African American Experience in Vietnam - by James E Westheider (Paperback)

About the Book

In this book James E. Westheider explores the social and professional paradoxes facing African-American soldiers in Vietnam. Service in the military started as a demonstration of the merits of integration as blacks competed with whites on a near equal basis for the first time....

Book Synopsis

In this book James E. Westheider explores the social and professional paradoxes facing African-American soldiers in Vietnam. Service in the military started as a demonstration of the merits of integration as blacks competed with whites on a near equal basis for the first time. Yet as the war in Vietnam progressed, many black recruits felt isolated and threatened in an institution controlled almost totally by whites. Consequently, many blacks no longer viewed the military as a professional opportunity, but an undue burden on the black community.

Review Quotes

[This book] can be used as an introductory text in courses on the history of African Americans in the modern U.S. military and offers a detailed account of the black military experience during the civil rights era.


A well written book. . . . The African American Experience in Vietnam is . . . excellent.

James Westheider has used groundbreaking research and thoughtful historical chronology to tell a story within a story; that of the African American experience in the Vietnam War. He brings to the surface issues and concerns that have been long forgotten or hidden from the American conscious. From this work we can rewrite the history of the Vietnam War and include, as a central part, the experience of African Americans.

This is a work that any serious African American history class or African American studies class will need. Westheider does a masterful job of analyzing how African American soldiers met the challenges of racism in the services and shaped African American culture. Westheider's expertise shines through a beautifully crafted, well-researched book. Scholars and students will appreciate this contribution to the field.

Westheider analyzes the intersection of racial politics at home and in Vietnam, Civil Rights and the antiwar movement, the promise of equality with the reality of continued discrimination, and ultimately, the attempts to remedy those problems. This is both an excellent introduction to the topic, and a great addition to anyone who has begun studying Blacks in the military. Again, Westheider has provided us with an outstanding resource.

Westheider offers a short, detail-rich analysis of the African American experience in Vietnam and in the antiwar movement. Students will learn much from these details of discrimination that informed the changes made by the military after the war to create a more truly integrated and meritocratic fighting force. The document set at the end of the book includes Medal of Honor citations, GI letters, and an excellent oral history interview that will let students do their own primary source analysis.

Westheider reminds us why he is the pre-eminent authority on the history of the African American experience in Vietnam. Alongside a detailed assessment of the relationship between African Americans and their nation's armed forces, and of the racism confronting African Americans during the Vietnam era, he provides a nuanced analysis of Black responses to the hardships they encountered during this turbulent period of American history. In clear and accessible language Westheider tells a story of both adversity and achievement that will appeal to specialists and non-specialists alike.

About the Author

James E. Westheider is associate professor of American history and interim chair of the Humanities Division at the University of Cincinnati-Clermont College and a faculty member there since 1998. He is the author of Fighting on Two Fronts: African-Americans and the Vietnam War.