For those of us who came of age during the Vietnam era, this book vividly recalls the heady temper of the times, as well as the manifest ways in which the gruesome everyday reality of the war in Vietnam affected everyone in the society. It is difficult today to try to explain to younger readers how deeply the issue of the war divided the country internally, or how it acted to continually tighten the vise of political differences around the neck of the majority of our citizens. In this sense, it is hard to overestimate the impact the war had on everyone living in the United States during the sixties and early seventies, and the narrative in this book emphasizes just how profound the action of a number of Vietnam veterans was in framing that impact.
Unlike those of us ex-servicemen who were already involved in the anti-war movement in our new identity as college undergraduate students, the organized Vietnam veteran movement against the war didn't really gain impetus until the very late sixties, and then only as a result of the frustration the vets experienced regarding the senseless continuation of obvious failed policies even after anyone with an intact brain could see it was leading us nowhere. The veterans only became involved as it became obvious something new had to be injected into the ongoing national debate regarding the progress of the war. Of course, once they did become seriously involved, the whole tenor of the debate changed profoundly. No one could counter the reality they alone had experienced, and the degree of authenticity they brought to the national forefront was undeniable.
Still, it took a number of years and ceaseless efforts and endless head-bashes at the hands of police, national guardsmen, and reactionary hardhats to accomplish the final result of ending the war, and even then the war it was executed by the Nixon administration left agonizing doubts regarding the fate of hundreds of POWS and MIAs rumored to have been left behind. Moreover, the national government has never fully addressed the bevy of important related issues raised with such urgency by the Vietnam veterans groups. It took more than a decade to get any concessions regarding the consequences of Agent Orange and the government's responsibility for them, or to get any action at all to improve care even minimally in the warren of rat-holes otherwise referred to as the Veteran's Administration (VA) hospitals. Even today, some thirty years later, the medical care proffered in the VA hospitals is often substandard and inadequate, and in no ways meets the demonstrated needs of the vets. In this sense, it continues, in my opinion, to be a national disgrace.
This book represents a brilliant attempt to re-acquaint the reader with the events and personalities of the times, and does a wonderful job in detailing the specifics of the ways ion which the issues rose, of how the strategies and techniques of effectively demonstrating the evidence of what was happening in Vietnam as well as what the social, economic, and political consequences of our involvement were. The author has opened up a virtual can of worms that illustrate how vulnerable and insubstantial the neo-conservative interpretations of the Vietnam war and the events of the sixties are, by offering a plethora of proof that flatly contradicts all these neat, tidy, and sanitized versions depicting our wretched involvement in Vietnam as some trumped-up moral crusade for democracy, with some authors like Michael Lind going so far as to refer to as it being the "necessary war". Unlike that sad solipsistic effort, this is a terrific book, and one I can highly recommend. Enjoy!
