Whether or not one supported the Vietnam War, there can be general agreement that the war was a tragedy. This is particularly true when one considers the number of lives that were lost, the tremendous division that occurred within America during this time, and the fact that the Communist takeover, which the United States expended so many lives to prevent, occurred anyway.

There are many excellent books available that detail the Vietnam War. Only a brief overview of American involvement in Vietnam is provided here in order to set a context for the stories portrayed in this book and to...

When I got drafted, I didn’t even know what the wordpoliticalmeant. I was a poor Chicano growing up in Salinas. My mother was a single parent and my grandmother was living with us. We were just struggling to survive and I had no idea what Vietnam was.

My mother understood it because she listened to a lot of the Mexican programs on television. She threw away two or three letters from the army. I registered for the army in Salinas, but I was working in Oakland. My brother called me one time and he said, “Hey, I just...

I was pretty politically awareand I felt that the Vietnam war was wrong. I was involved in several sit-ins and moratoriums. When I got drafted, my reaction was one of surprise and resentment. I didn’t want to be drafted. First of all, I’m a conscientious objector. At age eighteen, I had signed up as a conscientious objector with the draft, when you have to go in and sign up. I wasn’t opposed to serving my country, but I certainly was opposed to carrying a weapon. I didn’t feel that I had the right to take anybody’s life, and probably...

I did a tour and a half in Vietnam, from 1968 to about 1970. Before I left Vietnam, I reenlisted and I put in my contract that I was to take photography school. I never got it. When I got back from Vietnam, the fort that I was at was very heavy into the protest movement. I was in a grunt outfit and most of the guys that were there were all Vietnam veterans. There was heavy antiwar sentiment and the military was trying to have control of this, but at that time, the My Lai massacre case was still...

When I graduatedfrom high school in Nevada, I went back to Colorado, where my father and my brothers and sisters were living. I was working at a sawmill, and I enlisted almost a year to the day that I graduated. I wasn’t involved politically, but I knew that Vietnam was going on. Part of the reason I enlisted was as a way of not getting sent to Vietnam, but I ended up there anyway.

I was stationed in Fort Sam Houston, Texas, and we were just waiting for our orders. I got my orders before my brother. He was...

The veterans represent a wide range of views, from being apolitical to being very politically aware and involved before, during, and after their tour of duty in Vietnam. The majority of the Chicano veterans interviewed stated that they had not been aware of what the Vietnam conflict was about when they entered the military and that they were generally apolitical. Most of these veterans said that they had recently graduated from high school and were working in blue-collar jobs when they were drafted or enlisted. A few were high school dropouts with no steady employment, while several others were already...

At least one-fourth of the veterans interviewed stated that they had psychological or medical issues as a result of their involvement in the Vietnam War. This section discusses those problems, their impact on the veterans’ lives and families, and how they have tried to deal with the problems that arose.

While all veterans had problems adjusting when they returned home, most were able to overcome them. The majority returned from Vietnam even more determined to take advantage of the educational benefits available to them under the GI Bill and to get on with their lives: “I’ve got my sad points...

Most of the veterans interviewed asserted that they began to reevaluate the Vietnam War and their role in it while they were still in Vietnam. Some realized from the beginning that “it was a senseless undertaking”:¹

I didn’t see the U.S. role as an incorrect role or an immoral role. I think I saw the futility of it, though, but it was not that articulate. It was more like, “I want to get the fuck out of here,” because people were getting killed. I think we were probably less politically focused, but we all used to have “FTA” on our...

There are a number of reasons why Chicanos served in the military during the Vietnam War. As past studies and the veterans themselves point out, they had little opportunity to take advantage of the college deferments that were available to the predominantly white middle and upper classes. Few minority youth had the knowledge or resources to successfully gain conscientious objector status. Many Chicanos were drafted, but more enlisted because of community expectations and served because of their belief in duty and patriotism.

The feeling that Mexicanos and other Latinoswere not looked at as Americans and always had to prove their...

What filled my mind with the terror of war?

It was not merely the sight of the burned-out hulls

of abandoned tracks or choppers

nor the constant pounding of artillery

and the quaking of the earth beneath my feet

It was not eating in the rain

sleeping in the mud

or finding scorpions hiding

and waiting in my sleeping bag

It was not the firefights with the utter confusion

the noise

the yelling

the screaming

and the smoke cluttering the air

all invading my senses at the same time

It was not the bone fragments

charred flesh

bodies turned inside...