They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America, October 1967

Simon & Schuster, 2003. First edition. First printing [stated]. Hardcover. Good in good dust jacket. Ex-library. Notation by previous owner inside front flyleaf. Usual library markings. DJ had been pasted to boards, now separated.. xvii, 572 p. Illustrations. Cast of Characters. Notes. Selected Bibliography. Index. In this Vietnam War-era history, journalist David Maraniss reports on two out-of-control events that provide a window into the American experience of those times. On October 17, 1967, a squad of American soldiers was ambushed while on routine patrol, resulting in the loss of over 50 lives. On the next day, in Madison, Wisconsin, a student demonstration against Dow Chemical, the manufacturer of napalm, ended in violence, injuring students and police. Maraniss crafts his portraits of the soldiers in the Black Lions rifle squad with care, especially their leader Clark Welch. He provides both a sense of the large scope of the conflict and a grunt's-eye view of jungle warfare and everyday soldier life. In his sections on the University of Wisconsin, he captures the feel of campus life, as he relates the futile effort by administrators and student leaders to script the events of the day in order to avoid trouble. Maraniss places the firefight and the demonstration in their historical context and reports on the investigations that followed both, and his writing is supported by his prodigious research into sources not available at the time, including the subsequently released Pentagon Papers and websites relating to Veterans' affairs. He weaves these two stories with events in Washington, D.C., where President Johnson, concerned about reelection, was listening to reports from his advisors on the progress of the war and monitoring demonstrations at home. Maraniss's choice of the year 1967 is a judicious one. Soon after, in Vietnam, the Tet Offensive killed many Americans, setting back the war effort; in America, opposition to the war moved from the campus to mainstream America. At the end of 1967, President Johnson made the stunning announcement that he would not run for reelection. Maraniss's book illustrates the sentiment expressed back then that there were, indeed, two fronts to the Vietnam War: the war at home and the war abroad. His understanding of what happens when th.