America in Vietnam

Beginning with the author's reflections on viewing the 58,152 names incised in the black granite of the Washington, D.C., Vietnam Memorial, WorkingClass War by Christian G. Appy seeks the answers to questions for which the names on the wall stand as tragic symbols. Who fought in Vietnam? How were chosen? What were their lives like before entered service? How were trained? What were their expectations as shipped out for the combat zone? How were those expectations fulfilled? What kind of war did we fight and to what end? How did the war affect those who bore the burden of combat? These are important questions, for the answers to them shape our vision of America. The Vietnam War was the defining reality of the Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon presidencies and arguably the most traumatic event our nation has endured since the Civil War. Vietnam left its mark in no small measure in the way it affected the Americans who fought there, a reality which lies at the heart of the issues with which Appy grapples. Vietnam was predominantly infantry war, and Appy properly focuses on those who bore the brunt of combat: young, noncareer enlisted men in the Marine Corps and Army. As Appy indicates, their names are disproportionately represented on the Vietnam Memorial and it is to their surviving comrades that he turned to illuminate our understanding. Although undergirded by research in the Marine Corps Historical Center archives, the hard core of Working-Class War consists of the author's interviews of approximately 100 veterans, mostly from Massachusetts (the book began as a Harvard dissertation), where he attended weekly meetings of a Vietnam veteran's rap group for seven years as an invaluable part of [his] education (p. ix). Appy tried to interview people with a wide range of experiences and perspectives-draftees and volunteers, combat and rear-echelon, rightand left-wing, working and middle-class, including two dozen veterans from other parts of the country. All are identified by pseudonyms so they would feel freer to speak openly (p. ix)

Class (philosophy · Political science · Vietnam War · Artificial Intelligence · Computer Science · Law · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies