Customer Reviews

Bloods: Black Veterans of the Vietnam War: An Oral History

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is similar to Santoli's book regarding individual experiences in the Vietnam conflict. You definitely get a feel for the Vietnam experience, and it is very readable. The narratives portray the unique challenges of this experience, along with the added dimension of the race issue. The range of assessments of the racial issue was amazing and educational for me; some of the vets had active civil-rights values and even revolutionary values before getting to Vietnam, and some had little or no opinions regarding race relations despite the turbulent times. The great range of views regarding whites and the dominant U.S. culture, including government, was intriguing. The attitudes toward the Vietnamese, both North- and South-, also held great range, and was fascinating. This leads me to feel that the strength of this memorable book is the common experience conveyed simultaneously with the diversity of experiences and attitudes.

My only disappointment was that I could not tell the manner in which the narratives were elicited. Were these vets asked to describe their Vietnam experience? Were they asked to explain what it was like to be a Black soldier?

This book is on the "Recommended Reading List" of Vietnam Veterans of America, Chapter 295, Indianapolis, Indiana

If you really want the full story of the men and wormen who served in the Vietnam war, Wallace Terry's book is must be read. "Read it, share it, discuss it with other vetrans, and put it on your library shelf." This fact filled story of black soliders in Vietnam is gripping.

Two hundred Vietnam veterans were asked to rank l00 novels and non-fiction books that came out of the Vietnam War. Five "oral histories" were in the top fifteen books. BLOODS was one of them. The other four? A PIECE OF MY HEART, EVERYTHING WE HAD, NAM: AN ORAL HISTORY and CASUALTIES. Get them.

I would love to respond to all of the comments and customer reviews. My name is Traci Daniels, and my father Robert L. Daniels, one of the soldiers profiled in this book, just passed away on January 3rd, 2008. I was in the picture with him in the book and am now a 27 year old successful businesswoman. My father and I were fiercely close, and the pain, mental and physical anguish that he suffered due to Vietnam still lives on with the current conflict in Iraq. I, too, would also love to know what happened to some of the other participants in the book. Please respond if you are out there, and God bless you.

"Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War by Black Veterans," by Wallace Terry, brings together the voices of 20 veterans. The book includes, as Terry notes in his introduction, "Enlisted men, noncommissioned officers, and commissioned officers. Soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines." Also included are men who served time as prisoners-of-war. Altogether the time spent by these men in Vietnam spans from 1963 to 1973.

This is a diverse and compelling collection of personal stories. The men in the book held a wide variety of military jobs in Vietnam, among them rifleman, combat engineer, medic, interpreter, combat photographer, electronic warfare officer, armorer, combat paratrooper, and more. The veterans discuss many topics: racism, interracial friendship and bonding, receiving and recovering from wounds, wartime atrocities, and post-Vietnam life.

It's hard to pick out a few representative stories from this rich and rewarding collection, but I'll try. One man describes his work as an activist for incarcerated veterans after the war; another discusses becoming a champion amputee athlete after being disabled in Vietnam; another fondly remembers one of the war's military working dogs. Fred Cherry's graphic account of his suffering as a POW is devastating. Dwyte Brown's memories of the inland R&R spot-a "paradise"-make for an ironic and enjoyable contrast to some of the grimmer entries. And Sergeant Major Edgar Huff's chapter recalls not just Vietnam, but a Marine Corps career that spanned three decades.

Terry's text masterfully captures vernacular speech. I could really imagine these veterans speaking the words. The book also includes black-and-white photographs; a glossary of military terms, acronyms, and slang; and a chronology of the Vietnam War. Moving and powerful, "Bloods" is, in my opinion, an important contribution to the fields of African-American studies and military history.

As an new age Army veterian, I have had the opputunity to read many books about Veitnam, but when I found Mr. Wallace Terry Book, I was amased that I can finally read about the black soldier prospective. Over the years I find myself picking up this book again and again, I have 5 copy's in my collects now, To those who want to know how it was during those time, take my advice get the book...

I saw the movie "dead presidents" before i read this book. After i read one of the stories in the book, i realized the hughes brothers basically stole there idea for there movie from this book. Don't get me wrong, i love the movie and this book is an amazing read. I'm feeling the hughes brothers should have given credit where it is due though. If you liked the movie, this book is a must read and vice versa.

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 suicidal.

Anyone living through the Fifties and Sixties and even into the Seventies probably, could not avoid the heavy veneer of racism glued, seemingly permanently, to American society. It was a cancer that sapped the society of the very goodness that it so desired to demonstrate to the rest of the "uneducated and undemocratic" world. Any reader must, as I was, be struck by the horrendous racial slurs, both words and activities, in that "Christian" society; a scratch, regardless of how minute, would immediately open to view the putrefaction of this racism. I am reminded, again of Woodley's emotionally draining description of the American guy he had to shoot because the guy begged him to end his misery: there was no hope of medical treatment, he had already been suffering for several days before he was found and the maggots were eating his flesh while he was still alive. These maggots are a metaphor for the racism eating American society; at least however, the soldier knew what was happening but many, many Americans did not. This race question is a companion to the terrible story of war within these pages; it is the canvas upon which Terry has painted the tasles of these men fighting for "freedom."

In short, even after 23 years since publication, Bloods is a massively difficult read--attempt it only after a strong whiskey and the
fore-knowledge of what is to come as nthe book unfolds..

This is a great book. Each chapter is a different story by a black veteran, however not every story deals with being black. It really drives home what Vietnam was like by giving the reader first hand information from those who were there. I must say this book can be a bit gruesome and I don't recommend reading it before bedtime!