Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

I was the weapons platoon leader of Delta company during this operation. I was not interviewed by David Maraniss as I have been living in a black hole for the past 37 years and didn't want to be found or talk about it. I have since written and talked to Maraniss. The story of the Black Lions is factually correct and his descriptions of the soldiers involved is also correct. He brings a personal face to the participants unfettered by any political agenda and shows them as they were. Clark Welch was my company commander and his charisma and ability were so superior that Maraniss positive description hardly does justice to the man. I don't see how it could unless one was there. Maraniss portraits of the others are equally valid. Several things I was unaware of were revealed in the book. Col Triet the PAVN commander threw a regiment against us. At the time we thought it had only been a batallion. It amazes me that anyone managed to get out alive! General Hay the 1st Division commander managed to show up in the NDP when the battle was over. He was told that David Stroup the Delta company 3rd platoon leader deserved a silver star for gallantry. Hay found Stroup sitting under a tree crying as he had only 4 people left in his platoon. Hay said "This man doesn't deserve anything" and strode past. Nevertheless Hay awarded himself a silver star even though he wasn't there during the battle! If you really want to know the face of war then read this book.

"They Marched into Sunlight" is without doubt the best book I've read this year, and should be a top contender for the '03 Pulitzer in History. Maraniss is an exceptionally skilled storyteller, a talent he displayed in abundance in his excellent Vince Lombardi biography, "When Pride Still Mattered." In "Sunlight," he chronicles two events that occurred half a world apart on October 17, 1967: the ambush of two under-manned companies of the U.S. First Infantry Division ("Big Red One") in Vietnam, and the violent clash between police and student demonstrators who were attempting to block Dow Chemical Co. (the maker of naplam) from recruiting on the Univ of Wisconsin campus. Maraniss adroitly weaves a coherent, engaging narrative from these disparate events (no easy task), producing a thoroughly entrancing work. There are many heart-rending stories depicted --- for example, Col. Terry Allen, son of the legendary Big Red One general in WWII, and Major David Holleder, a former West Point All-American, both of whom are slain in the battle. The painful dissolution of his marriage -- and the selfish perfidy and betrayal by his wife -- add special poignance to Allen's story.

We also learn of ironic coincidences ("connections," Maraniss calls them). For example, the improbable marriage between the son of an anti-Dow protestor and the daughter of a Vietnam ambush survivor. Or the significance of "knocks on wood." On the one hand, the popular Eddie Floyd song, hummed continually for good luck by a sergeant; on the other, the secret signal employed by the VC to trigger the deadly ambush.

Particularly with the Wisconsin story, Maraniss presents a multitude of voices and perspectives -- administrators, law enforcement officials, protest organizers (including the self-proclaimed "resident demagouge"), bystanders and apolitical students who became radicalized by horror they witness. However, in a very large cast of characters -- I found myself continually consulting the alphabetical listing at the front of the book to keep everyone straight: "Okay, that's the girl from New Jersey, who missed her French exam . . ." -- the one voice we don't hear is students' who were denied the opportunity to interview with Dow. What did they think of the takeover of the Commerce Building? Or the decision to deploy the police to clear it? What about the trammeling of THEIR rights? What happened to them later? What careers did they pursue? The viewpoint of one or two of these students would have added to the narrative.

Even in spite of that one shortcoming, "Sunlight" is a easily a five-star work, a compelling story -- actually two stories -- superbly told in the hands of Maraniss.

In closing, I want to observe that it is amazing how many people with cameo roles in the Wisconsin story would go on to greater noteriety -- Melvin Laird, Lynn and Dick Cheney, Tommy Thompson, David Keene, James Sensenbrenner, to name just a few.

After reading Maraniss' biographies of Bill Clinton and Vince Lombardi, I expected this book to be great, and I was not disappointed. Weaving two narratives together - one dealing with the ambush of American troops in Vietnam, the other one of the first anti-war protests at the University of Wisconsin - Maraniss almost literally puts the reader right in the middle of the action in tumultuous 1967. Each story is riveting, and I was most fascinated by the fact that I was able to identify with nearly everyone in the book, whether they were a freshman protester at the University of Wisconsin or a 20-year old kid fighting in Vietnam. Maraniss' ability to convey each person's motivations and thoughts is the key to this being such a compelling book. While it will certainly be of interest to history buffs, war buffs, ex-hippies and ex-soldiers, this book really is as much about human nature and what motivates us as much as anything else. I wasn't yet born when the action in this book took place, and it was interesting for me to see what America was like 36 years ago. There are certainly many parallels to what is happening in Iraq, the decisions everyday people and people in high places are making ... The epilogue is beautiful, and gets to a central point of the book: as much as the war in Vietnam divided the country, that shared experience can serve as a bridge to bring people together, people who "fought" for America in very different ways ...

Having grown up in Wisconsin, with both a brother in Nam and a brother protesting in Madison, this is the best I have read that covers the 'whole' picture of the 'Viet Nam' conflict.
Excellent research and an honest rendition of the times and people involved.
Maraniss does an examplerary job of telling the 'story' from the view of all sides involved.
ABSOLUTELY a must read for anyone trying to understand not only the 'Anti-War' movement of the 60's... but also the politics of war and war protesting today.

On Sunday, November 2, I met David Maraniss at the Vietnam Wall in Washington. Members of the West Point class of 1956 were there to honor our classmate Don Holleder. We gave Maraniss a round of applause for capturing so well the battle where Holleder was killed and the life that Holleder lived as a great athlete, leader and friend. This book is a fair-minded treatment of a terrible and tragic event in US military history. But the book also captures with great skill other important events in the month of October, 1967.

Nearly everyone knows the official story of the Vietnam War: the war was the worst military mistake the United States has ever made, although the government would be hesitant to admit it. But most people do not realize that U.S. citizens were also waging battles among themselves during the Vietnam War. While soldiers fought in vain in a foreign land thousands of miles away, civilians at home fought a sort of civil war. David Maraniss, author of They Marched Into Sunlight, happened to see the connection between war afar and at home and wrote a book about it. To make this connection even more visible, Maraniss writes about a battle (Operation Shenandoah II) and student protest (at the University of Wisconsin) that occurred on the same day: October 17, 1967.
After introducing and giving background information about the many characters in this book, Maraniss describes Operation Shenandoah II, which was fought in the Long Nguyen Secret Zone of Vietnam. A battle that was supposed to be a confident victory for the Black Lions, a battalion of the First Infantry Division, turned into a devastating ambush by the Viet Cong. Sixty-one U.S. soldiers died this day, and nearly as many were injured. The fortunate men of the Black Lions who happened to survive became different men. Through personal accounts and interviews, the reader learns that the confident became scared, the fighters became jaded. For example, after being injured during Operation Shenandoah II, Ernie Buentiempo saw no point in following military rules any longer. He refused to salute higher-ranking officers and smoked marijuana without regard to the consequences. "What are they gonna do?" he said. "Send me to Vietnam? We're already in hell. Put me in jail? Thanks!"
The reader also learns just how impossible it was for the U.S. to win the Vietnam War. Not only were our soldiers fighting in completely foreign territory, but they were also fighting an unknown enemy. The Viet Cong would do anything to defeat our military without regard to how many deaths it meant on their side. The North Vietnamese had a sneaky strategy: get close enough to the enemy that their artillery and air power would not be effective. As Maraniss points out many times throughout the book, the catch phrase of the Viet Cong was truth and falsehood, falsehood and truth. They would make the enemy believe one thing, then surprise them with the complete opposite. This is what the soldiers of the Black Lions experienced. Expecting a victory, they instead ran into almost complete annihilation.
While the Black Lions lost in Vietnam, another ineffective battle was being fought stateside. The `hawks and doves,' as they were called, fought amongst themselves about continuing the war or having peace. A turning point in the peace movement occurred at the University of Wisconsin on October 17, 1967. Previous protests at the university and throughout the country had been nonviolent. But when hundreds of Wisconsin students protested recruiting by the Dow Chemical Company (makers of napalm and Agent Orange during the Vietnam War) on their campus, tactics by the protesters and police changed. Scores of students and police were injured that day when the police used their clubs to force students away, and the students fought back.
The protest at the University of Wisconsin highlighted the problems that existed at home, not just in Vietnam. Violent protest defeated the purpose of the peace movement. Supporters of the war argued that protesters were unpatriotic and aiding the Viet Cong. Those against the war even felt turmoil within themselves. Many often questioned whether it was fair that they were able to protest the war, while those who could not afford to attend college were in Vietnam dying for the U.S. But on the other hand, Maraniss points out that the protesters brought to light the incredible violations of civil liberties that began taking place during the Vietnam War. Agents of the FBI, for example, used to disguise themselves as insurance agents on buses traveling to anti-war rallies. They would get information from the protesters (such as names, addresses, and social security numbers) to start files on the protesters, a completely illegal act. The protesters were not just trying to end the war in Vietnam, they were also fighting for their rights within the U.S.
Maraniss very effectively connects the war in Vietnam and the anti-war movement at home. Some reviews of They Marched Into Sunlight complain that Maraniss's book makes no such connection and really has no purpose. On the contrary, Maraniss just makes his point in a different way than to what readers are accustomed. For once we do not simply get the official, documentary view of a war. Maraniss uses emotional personal accounts to bring alive the history of the Vietnam War. Throughout the book, it seems obvious that Maraniss was against the war. But he never interjects his own opinion - he lets those who lived the war tell its story. And as a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist should, he points out the good and bad of all sides of the war - those who strategized, those who fought, those who protested, and those who found themselves in the middle of it all. They Marched Into Sunlight deserves four stars for attempting to provide truth in such a personal way to a war that will never be completely uncovered.

This book is a must read for anyone who has an interest in Viet Nam and the turmoil and rending of our society that the war created. The story of the men from the 2/28 of the Big Red One, and battle that took place on October 17, 1967, is incredibly well researched and told. The book is worth reading for that alone.

But the book also gives the reader a fascinating look at the dynamics of the campus protest at the the University of Wisconsin, and the students that became part of, or were what came to be called the counter culture.

In October of 1967 I was just getting out of the Army after being drafted and spending a year in Viet Nam. I was in the 1st Battlion 18th Infrantry of the First Infranty Divison, which was a sister battlion of the 2/28. After getting out of the Army I enrolled at Kent State, so I experienced both sides of the battles in Viet Nam and the battles that were starting to take place on college campuses around America. From that perspective I highly recommend this book to everyone of my generation and also to our children's generation.

I am a Vietnam Veteran, though I was not a Black Lion. One of my best friends was expelled from the University of Wisconsin for his involvement in anti-war activities. He was still enrolled when the events in the book were occurring. We agreed to both read the book and mutually assess the accuracy of Maraniss' accounts so far as we could from our own experiences. We both felt the depictions of our own perspectives to be very accurate. And of course we both learned about the other's perspectives, each improving our understanding of the other.

Author David Maraniss has matched his earlier book on Vince Lombardi with a well-researched effort on a turbulent period in America's history as he focuses on a few days in October of 1967. The book's focus is what is going on in Washington, Vietnam, and the college campus on the University of Wisconsin in Madison, Wisconsin. The book has a cast of numerous characters, and the author alphabetizes the names of each according to those in Vietnam, Washington, and Madison for reference along with a short description of each person. Maraniss provides us with a description of the personality of each character as their role develops throughout the book. What the soldiers in Vietnam saw as an ambush they walked into was not perceived as such by the nabobs in Washington as Washington made it out to be a victory against the Viet Cong. General Hay being awarded a Silver Star for a battle he wasn't even a part of while denying a medal to someone who was makes him an embarrassment. A good portion of the book focuses on the campus at Madison as students protested the Dow Chemical Company conducting interviews on the campus since it was Dow that produced napalm and Agent Orange. The epilogue having Delta commander Clark Welsh, a daughter of commander Terry Allen who was killed in the ambush, author Maraniss, and Von Minh Triet of the Viet Cong, along with a few others making a pilgrimage to the site of the battlefield over thirty years later is an appropriate ending to the book. The book is over 500 pages, but it is certainly worth your time.

This is an exceptionally well researched book of the state of America during the Vietnam War @ home and abroad. By overlaying a devastating ambush in Vietnam causing massive American casualties with a protest at the Univ. of Wisconsin Madison campus, Marinuss shows the full range of the American perspective as it was impacted by the war. But in addition to these two viewpoints, Marinuss also reconstructs meetings inside the White House and at Military headquarters as they debate the merits of the war and the political ramifications. Marinuss does a great job showing the anguish in the country as well as in the White House.

While the total book is engrossing and filled with facts reconstructing the mood of the county, I actually found the mood of American political and military leaders most interesting. Clearly, LBJ was caught in a quagmire and regretted the course in which he had led the country. Military leaders come off much worse with continued misinformation to attempt to mislead the American public as to the status of the war. Most telling is after this horrible ambush, not only do the leaders refuse to call it an ambush, they grossly misstate the Viet Cong killed to give the appearance that more were killed than Americans and therefore it must be an American victory. This is sad as many brave Americans were slaughtered and this misinformation does them no justice.

I strongly recommend this book for anyone with interest in the real Vietnam War both home and abroad. Also, I recommend this book for anyone wanting to know what it was like living in America in the 60s. One word of caution. This book is a commitment of over 400 pages in small print. While this is very well researched, if I have one complaint, the author seemed to want to tell the complete story of every character he introduced and therefore at times in can be long and slow and slightly off topic.

As a final note, for any soldiers reading this, I applaud you on performing your duty in very trying times. Your sacrifice was no less than anyone in other wars and went a long way in forcing America to evaluate such conflicts prior to sending American soldiers on foreign soil.