This is one of two stamps issued by North Vietnam on
March 14, 1959 to commemorate the Trung Sisters.
China had occupied Vietnam for half a century when the oppressive rule
of Governor To Dinh provoked a rebellion by Vietnamese nationalists. When
her husband was executed for plotting against the Chinese, Trung Trac and
her sister Trung Nhi led other Vietnamese nobles with a small army as, in 39
A.D., they seized control of an area extending from Hue to southern China. In
42 A.D. they were defeated by a much larger Chinese army near modern Hanoi.
To avoid capture, the sisters drowned themselves in the Red River (Song Hong).