To fully comprehend the Vietnam War, it is essential to understand the central role that southerners played in the nation's commitment to the war, in the conflict's duration, and in the fighting itself. President Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and Secretary of State Dean Rusk of Georgia oversaw the dramatic escalation of U.S. military involvement from 1965 through 1968. General William Westmoreland, born and raised in South Carolina, commanded U.S. forces during most of the Johnson presidency. Widely supported by their constituents, southern legislators collectively provided the most dependable support for war funding and unwavering opposition to measures designed to hasten U.S. withdrawal from the conflict. In addition, southerners served, died, and were awarded the Medal of Honor in numbers significantly disproportionate to their states' populations. In The American South and the Vietnam War, Joseph A. Fry demonstrates how Dixie's majority pro-war stance derived from a host of distinctly regional values, perspectives, and interests. He also considers the views of the dissenters, from student protesters to legislators such as J. William Fulbright, Albert Gore Sr., and John Sherman Cooper, who worked in the corridors of power to end the conflict, and civil rights activists such as Martin Luther King Jr., Muhammad Ali, and Julian Bond, who were among the nation's most outspoken critics of the war. Fry's innovative and masterful study draws on policy analysis and polling data as well as oral histories, transcripts, and letters to illuminate not only the South's influence on foreign relations, but also the personal costs of war on the home front.

"Joyful to heart-wrenching. Short non-fiction stories about moving to Los Angeles from Vietnam, and a dream-like childhood that's turned into a nightmare when the author's father returns to the family after spending years in a "re-education" camp. It's a well-written rollercoaster of beauty and terror." - Jason Koivu, 2003

First published in 1992. From the foreword: "Search and rescue has always been important to the United States Air Force, whose aircrews deserve nothing less than the fullest possible commitment to save them and return them home. The motto of Air Force search and rescue, "So Others May Live," is one of the most compelling of all military mottoes. It embodies this spirit of altruism and, as events have proven, also indicates the service's intention to furnish life-saving SAR for civilian as well as military purposes. Search and rescue flourished during World War II as lifeguard ships and submarines joined patrolling aircraft in saving lives and sustaining morale, especially in the Pacific Ocean Areas. The rotary-wing, turbojet, and avionics revolutions made modern SAR a reality. Foreshadowed by the Korean War, the helicopter became the principal form of air rescue vehicle in Vietnam. In three major conflicts, SAR forces gained a reputation for bravery, dedication, and self-sacrifice, as they ventured repeatedly into hostile territory to pluck fallen aircrews to safety. The USAF rightly continues to place a top priority on search and rescue, seeking better ways to perform this function through the use of advanced equipment and aircraft (such as the multipurpose MH-53J Pave Low helicopter) and improved training of personnel. This reprint of a classic work offers the reader an exciting and exacting history of the evolution of combat search and rescue in America's longest and most grueling war: the conflict in Southeast Asia."

The Vietnam War was a defining event for a generation of Americans. But for years, misguided cliches about its veterans have proliferated. Philip F. Napoli's "Bringing It All Back Home" strips away the myths and reveals the complex individuals who served in Southeast Asia. Napoli helped to create Tom Brokaw's The Greatest Generation, and in the spirit of that enterprise, his oral histories recast our understanding of a war and its legacy.
Napoli introduces a remarkable group of young New Yorkers who went abroad with high hopes only to find a bewildering conflict. We meet, for instance, a nurse who staged a hunger strike to promote peace while working at a field hospital and a black soldier who achieved an unexpected camaraderie with his fellow servicemen in racially tense times. Some of these soldiers became active opponents of the war; others did not. Tracing their journeys from the streets of Brooklyn and Queens to the banks of the Mekong, and back to the most glamorous corporations and meanest homeless shelters of New York City, Napoli uncovers the variety and surprising vibrancy of the ex-soldiers' experiences.

Bu Ku Kilo A Glimpse into the Book Bu Ku writes a tell all reflection on his tour of duty in Viet Nam 1967- 1968. In his 55 war stories Bu Ku brings to the surface the good, bad and ugly situations encountered 44 years ago on the unpopular battlefront of Nam. Viet Nam, that is. Bu Ku uses the army colorful language of the day to tell the story in a authentic war fashion, using explanatory slang and cuss words were the norm during the war and Bu Ku feels needed to tell the story in a realistic fashion. A projected glimpse into the lives of army vets as they fought and died in a controversial bloody conflict that took the lives of over a million Vietnamese people and 58,000 American soldiers. In the end America left in disgrace. Although the soldiers fought valiantly and repelled and destroyed tens of thousands of the Viet Cong VC and North Viet Nam Regulars NVA. In the end our political will crumbled Nixon just got us out. It was a sad coming home for most vets and even now 44 years later the scars are still everywhere. Just about everyone has a Viet Nam Vet story to tell. Some ugly and some good and so it goes. Bu Ku says, " Read my story. You will be enlightened at the events that took place . It may help you understand or get over your cross you may still be carrying on your bleeding shoulders. That conflict called Nam Bu Ku Kilo