Home to War; A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement

New York, N.Y.: Crown Publishers, 2001. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. Ken Miller (Author photograph). xi, [1], 690. [2] pages. Illustrations. Sources. Notes. Index. Includes Prologue; Chapter 1: Coming Up with a Politics: Vietnam Veterans Against the War; Chapter 2, Shared Nightmare: From Operation RAW to the Winter Soldier Investigation; Chapter 3: A Limited Incursion into the Country of Congress: Dewey Canyon III; Chapter 4: Invisible Wounds: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; Chapter 5: Trampling on the Bill of Rights: The Gainesville Conspiracy; Chapter 6: Unfinished Business: The War Against the VA; Chapter 7: Too Little Too Late: Operation Outreach; Chapter 8: An Indictment of the System: The Wadsworth Strike; Chapter 9: The Specter of Chemical Warfare: Agent Orange; Chapter 10: Decade of Betrayal: The et Centers in the Eighties; and Chapter 11: The Price of War: Settlement of the Class Action Lawsuit and "One Small Step Toward Resolution." Gerald Nicosia (born November 18, 1949) is an author, poet, journalist, interviewer, and literary critic. He received an M.A. with Highest Distinction in English, from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 1973. Nicosia is best known as a biographer of Jack Kerouac. In 2001 Nicosia's book "Home to War" was published and covers the problems faced by Vietnam Veterans returning to an ungrateful nation. It also discusses the battle to stop the use of Agent Orange. The author presents a vivid portrait of a generation of American warriors who faced rejection by the nation in whose name they fought, and virtual abandonment by the government that sent them to risk their young lives in Southeast Asia. Derived from a Kirkus review: The Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) was established in 1967 and in many ways led the protest movement until the war's end in 1975. For veterans, though, the war has never really ended, despite the committed efforts of the VVAW and the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA). Nicosia recounts the many individual struggles veterans have endured to bring healing to themselves and the country at large, as well as the larger events: the protest at the Capitol in 1971 at which veterans gave back their medals of war, the rap sessions organized nationwide, and the demonstrations demanding ongoing veterans' benefits and justice for victims of Agent Orange. The author has done extensive research over the course of the last ten years, interviewing dozens of key individuals, and his knowledge of the movement is prodigious-his study grew much larger than he had originally planned, and it had to be significantly cut to its present size. There is much detail about the lives of individual veterans as well as the author's larger story and his analysis of the movement. A paean to the vets' cause.