The French had designed Saigon to accommodate , people. By there were over three million people in the twenty-one square miles of Saigon proper, and another million on the outskirts.
It had become the most densely populated city in the world. Brawling was common. I got American boy-friend work ship β¦ all time go Manila come back Vietnam. He make beaucoup [big] money.
He talk maybe pretty soon we marry, go States. The police make a half-hearted attempt to see that the hostesses are at least 18, but abuses of age limits and activities far outstrip enforcement. A bar where GIs find prostitutes and heroin. Image: Magnum Photos. Others were war widows with young families to support. But their widows are in need of a deeper sympathy.
In some cases, Vietnamese-fashion, they have to support the entire family, ranging from grandparents to obscure, penniless cousins. After that β nothing. If she is not pretty, and does not have the education which would win her one of the few jobs open to women, she has no alternative but to become a prostitute. All were ostracised from ordinary Vietnamese society. Yet their weekly earnings were reported to be more than that of South Vietnamese cabinet ministers.
Mai 20 works in one of the many bars in the area of To do Street in Saigon. Mai claims she supports her mother and 5 young brothers and sisters on her earnings. When she first went to work in the bar she cried all day, but later she got used to the job.
