Many reports of war ignore ‘unheard’ voices. These are people (often poor) who are neglected in the usual accounts of battles or dismissed as mere peasants; they are often treated as an homogenous entity in historical accounts. Research by our staff into the war in South Vietnam, has examined interviews undertaken with these so-called ‘peasants’ and revealed that their view of the war often differs markedly from conventional narratives and they provide a complex and interesting counter to the story of the conflict.