Customer Reviews

Blacks in America's Wars: The Shift in Attitudes from the Revolutionary War to Vietnam

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A myth has grown up that the military is a pro Black institution that has been a "successful" example of the "integration" of Blacks and other minorities into US society. Mullen destroys that myth in this succinct, clear, and well-documented history. The racist military has always resisted Black humanity, even when Blacks struggled to win the revolutionary victories if 1776 and provided the decisive element in winning the Civil War. The forgotten chapter, the one the most lies are spread about, Vietnam, discloses the real relations between the military and Blacks at a time an ongoing and independent thinking Black movement was rising up. Read Mullen if only for his picture of black radical opposition to the brass, to the war, the whole idea both from within and without the US war machine during the war against the peoples of Indochina.

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A concise overview of Afro-American participation and attitudes towards military service, both volunteer and by forced conscription, in two-centuries of U.S. wars. I didnt know a lot of the specific facts, especially about early wars from the 1776 American Revolution on, until I read this book..

Mullen starts from the reality of Afro-Americans in U.S. society, from slavery to Jim Crow segregation, to todays racist oppression. I found especially interesting his discussion of the attitudes of Afro-Americans towards serving in the U.S. military, at times hoping that combat service would help them win equality at home, and later, especially during the 1950s and 1960s, growing opposition to U.S. wars. Also the discussion of the long-standing efforts to fight segregation and discrimination within the military. Mullens coverage of the views of different leaders of the civil rights and Black power movements of the 1960s towards the U.S. war in Vietnam is well worth reviewing today.

Dont miss the many photos and illustrations: they certainly help bring the issues and struggles covered here vividly to life.