Recommended Books
Books written by VFP Members. Books and merchandise purchased through this link at Amazon.com gives a portion of the proceeds to VFP.
*NEW* Melchior, Sam
Legacy of War: Profiles of the 67 Brave Young Men from Evansville, IN Who Perished in the Vietnam War
*NEW* Aldridge, Bob
America in Peril
*NEW* Barkley, Gary
Shared Sacrifice: Don't Ask Don't Tell & The Global War On Terror
*NEW* Steinman, Louise
The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War
*NEW* Powell, Mary Reynolds
A World of Hurt: Between Innocence & Arrogance in Vietnam
*NEW* Freeman, Jeffrey
Wrong Enemy, Wrong War
Aldridge, Bob - America in Peril
Angers, Trent - The Forgotten Hero of My Lai
Barkley, Gary - Shared Sacrifice: Don't Ask Don't Tell & The Global War On Terror
Anser, Ed - Misuse of Power: How the Far Right Gained and Misuses Power
Berman, Dave - We Do Not Consent
Bonpaine, Blase - Guerillas of Peace, Liberation
Brinkley, Douglas - Tour of Duty
Brockman, James - Romero: A Life
Burkins, Lee - Soldier's Heart: An Inspirational Memoir and Inquiry of War
Carney, Janice Josephine - Purple Hearts and Silver Stars
Devore, John - Sitting in the Flames: Uncovering Fearlessness to Help Others
Dionisi, David - American Hiroshima
Eriksen, Marcus - My River Home
Ferner, Mike - Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq
Franklin, H. Bruce - The Vietnam War: In American Stories, Songs and Poems
Freeman, Jeffrey, Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve Retired
Giffey, David - Long Shadows: Veteran' Paths to Peace
Gilroy, Jack -
Absolute Flanagan
The Wisdom Box
Goff, Stan -
Hideous Dreams
Sex and War
Grahlfs, Lincoln - Undaunted: The story of a US Navy tug and her Crew Voices from Ground Zero
Grenough, Millie - Oasis in the Overwhelm
Hanna, Peggy - Patriotism, Peace and Vietnam: A Memoir
Hermann, Kenneth - Lepers and Lunacy: An American in Vietnam Today
Janko, James - Buffalo Boy and Geronimo
Kidd, Jack Prevent War: A New Strategy For America
Kyne, Dennis - Support the Truth
Laufer, Peter - Mission Rejected: US Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq
Lee, Thomas Battlebabble: Selling War in America
May, Gary - Ending Disability Discrimination: Strategies for Social Workers
McGarrah, Jim - A Temporary Sort of Peace - A Vietnam Memoir
Mejia, Camilo - Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Seargant Camilo Mejia
Milmore, John - #1 Code Break Boy
Orange, Michael - Fire in the Hole: A Moratorium in Vietnam
O'Reilly, Genevieve - Chip on my Shoulder
Pogue, Alan - Witness for Justice: Documentary Photographs of Alan Pogue
Powell, Mary Reynolds - A World of Hurt: Between Innocence & Arrogance in Vietnam
Powell, Wilson "Woody" - Two Walk the Golden Road
Rayle, Diego
- The Trial of Billy Running Dog
Cast from Shackles
Stay out of the Wheat Field
Steinman, Louise - The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War
Tick, Edward - War and the Soul The Pratice of Dream Healing
Topmiller, Robert - Red Clay on my Boots
Uhl, Michael - Vietnam Awakening
Wise, Dayl - Post Traumatic Press 2007
Wright, Ann - DISSENT: Voices of Conscience
Angers, Trent - The Forgotten Hero of My Lai
This is the story of three remarkable young men who stopped the massacre of March 16, 1968 carrying out orders to "kill everything," risking their own lives and reputations and withstanding incredible pressures to permit the official report to remain unquestioned. Robert Maples, Harry Stanley and several others on the ground simply refused with the words, "I ain’t killin’ no women and children," in support of Hugh Thompson, Larry Colburn, and twenty-year old Glenn Andreotta of the helicopter crew. Restitution for senseless deaths is never really possible under such circumstances, but the remnant may redeem the whole.
Trent Angers is a veteran journalist who has authored thousands of published news and feature stories, as well as three books, in a writing and editing career that has spanned four decades.
Anser, Ed
- Misuse of Power: How the Far Right Gained and Misuses Power
Asner, Ed and Burt Hall Press Release: August 26, 2005: Mayhaven Publishing
announces the release of the new Ed Asner and Burt Hall Book.
Bios: Ed Asner is one of the most honored actors in the history of
television. Mr. Asner has consistently served and committed himself to
the rights of the
working performer in addition to advocating for human rights, world
peace,
environmental preservation and political freedom.
Burt Hall was formerly Group Director (analyst) for the U.S. Government
Accountability Office (GAO) and is a graduate of the Advanced Management
Program of Harvard University. At the GAO he became an expert in the
procurement field and was instrumental in creating the Truth in Negotiations
Act, the modernized and unified federal procurement statute and the initial government-wide
policy on acquisition of major weapon systems.
Barkley, Gary - Shared Sacrifice: Don't Ask Don't Tell & The Global War On Terror
America's core principles are being destroyed in the name of the Global
War on Terror. Fear is our government's weapon of choice in this
war-and it is being used against the American people. We have an out of
control and cowardly government determined to undermine everything that
generations of Americans have fought and died for. It is time for all
Americans to band together to retake our country. Politicians need to
be taught the lesson that We the People are really in charge here.
Liberty requires sacrifice, and every American needs to stand up and be heard to force our government to recognize our commitment to liberty and the rule of law. Anyone interested in prying the American homeland from the stranglehold of corporate greed and political corruption will find this book informative and entertaining. If we can come together as a country, we can solve every problem that arises, natural or man-made; and defeat any enemy, foreign or domestic. We can do this, but it will take all of us working together. We're supposed to be the good guys. We are the good guys. It's time we start acting like it again.
Gary Barkley served a one-year tour in Operation Iraqi Freedom as a lieutenant with U.S. Army Civil Affairs, holding the position of Operations Officer for the Ninewa Provincial Reconstruction Team in Mosul, Iraq. He holds degrees in Economics and Accounting from Utah State University and lives in Salt Lake City.
Berman, Dave
- We Do Not Consent
I live in Humboldt County, CA, fertile ground for peaceful revolution. This blog was launched to accommodate the larger audience I have found through the success of my last blog, GuvWurld and the compilation of postings it spawned as my book, We Do Not Consent.
Bonpaine, Blase -
Guerillas of Peace, Liberation
Liberation Theology and the Central American Revolution
I'd often wondered how the
phenomena of "Liberation Theology" came about. Until I read "Guerillas of
Peace" , I had only inferential clues from readings about South and Central America to go on. I had no idea how revolutionary
the concept, in personal, theological and social terms.
"Liberation Theology" arose, in a spasm of revulsion, to declare that the
church's tendency to side with the rich and the powerful was, in point of
biblical fact, un-Christian.
Blasé Bonpane carries us through the period, the early sixties through the eighties, when "Liberation Theology" defined itself and manifested, along with the Sandinista revolution in Nicaragua, the struggles in El Salvador and elsewhere. He shows it to be a creation of people of conscience from all levels of society.
In a personal and a passionate accounting he carves away the crust of conditioning we Americans received about the scourge of "Godless" Communism and Socialism. We come to know the spiritual bond that exists between all those who, Christ-like, if you will, put their lives on the line for peace through justice. Reviewed by Woody Powell
Brinkley, Douglas -
Tour of Duty
Historian Douglas Brinkley's insightful Tour of Duty covers John Kerry's heroic Vietnam service (where he won the Silver and Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts) and the fervent antiwar campaign it eventually spawned. Though equally obsessed and repulsed by the burgeoning Vietnam conflict, Kerry's sense of duty led him to enlist in the Navy (after graduating Yale), and then volunteer for training as captain of a Swift boat (small aluminum vessels that patrolled the coastal waters and narrow, dangerous tributaries of Vietnam's massive Mekong delta). Those harrowing months only deepened Kerry's antipathy to the war, and he returned to become one of the most articulate leaders of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
Brockman, James -
Romero: A Life
A sensitive biography of the 1980 assassination
of the archbishop of San Salvador.
Contains a very complete set of endnotes.
This is an update of Brockman's The Word Remains: A Life of Oscar Romero ( LJ
12/1/82), his earlier biography of El Salvador's martyred archbishop.
LJ 's reviewer called that book an "insightful account of the situation in
Central America"; this updated edition has been released in conjunction
with the Paulist Pictures film Romero , starring Raul Julia.
Burkins, Lee
- Soldier's Heart: An Inspirational Memoir and Inquiry of War
As I get older, I feel the desire to pass along any possible wisdom to those I
hold dear. Since I have difficulty communicating my experiences from Vietnam,
I selfishly am glad that Lee Burkins wrote "Soldier's Heart" so I can
have an easy way of "passing on" this influential part of my life. Of
the 40 or 50 books on the Vietnam War that I have read, "Solder's
Heart" is at the top. For me it was as personal and emotional work of
literature as I have read. I do not always trust my first impressions, so I
went back and reread parts of the book a couple weeks after the first reading.
It was more emotional the second time.
The book is a memoir of Lee's life before, during, and after Vietnam. It works well from a
literary standpoint, because it does an excellent job of interweaving the
different people that are Lee Burkins-the fresh innocent boy, the seasoned
warrior, the trip wire vet, and the vet who has found peace. Review written by
Paul Appell
Carney, Janice Josephine -
Purple Hearts and Silver Stars
In 1996 I celebrated a year of sobriety and began a journey of rebirth. That
year I developed confidence in myself that previously I never experienced. I
took my personal collection of notes, diaries, and tapes from my year in Vietnam
and begin to organize them into a book.
In 1997 I completed the manuscript and titled it One Heart One Mind: one man's
memoir of a tour of Vietnam.
The book not only dealt with my year in Vietnam but with the emotional cost
of the war on my soul and psyche. With assistance from Jonathan Shay M.D.,
Ph.D., the author of Achilles in Vietnam (a book about combat trauma
and the undoing of character), I tried unsuccessfully to get my book published.
In 1998 I legally changed my name from John Joseph to Janice Josephine and my
writing now included transgender issues. I felt that I had come to terms with
my trauma from the Vietnam War, and I was ready to move on.
Convoy, Thomas - Deconstructing America's War Culture
Constructing America's War Culture provides a cultural analysis of how the images of the war in Iraq have been influenced and packaged by the media to construct a narrative of war, the Bush Presidency, the fear of terrorism, and the changing global attitudes toward America and American aggression.
Thomas Conroy is a Professor in the Communication Department at Castleton State College, Vermont. He teaches various courses in communication including Mass Media and Society, Media History, Public Relations, and special topics courses that frequently focus on cultural representations of war. A native of Providence, Rhode Island, Tom served with an Army medical unit in Vietnam during the war and has worked for various veterans' organizations including the Northampton Veteran's Administration, where he promoted horticulture therapy. He is a member of Veterans for Peace. Tom received a B.S. in Public Relations from Boston University, a B.A. in Communication, an M.A.
Devore, John
- Sitting in the Flames: Uncovering Fearlessness to Help Others
A combat veteran's story about his journey from trained killer to a work-in-process peaceful warrior, who has uncovered the strength and courage to help others. It is generous in its scope, insightful in its clarity, and bravely compassionate in its intention. Ellen Tanner Marsh, New York Times best selling author, remarks, "Beautifully told, DeVore's book is an important and unforgetable addition to the literature of Vietnam...Above all, this is a finely rendered and heartfelt account of one man's inner journey to peace." About the Author John graduated from West Point with a BS degree, earned an MA in Religious Studies from Naropa University, and an MBA and a PhD in Human Communication Studies from the University of Denver. He served eight years in the United States Army, including two years of combat during the Vietnam War. His decorations include the Combat Infantryman's Badge, three Bronze Stars, two Air Medals, three Vietnamese Galantry Crosses, and a Vietnamese Staff Medal of Honor. He is now a retired corporate executive.
Dionisi, David
- American Hiroshima
American Hiroshima presents ideas for
individuals and policymakers to defeat terrorists, strengthen America's democracy, and establish the United States
as a global force for peace.
American Hiroshima makes the case for a new way of thinking to solve existing
conflicts and prevent future ones. A key lesson from September 11, 2001 is
billions of dollars spent on the military and intelligence services did not
stop nineteen people with box cutters. American Hiroshima highlights why we are
fooling ourselves and ignoring the reasons why these attacks took place when we
think that increasing defense spending, starting wars in the Middle East, and
reforming the intelligence services will make the United States safe from terrorists.
Unless the root causes of terror are addressed, Americans will experience
terrorist attacks many times worse than 9/11.
What can be done to get the United
States back on track? Fortunately, American
Hiroshima offers an innovative and exciting proposal for a brighter future for
the United States.
Is violence an addiction? Al Drinkwine shares insights into his family, military and work experiences, and life in general, as a way to illustrate the potential for violence. Sharing Arms provides insights into various aspects of society which need addressing, as Drinkwine provides steps to address them as well as a pathway out of violent life styles. Please click here to order the book from Trafford Publishing
Eriksen, Marcus
- My River Home
One August day, veteran Marcus Eriksen set off on a journey down the entire length of the great Mississippi River on a homemade raft kept afloat by 232 empty soda bottles, recycled junk, and a dose of ingenuity. Though he had never made such a trip before-2,000 miles from Lake Itssca, Minnesota, past his childhood home near New Orleans, to the Gulf of mexico-he had dreamed of doing it over a decade earlier, while serving amid sandstorms and oil fires in Kuwait as a marine in the Gulf War. While struggling against a river with an unpredictable personality, Eriksen recounts a personal shift from proud soldier to self-destructive veteran to engaged activist protesting the injustices of the Iraq War. Startlingly honest and warm with affection for the people he meets, in My River Home Eriksen explains, through his own story, the allure of the military, the tragedy of modern war, and the courage it takes to fulfill a dream.
Ferner, Mike
Inside the Red Zone: A Veteran For Peace Reports from Iraq
Mike Ferner, a peace activist and journalist from Ohio, traveled to Baghdad twice, once just before the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and once again a year later. He provides a rare inside look into the daily life of Iraqis before and after the war as well as a collective profile of segments of the contemporary American peace movement that has thus far been hidden from public view. These stories have been gathered on the dusty streets of Baghdad and from tiny farming villages in the Sunni Triangle. We meet activists who are unarmed, trained civilians who put their bodies in between rival factions to promote peace, sitting in front of tanks and bulldozers and fasting in the desert on the Iraq-Kuwait border shortly before 130,000 U.S. troops invaded in 2003. We also are given an unvarnished view of everyday people in Iraq--cab drivers, an unemployed engineer, a newspaper editor, farmers in a rural village--all living their lives as normally as possible in the cauldron their country has become. The humanity of the people in these stories will resonate with people of all political persuasions because they go beyond the portrayal of Iraqis we're used to seeing in the news--as casualties, victims, grieving parents, and shell-shocked children. Instead, when Ferner gave presentations upon his return from Iraq, the comment he most often heard was, "These people are just like us. They're just like people we know."
Freeman, Jeffrey, Colonel, U.S. Army Reserve Retired - Wrong Enemy, Wrong War
Wrong, Enemy, Wrong War is set against a fictional conflict with Iraq in 1996-97 but with real life potential conseauences. Jeff served the Army for thirty-three years, active and Reserve duty, spanning five decades. He draws heavily on his thirteen years inside the Pentagon for this drama, including 2003-200, when he was recalled from retirement to assist in the research for the Joint Staff history of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Franklin, H. Bruce
- The Vietnam War: In American Stories, Songs and Poems
This is a collection of sixteen stories, five songs, and sixty-three poems representing a cross-cultural response to the complexities of responsibility in a free society.
Giffey, David Long Shadows: Veteran' Paths to Peace
A collaboration by Chapter 25 - Madison, WI.
These are veterans with a point of view whose trajectories of belief had many
different starting points, took many different paths, but in every case led to
an abhorrence of war.; anti-war feeling among veterans has not been given the
attention it deserves, and this volume is an attempt to correct that imbalance,
writes Howard Zinn in the Foreword. Veterans speak of war and peace with a
certain creditability that others lack. Having experienced war and peace more
intimately than many others, their responses and thoughts reflect the
life-defining or life-changing capacity of war. Long Shadows is a collection of
19 interviews with veterans who candidly discuss their paths from military
involvement to peace activism. Beginning with a veteran of the Abraham Lincoln
Brigade during the Spanish Civil War and ending with a veteran of the Iraq war,
each tells a unique story with an individual perspective, and yet, each echos
the message of the futility and destruction of war. The long shadows of war are
evident in each of the interviews, with each participant hoping that his or her
experience will inform others and contribute to the public discussion.
Gilroy, Jack -
Absolute Flanagan
With America at war in the Pacific and Atlantic in 1942, Peter Flanigan has reason to assert his
strong masculinity and pride of country by following his classmates and joining
the military.
His decision to march to the beat of a different drummer clashes with the
euphoria of war and patriotism. Flanigan refuses to register for the draft and
is sentenced to federal prison. When the United States Forestry Department
develops a shortage of firefighters, Flanigan accepts the offer to leave prison
punishment for the mountains of Montana
and an adventure that will change his life.
The Wisdom Box
Frank Brosnan is five when adopted by a college professor and a Catholic priest. The parents, secretly married, expose Frank to questions from a strange gold box in the professor's family for generations. Frank's value system, molded by his parents and Wisdom Box questions, lead him into dangerous confrontations with powerful forces of injustice.
Hideous Dreams is a fascinating account of his participation in the United States' military intervention in Haiti in 1994. As operations sergeant for a Special Forces detachment he is able to present a credible description of how strategic policy objectives were translated to the soldier on the ground dealing with the people of Haiti. In doing so Goff discloses a fundamental misconception among his fellow soldiers as to the real nature of the operation and their role within it. During the course of the book Goff becomes bitter, self-critical, outspoken, incisive and disenchanted and Hideous Dream is all the better for it...
Sex and War
The notion that war is intrinsic to man's nature is dealt a powerful setback in Stan Goff's 'Sex and War'. Goff, a former Special Forces sergeant, argues persuasively that rather than being born that way, men are made into killers by governments, corporations, and systems of power. Drawing both on his experiences in the military and on his reading of feminist writers such as Patricia Williams, bell hooks, and Chandra Mohanty - and as the father of a son stationed more than once in Iraq - Goff journeys through wars, ideologies, and cultures, revealing the transformation of men into killers. His story encompasses not just the battlefield and the book, but the Swift Boat Veterans controversy, the eros of George W. Bush, pornography, the Taliban, and gays and lesbians in the military. Goff's remarkable ability to connect his own personal experiences to contemporary feminist criticism makes for a provocative discussion of war and masculinity.
Grahlfs, Lincoln -
Undaunted: The story of a US Navy tug and her Crew
Lincoln Grahlfs grew up in the New York Metropolitan area, the son of a New York Times copy editor and an elementary school teacher. In October, 1942, just two months before his 20th birthday, he enlisted for six years in the US Navy, where he rose to the rank of Quartermaster First Class. After leaving the Navy, Grahlfs completed his education and spent the next four decades teaching undergraduate courses in sociology at several colleges.
Voices from Ground Zero: Recollections and Feelings of Nuclear Test Veterans
From the testing of an atomic bomb in 1945 until the test ban treaty in 1963, there were 235 acknowledged detonations of nuclear devices by the US government. Using interviews and questionnaires, this book analyses the memories of military personnel involved and the effect it had on their lives.
Grenough, Millie
- Oasis in the Overwhelm
OASIS in the Overwhelm: four proven strategies
to change your brain and your life. You can learn the OASIS Strategies in one
hour or less. You can use the strategies immediately in your daily life at work
and at home. They really do take only 60 seconds each. They will make a
positive difference in your life. People around you will be glad you are using
them.
OASIS Strategies have helped people from all walks of life find balance and
enjoyment. Try them for yourself.
Hanna, Peggy
- Patriotism, Peace and Vietnam: A Memoir
Though there's no shortage of Vietnam-era books,
Peggy Hanna's tale comes from a unique angle - that of a Midwestern Catholic
homemaker and "hawk" turned peace activist. Peggy gives a fascinating inside
look at just how far the outposts of the peace movement stretched. Its
epicenter may have been on college campuses, but, as Peggy shows, its ripples
were felt far into the small towns and ranch houses of the Midwest.
In times like these, the voices of "regular" people doing their part
to struggle for peace are more important than ever. Her voice is a worthwhile
addition to that chorus.
Check her webpage at www.peghanna.com for more.
Hermann, Kenneth
- Lepers and Lunacy: An American in Vietnam Today
Ken Herrmann, Jr., a Vietnam War veteran, has written a book about Vietnam, Lepers and Lunacy: An American in Vietnam Today that is a unique and fascinating account of a war veteran who returned to Vietnam, only to discover that he had never really left. It is a gripping and true story of a both personal and professional struggle. This book gives new meaning to the old adage; "Those who invade Vietnam never leave."
Hodge, James and Linda Cooper
- Disturbing the Peace: The Story of Father Roy Bourgeois and the Movement to Close the School of Americas
Maryknoll priest Roy Bourgeois has achieved national attention for leading the campaign to close the U.S. Army School of the Americas. From his Cajun roots in Louisiana to his stint as a Naval officer in Viet Nam, we follow the route that led Bourgeois to Maryknoll and his work in Latin America that awakened his conscience to the U.S. role in supporting oppression there. Since 1990 Father Bourgeois has campaigned against the School. He has served several years in federal prisons for civil disobedience and his witness has turned a spotlight on a record of shame and aroused the conscience of the nation. The protest every November attracts more than 10,000 people from around the country.
Janko, James
- Buffalo Boy and Geronimo
A medic during the Vietnam War, Janko makes his
novel debut with a look at the war's toll on the country's villagers. Nguyen
Luu Mong, a boy just entering adolescence, is caught between growing
responsibilities to kin, a boyhood he doesn't want to leave and the harsh
realities of foreign invasion. The narrative shifts back and forth between Mong
and Antonio Lucio, a medic appalled by the war's senseless destruction of the
countryside and of the native ways of life.
Janko's writing has a gentle, tactile quality that lends itself well to his
frequent use of interior monologue, but the emphasis on description and
introspection comes at the expense of plot movement. The story plods along with
little direction until the last 90 pages, when the villagers flee an attack and
Lucio goes AWOL. That the resolution isn't satisfying feels intentional, but
it's also frustrating.
Kidd, Jack
- Prevent War: A New Strategy For America
General Jack Kidd led bomber formations in World
War II. Today he is a champion of peace, and an advocate of peaceful settlement
of outstanding issues between governments without resort to force. His instinct
is sound. History shows that solutions imposed by force do not last. On the
other hand even if a solution is less than perfect, if it is a negotiated
settlement, it has a better chance of survival.
General Kidd believes in the use of international machinery as an additional
means of negotiation. He has innovative ideas for strengthening the machinery
for international negotiation and political settlement of outstanding issues
between governments and peoples. I salute General Kidd as an eloquent advocate
of peace. C.V. Narasimhan Former Under-Secretary General, United Nations for 23
years, serving three Secretary Generals
Kingston, Maxine Hong
- Veterans of War, Veterans of Peace
*Collective works of VFP Members Sharon Lee Kufeldt, Doug Zachary, Ted Sexauer, Tom Harriman, and Mike Wong (along with many many others)
This poignant collection, compiled from Kingston's healing workshops, contains the distilled wisdom of survivors of five wars, including combatants, war widows, spouses, children, conscientious objectors, and veterans of domestic abuse. Vetrans of War, Vetrans of Peace includes accounts from people that grew up in military families, served as medics in the thick of war, or came home to homelessness. All struggle with trauma - post-traumatic stress disorder, substance abuse, and other consequences of war and violence. Through their extraordinary writings, readers witness worlds coming apart and being put back together again through liberating insight, community, and the deep transformation that is possible only by coming to grips with the past.
Kyne, Dennis - Support the Truth
If you are among those who believe, the ribbon
or flag attached to your SUV, is the way to support the troops; this book's for
you!
In ten, tiny chapters of a 91 page booklet, Drill Sergeant, Dennis Kyne, your
guide through the Gulf War. In his 15-year hitch to the US Army, Dennis Kyne,
continues a proud family tradition of fighting for his country and our freedom.
If you are one of the soccer moms, the US Army has targeted with its
advertisements, offering "Discipline & College Money", for the
recruitment of that aimless 19 or 20 year old of yours; READ this book, before
you sign those papers or pack those bags. The friendly fire in Iraq, can wait.
Read as Sergeant Kyne, explains to the young recruits in his charge, some of
the Signs & Symptoms of the dreaded, Gulf War Syndrome.
Laufer, Peter
- Mission Rejected: US Soldiers Who Say No to Iraq
A Shattering journey of revelation, pain, and betrayal, Mission Rejected takes the reader deep into the turmoil of U.S. troops confronting the Iraq War. Some of these soldiers have decided not to fight in Iraq. Others, who have served in the "Sand Box" only to return so appalled by their experience and by what that experience has done to them, choose to declare, in the words of the old Phil Ochs song, "I'm not marchin' anymore!" Increasing numbers of U.S. soldiers are returning from Iraq horrified by what they witnessed and what they did. Journalist Peter Laufer tells how these soldiers are transformed from trained warriors to activists in the struggle to end the Iraq War. He puts their experiences into context by drawing on the lessons of the Vietnam War and citing the historical precedents for troops who refuse unconscionable orders. Mission Rejected probes the universal issue of resistance to war by the very men who chose to defend the nation.
Lee, Thomas
- Battlebabble: Selling War in America
Euphemisms sell war. From Operation Desert Storm to Operation Iraqi Freedom, and throughout the intervening years of deadly sanctions, a dense fog of rhetoric rose to hide the government's imperialistic ambitions and our brutality. Blunt realities of war have been smothered under layers of language. This book will play a role in the evolution of an increased sensitivity towards the deceptive words of war.
May, Gary -
Ending Disability
Discrimination: Strategies for Social Workers
Ending Disability Discrimination defines disability as a social construction, not as an immutable physical limitation, and gives social work students and practitioners a model that can be used to transform how people with disabilities are treated.
McGarrah, Jim - A Temporary Sort of Peace - A Memoir of Vietnam
In his memoir Jim McGarrah, today a poet and writer from southernIndiana, examines in detail his peacetime life growing up in Princeton, Indiana; his indoctrination into the cult of the Marines as a fledgling warrior in basic training at Parris Island in South Carolina ("a small cog of the ‘lean green fighting machine,'" McGarrah notes in the book); and his introduction to the life of a combat soldier in Vietnam observing bulging body bags at an air base's morgue in Da Nang and going to his first assignment armed with a malfunctioning M-16 rifle. Many years later, the former private first class, serial number 2371586, realized that for him, home had become "the jungles of Vietnam, the one place where life was at its best and worst simultaneously every minute of every day."
Mejia, Camilo - Road from Ar Ramadi: The Private Rebellion of Staff Seargant Camilo Mejia
Mejía, a veteran of the Iraq conflict,
became an antiwar hero when he refused to return to his unit and was
court-martialed in 2004 for desertion. His memoir is a blend of compelling war
narrative and dubious soapboxing. Mejía's claim to conscientious objector
status, after eight years in the U.S. military, months of combat and
a long campaign for a discharge, rings rather hollow. The son of prominent
Nicaraguan Sandinistas, he takes a view of the insurgents' "fight for
self-determination" that seems naïve ("[t]here seemed to be a unity
that spread through the differences among Iraqis") and his prose is laced
with clunky rhetoric about "the imperial dragon that devours its own
soldiers and Iraqi civilians alike for the sake of profit." Most powerful
are his firsthand experiences of prisoner abuse, senseless patrols that invite
insurgent attacks, discord among his demoralized comrades and their careerist
officers, and the constant brutalization of Iraqis by paranoid, trigger-happy
GIs. (In one incident, an irate soldier arrests an eight-year-old rock thrower,
who is then beaten by a local man desperate to appease the vengeful Americans.)
Those stories add up to an indelible portrait of the dirty war in the Sunni
triangle and Mejía's painful confrontation with his immoral complicity in it. (June)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All
rights reserved.
Milmore, John -
#1 Code Break Boy
#1 Code Break Boy" by John Milmore is a first person narrative by a decorated enlisted cryptanalyst about the United States Army communications intelligence effort - codebreaking, prior to and during the Korean War. Details the failure to anticipate both the North Korean attack and the Chinese intervention contrasted with the superb intelligence produced that assured the "Pusan Perimeter", the Inchon landing and the failure of the enemy spring offensive of 1951. Describes the efforts by the National Security Agency to suppress this information. Includes a technical description of Korean cryptography with the nuances of the language.
Melchior, Sam - The Legacy of War: Profiles of the 67 Brave Young Men from Evansville, IN Who Perished in the Vietnam War
These brave young men represented the best Evansville had to offer from the Vietnam Era. Read their profiles and you will likely find someone you know. Keep their legacy alive. They must not be forgotten.
Legacy of War is a 100% charitable project. The beneficiaries include the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, VFW Post 1114, and the Jennifer Solomon Hope Fund. You can read about them in the beneficiaries section.
From Library Journal: The frequently heroic, more often tragic saga of the veterans who fought in the
war and then fought against it is told in this gripping narrative, which takes
hold of the reader with its haunting cover and doesn't let go for almost 700
pages. While not a vet himself, Nicosia
(Memory Babe: A Critical Biography of Jack Kerouac) spent ten years compiling
600 interviews to write the definitive history of this little-understood
movement. The Vietnam Veterans Against the War was the most prominent veteran
antiwar organization, but it was only one of many loosely bound coalitions that
often fell prey to petty internal jealousies and government trickery. During
the war, the veterans were known for such prominent gatherings as Operation
Raw, a mass protest held at Valley Forge
Park in 1970, and Dewey Canyon III, a
memorable event held the following year in Washington that culminated in vets returning
their medals to the government in disgust. As Nicosia movingly relates, the greatest
struggles followed the war, as veterans battled for years to have Post
Traumatic Stress Disorder and cancer-inducing Agent Orange recognized as
maladies related to service.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of
print or unavailable edition of this title.
Orange, Michael -
Fire in the Hole: A Moratorium in Vietnam
How does a young man coming of age in the 1960s
go from seminarian to soldier? What can scare an average kid from Cleveland into killing
for his country? The answer: Vietnam-that
soul-sucking war that still invades dreams. After surviving a year of combat
and the loss of fellow Marines, Orange came home
in 1970 to another battlefield-Kent
State University,
where the Ohio National Guard gunned down his classmates.
Reeling and confused, he went from soldier to seaman on a Great
Lakes ore carrier. Then he became a hippie who fought against the
same war he once supported, the same war that stole his youth and innocence. Orange reflects on his
journey of tumult and tears from a vantage point of age and wisdom. This is a
survivor's tale, told with honesty and compassion for those who fought on both
sides of a conflict that sliced through the lives of so many.
O'Reilly, Genevieve - Chip on my Shoulder
Chip On My Shoulder is a story of the "army years" of Mickey O'Reilly. It begins when Mickey graduates nursing school and enlists in the Army Nurses Corps. To her amazement, she is one of the first in her class to be assigned overseas. Mickey heads off to war with her head in the stars, sustained by her faith in God and ready to use her abilities to heal both wounded bodies and souls in Italy and Africa during World War II. Her memoir is both humorous and dead serious as she touches on every day life in an evacuation hospital where sometimes the army brass and red tape combine to set her Irish temper flaring. Now an 84 year old grandmother, Mickey recounts her life and the lives of those who shared her tent, latrine and mess - with her heart wide open and sometimes her foot in her mouth.
Pogue, Alan - Witness for Justice: Documentary Photographs of Alan Pogue
Alan Pogue began taking photographs during the Vietnam War, prompted by "an urge to record what shocked me as well as what was beautiful." His desire to bear witness to the full range of human experience matured into a career in documentary photography that has spanned four decades and many parts of the globe from his native Texas to the Middle East. Working in the tradition of socially committed photographers such as Jacob Riis, Lewis Hine, and the photographers of the Farm Security Administration, particularly Russell Lee and Dorothea Lange, Pogue has been a witness for justice, using the camera to capture the human context and to call attention to conditions needing remediation.
This book offers a comprehensive visual survey of Alan Pogue's documentary photography. It opens with images of social protests of the 1960s and early 1970s, along with the countercultural scene around Austin, Texas, and prominent cultural and political figures, from William Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg to Ann Richards and George W. Bush. Following these are suites of images that record the often harsh conditions of farm workers, immigrants, and prisoners-groups for whom Pogue has long felt deep empathy. Reflecting the progression of Pogue's career beyond Texas and the Southwest, the concluding suites of images capture social conditions in several Latin American and Caribbean countries (El Salvador, Nicaragua, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Mexico, and Haiti), the effects of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on ordinary people, and the lives and privations of Iraqis between the two recent wars.
Powell, Mary Reynolds
- A World of Hurt: Between Innocence & Arrogance in Vietnam
"This work is a gripping human story which reminds me of Paco's Story; Dispatches; A Rumor of War and Home Before Morning, all great contributions about the insanity of the Vietnam War. Powell's book is a passionate, moving and among the 'must' read of human tragedy, sorrow, and humor which are embedded in chaos and existential malaise of the 'heart of darkness' known some 35 years later as, the Vietnam War."
John P. Wilson, PhD.
Powell, Wilson "Woody"
- Two Walk the Golden Road
Neither Zhou Ming-fu nor Wilson M. Powell knew, when each trod the barren battlefields of Korea, that their lives would one day be entwined in a remarkable story of compassion, courage and faith. Powell, son of a renowned American physicist and Zhou, son of a Chinese street merchant, came to embrace the vision of a world without war. Their chance meeting, on a moonlit street in Chengdu, began a journey that would overcome their fears and doubts and open wide the door of friendship.
Rayle, Diego
- The Trial of Billy Running Dog
Rayle's Native viewpoints are anchored in cement as he travels full circle to convey his perception of what it is like to be an urban Indian in today's grossly insensitive "Dominant Society." The book is highly controversial and political correctness is systematically averted. However, in this pulp fiction meets magical realism novel which is part thriller, part romance and part history book, Rayle delivers his profound insights with extreme precision. Billy Running Dog, a former Army advisor (CIA operative) in South Vietnam who has an iron constitution coupled with a debilitating case of PTSD and bipolar disorder, views the world from a perspective of simple spirituality. He steadfastly refuses to compromise his bludgeoned spirit even as external forces wreak havoc with his psyche. The Trial of Billy Running Dog is for everyone who isn't afraid to venture into the realm of introspection.
Cast from Shackles
This book was inspired by actual events,
documenting Diego's journey, portrayed by fictional character Joseph Roberts,
from Vietnam War protester/draft resister to bush warrior. It exemplifies the
mental abuse, blatant racism and utter hypocrisy a radical, draft card burning,
Latino adolescent endures before adhering to the natural progression of events.
Joseph, who is a walking contradiction, falls prey to the absurd, enlists in
the Army and volunteers for a tour of duty with the Infantry in the Republic of Vietnam. After heading off to "The
Living-Room War" that defined and literally rocked the 60s, he returns
with a heroin and guilt addiction that totally discombobulates him. Cast From
Shackles is dedicated to all Vietnam War veterans and antiwar demonstrators and
protesters.
Stay out of the Wheat Field
Rayle's first book is a creative nonfiction narrative detailing his arduous, spirit-scarring tour of duty in the fetid jungles of Southeast Asia during the Second Indochina War. It is also based on the combat experiences of Denny Schaffner and Steve Ward.
Steinman, Louise - The Souvenir: A Daughter Discovers Her Father's War
When Norman Steinman a member of the 25th Infantry Division, which
fought in the Philippines in 1945 died in 1990, he left behind a box
full of WWII letters (more than 400), later discovered by his daughter.
Among the souvenirs was a small Japanese flag, inscribed with words
Louise could not read. She had them translated and found that the flag
had belonged to a Japanese soldier. Obsessed, Steinman began her search
for him or his family. This small book, a moving memoir about
reconciliation and honor, is her tale of her successful quest, her trip
to Japan to return the flag and the friendships she forged along the
way. Steinman visited the battlefields on Luzon in which her father
battled the weather, jungle and Japanese. This volume contains many of
his letters, published here for the first time, that show typical G.I.
behavior, attitudes toward the enemy and longing for good food and
friends back home. Steinman's visit to Hiroshima helped her to
understand the war from the Japanese point of view. In coming to
understand her father and his postwar behavior, Steinman discovers how
real WWII can become to a survivor's family. (Oct.)Forecast: This
quiet, heartfelt book is the perfect contrast to all the Pearl Harbor
50th anniversary bombast, telling another side of the war's story. Baby
boomers with veteran parents will relate, as will some vets. Look for
solid sales.
Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.
Tick, Edward
- War and the Soul
The Pratice of Dream Healing
Post-traumatic stress disorder increasingly afflicts veterans of modern warfare. The New England Journal of Medicine (July 2005) reports that it affects almost 20 percent of soldiers returning from Iraq. Clinical psychotherapist Edward Tick exposes the characteristic devastation of soul that occurs as a result of participation in warfare and traces a path for the veteran's identity transformation from wounded or disabled veteran to honorable returned warrior. This book will change the way we think about war, for veterans and for all those who love and want to help them.
The Practice of Dream Healing
From his practice of treating severely traumatized Vietnam veterans in the late '70s and '80s, psychotherapist Edward Tick came to believe that traditional Western medicine could not adequately heal deeply wounded souls and he embarked on an exploration of healing practices worldwide. His search brought him to ancient Greece and what he claims are the roots of modern medicine. In The Practice of Dream Healing: Bringing Ancient Greek Mysteries into Modern Medicine, Tick (Sacred Mountain) introduces readers to the Greek mythological figure of Asklepios, who was believed to be the first spiritual healer or psychiatrist and to those today who practice his spiritual healing methodology, including a cardiologist turned psychiatrist and a Christian priest. Tick takes readers along on the healing journeys he has experienced and witnessed in others.
Topmiller, Robert -
Red Clay on my Boots
Broken hearts, ruined minds, wrecked families,
and shattered lives are all realities of the Vietnam War. Real people suffered
because of the fighting, death, and tragedies that occured at the battle of Khe
Sanh. This is a story of a Vietnam
corpsman immersed in the bloodiest, most confusing, and controversial battle of
the Vietnam War.
As the war ends, the author tries to re-build his life but finds his mind and
heart are still on the battlefield in Vietnam. How did this happen? Why
did I survive? When will the nightmares end? Was it all for nothing? He has
been fighting his own internal war for the last forty years. This is his story.
Robert Topmiller entered the U.S. Navy in 1966 at age seventeen and trained to
be a Hospital Corpsman. He served in South Vietnam in 1968 with the 26th
Marines during the battle of Khe Sanh. Topmiller received his B.A. and M.A.from Central
Washington University
and his Ph.D. from the University
of Kentucky. Currently,
he serves as an Assistant Professor of History at Eastern Kentucky
University where he
teaches World History and the History of the Vietnam War.
Uhl, Michael
- Vietnam Awakening
A vividly honest memoir of, first experiences in Vietnam as a counterintelligence lieutenant in the 11th Infantry, and second, the author's immediate postwar years in the anti-war veterans movement as the CCI's national veteran coordinator.
EXTRAORDINARY MEMOIR: I found PENUCQUEM SPEAKS totally fascinating, unlike anything else I've ever read. I don't know of anyone who has had the unique experience Ron has had, of living in two cultures, and therefore being in a position to learn from that. Quite an amazing trajectory, from Vietnam to Blackfeet culture. And Ron's analysis of Whiteman thinking, Whiteman culture, fundamentalism, the difference between Jesus and Paul -- all very interesting to me. Ron West brings us back to what Indian culture cherished, the equality of women, the preservation of nature, everything that "progress" and "civilization" have corrupted. - HOWARD ZINN
Wise, Dayl
- Post Traumatic Press 2007
poems by veterans, Dayl Wise, Editor
This book tells the stories of veterans with direct experience of the military. For some, the intense experience of war can only be expressed in poetry, while others are driven by the need to say something openly political. This chapbook includes veterans from World War II, the Cold War, Vietnam War, peace time and the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Contributors: Camillo "Mac" Bica, Richard Boes, Thomas Brinson, Michael Embrich, Michael Gillen, Marc Levy, Bob Lusk, Gerald McCarthy, Jim Murphy, Fred Nagel, Ron Thompson, Robert "Tack" Trostle, Jose Vasquez, Jay Wenk, Dan Wilcox, Sam Weinreb and Larry Winters. Some of these US veterans are seasoned writers, who have been published before. For others, this is their first time writing, their first time out crossing that line in public.
All works are poems, songs, short stories or spoken word with the exception of chapter 10 of Richard Boes' book The Last Dead Soldier Left Alive.
All proceeds go to Veterans for Peace...and its tax deductible. To order your
copy, send $12 plus $3 shipping to:
Post Traumatic Press
Dayl Wise, Editor
104 Orchard Lane North,
Woodstock, NY 12498
dswbike@aol.com
Make checks payable to:
VFP Catskill Mountain Chapter 058
Write "PTP 2007" in memo line
Wright, Ann
- DISSENT: Voices of Conscience
During the run-up to war in Iraq, Army Colonel (Ret.) and diplomat Ann Wright resigned her State Department post. She was one among dozens of government insiders and active-duty military personnel who leaked documents, spoke out, resigned, or refused to deploy in protest of government actions they felt were illegal. In Dissent: Voices of Conscience, Ann Wright and Susan Dixon tell the stories of these men and women, who risked careers, reputations, and even freedom out of loyalty to the Constitution and the rule of law.