s the American War.

When you start from there, everything changes.

Madame Phuong made bombs and she made films. She patched people up as a medic and reported on war from the frontline. She knew Ho Chi Minh (she's sitting at his feet him in the photograph) and looked after visiting VIPs like Castro, Jane Fonda and the cosmonaut Gherman Titov.

And then she set up Vietnam’s first art gallery, the Lotus Gallery, to promote Vietnamese artists around the world. To change the story. A legend in her homeland, named on the BBC’s 100 Women 2024 list and a recipient of the Legion d’Honneur, her fascinating story helps us see the Vietnam War through Vietnamese eyes.