Author:
Goodwin, Gerald F. author.
ImprintAmherst : University of Massachusetts Press, [2023]
Descriptionxiii, 277 pages ; 23 cm.
Note:"We was just us" : de-racializaton on the front lines of the Vietnam War -- "Brothers as many brothers as they can find" : prejudice, discrimination, and death in Vietnam -- "Tearing the Services apart" : racial violence and the other war in Vietnam -- "I thought of my own people back home" : African American servicemen and Vietnamese civilians -- "You and me--same same" and "They called me 'monkey'" : conflicting African American views of Vietnamese civilians -- "We won't shoot you, but we'll shoot the white guy" : African American views of Vietnamese Communist forces -- "I had left one war and come back to another" : African Americans return home.
Bibliography Note:Includes bibliographical references and index.
Note:"When African American servicemen went to fight in the Vietnam War, discrimination and prejudice followed them. Even in a faraway country, their military experiences were shaped by the racial environment of the home front. War is often viewed as a crucible that can transform society, but American race relations proved remarkably durable. In Race in the Crucible of War, Gerald F. Goodwin examines how Black servicemen experienced and interpreted racial issues during their time in Vietnam. Drawing on more than fifty new oral interviews and significant archival research, as well as newspapers, periodicals, memoirs, and documentaries, Goodwin reveals that for many African Americans the front line and the home front were two sides of the same coin. Serving during the same period as the civil rights movement and the race riots in Chicago, Detroit, and dozens of other American cities, these men increasingly connected the racism that they encountered in the barracks and on the battlefields with the tensions and violence that were simmering back home"-- Provided by publisher.
Note:Recommended in Resources for College Libraries.
