Voices of African American Veterans of the Vietnam War: A Collection of Personal Accounts

luther c. benton, lll: this is a very good copy, and at a great cost.

United States on Jul 23, 2023

George: This book was so authentic and worded in their own language and you could feel it. Its a very good book and a must read that will let you know some of the heroism that was barely mentioned or recognized by history tellers and also what people of color went through while serving their country in the Viet Nam War.

United States on Jul 14, 2023

Bashear Deen: The author did a splendid job in terms of interviewing the African American soldiers, and it gave me some insight to what I felt at the time versus what I actually knew. These soldiers prior to 1969 were regular enlisted men, professionals, that accepted the kool-aid associated with the American propaganda of the Communist domino theory. After 1969, most of the black soldiers were conscripts that were not accepting the kool-aid, didn't buy into that madness, and were not putting up with the typical racist conduct that seems to follow every American institution wherever it happens to go. It appeared that the US may have been on the verge of a domestic race war in the ranks carried 12,000 miles away from the American shores, and may have been the well kept secret of why it was time to cut its losses and curtail its stay in Viet Nam as it went deeper into the 1970s. Had that racial top blew off in the US Military it would have been a major embarrassment discussed to the US's detriment around the world.

United States on Aug 21, 2022

Hai Le: Amazing book. Loved it. Terry Wallace is phenomenal

United Kingdom on Jan 25, 2021

SML: A brilliant book that provides a pure record on those Black people who served in Vietnam. They excelled themselves, and got the respect of the “Caucasian” officers in Nam, however on return home, they were hardly acknowledged. Some officers did not want to maintain eye contact. A large of the Black soldiers, more than their percentages in the populace or in the services, were placed in the front line of fire, while the “white” boys were always in the rear. The Black soldiers seem to suffer a higher degradation in rank when they challenged an officer who tried to be rude because they had not been to Vietnam or had no combat experience. Just wonder why a “white” officer, asks a Black soldier if they were entitled to have wings and medals on their uniform, all because they were jealous of the Black mans achievements - contrary to whatever they had been taught growing up or in West Point. This happened attitudes was prevalent in the First World War, when a whole Black regiment - The Hellfighters- were handed over to French Command; all because they were Black. Nothing has changed. America is rotten at its core. Most of the soldiers, if not all did not understand the...

Canada on Aug 19, 2020

DACHokie: I remember seeing this book as a teenager over 30 years ago in a local mall’s Walden Bookstore. I’m sure I passed on the book in favor of a World War II book. All these years later, I immediately recognized the cover of this book (a Soldier/Marine throwing a grenade) in a list of suggested Vietnam books and felt compelled to finally read it … I’m glad I did.

The first book I ever bought about the Vietnam War was Al Santoli’s “Everything We Have”. I loved the format of that book because it let 33 veterans tell their stories … in their own words. BLOODS follows the same format. Wallace Terry provides the (very) personal stories of 20 Black American servicemen who served in Vietnam. Like Santoli’s book, BLOODS offers a wide perspective of experiences … different service branches and ranks, draftees, career-military, varying degrees of combat experience and as prisoners of war. As diverse as the individual stories are, they all share a common denominator: being black and fighting for a country that was still predominantly segregated as they served and sacrificed.

Wallace Terry provides a perspective of the American serviceman during the Vietnam War...

United States on Oct 20, 2017

DIVE the GYM: A book of its time. I enjoyed the read as I have read a lot about the Vietnam war as it was on the TV when I was 19. The contributors (not all) were very concerned with the injustice of their treatment by society whilst treating the Vietnamese as almost a sub human species. Read with other books it completes the picture of that war and period

United Kingdom on Aug 21, 2017

Donald van Geete: great

Canada on Aug 20, 2016

tookey: interesting and worth the cheap price

United Kingdom on Feb 04, 2016

Tim Johnson: I finished this remarkable book several hours ago and I am afraid that it will stay with me forever; there are memories of events that will never leave me and I have no idea how the people actively involved in those events will ever outlive their memory.

Vietnam was my war; I was supposed to participate in it's patriotic overview but instead I grew enough between finishing high school in '65 and scoring a high number in the draft lottery in January of '71 (I think that date is right) to become 4F and miss the mental carnage of that terrible conflict.

How can any person forget the horror of the incidents chronicled in these 291 ages? And when you think you have read about the worst, along comes Arthur Woodley's story on page 236 and you enter a whole new world of actions you had tangetially read about in the main-stream media decades ago and here it is presented as a memoir of one of the guys who carried out some of those actions. I fully admit that I am not mature enough at 60 to read that these things happened to people so I have the Fates to thank for denying me the right to be a participant--the VC I could probably handle, breaking bread with these guys would been...

United States on Jun 08, 2007