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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The second front of the anti-Vietnam War Movement,
By Kate Berman (Austin, Texas) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Waiting out a war;: The exile of Private John Picciano (Hardcover)
Waiting Out a War by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Lucinda Franks presents a crucial look at the amnesty issue for American GI's who "deserted" during the Vietnam war by focusing on one Army deserter, Private John Picciano. Frank's book is the most valuable of three books that look at American exiles--the second front of the anti-war movement-- during the Vietnam era. Two other books, The New Exiles by Roger Neville Williams and American Deserters in Sweden by Father Thomas Lee Hayes while excellent, do not match Frank's ability to capture the place, time and issues facing these courageous Americans. John Picciano is representative of those called upon to fight the Vietnam war. Born in 1947 in the small New Jersey mill town of Lodi, "a place of pizza parlors, bowling alleys, and corner bars" his parents were Italian immigrants who assimilated quickly into post-war American life and took their place as flag-waving conservatives. A working-class kid with no prospects for college, he was drafted and reported to basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey but nevertheless was able to see what the war was really about. John left the army to make his statement, went to Sweden and joined with other 'deserters' in creating the American Deserters Committee, an organization to give voice to those GI's refusing to be part of an immoral war. The activities of those in exile in fighting against the war has gone by largely unnoticed by postwar scholarship, remaining a footnote in many books about the Sixties. The symbolic impact of thousands of US servicemen saying no deserves more attention. Ramsey Clark has praised this book for bringing to life a critical issue of the postwar period, the fight for unconditional amnesty. Franks has performed an important journalistic service and has given future generations of historians an invaluable social document and resource for understanding the forces and counterforces of war.
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