Letters from the Southern Home Front - by Joseph A Fry (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Residents of the American South played a crucial and, at times, decisive role in the American war in Vietnam. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Secretary of State Dean Rusk oversaw the military escalation of the conflict and the persistent U.S. rejection of a compromise settlement with North Vietnam and the Vietcong. Influential U.S. Senators Richard B. Russell and John C. Stennis endorsed and promoted aggressive prosecution of the war, ensured the conflict's funding, and helped enable Johnson and Nixon to extend the duration of the increasingly unpopular war. U.S. Army General William Westmoreland instituted vital strategies such as 'search and destroy' while directing the war through most of Johnson's presidency. Moreover, while young southern men served and died in Vietnam in numbers well beyond the region's percentage of the national population, most white southerners consistently endorsed the belligerent inclinations and actions of the U.S. In doing so, they provided an essential domestic political foundation for the Vietnam War. Joseph Fry's 'Letters from the Southern Homefront' explores public opinion in the American South--the nation's most prowar region during the Vietnam War--by examining letters sent by hundreds of residents to their senators, Presidents Johnson and Nixon, and the editors of major newspapers. They ranged in age from elementary school students to World War I veterans. They were white and Black; male and female; rural, small-town, and urban; sharecroppers, farmers, small business owners, teachers, doctors, lawyers, college students, and university professors; rich and poor. They discussed an impressive range of war-related issues and topics, including U.S. geopolitical and strategic interests; U.S. standing in the world; the containment of international communism; appropriate U.S. military strategies; civilian versus military oversight and control; national honor; patriotism; religion; the draft and its class and racial impacts; domestic protests against the war and questions of law and order; the Civil Rights Movement; POWs; the job performance of national and regional leaders; and the cumulative war-weariness so crucial to U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. By investing the time, thought, emotion, and energy to write to a political figure or newspaper editor, they exhibited a greater awareness and knowledge of foreign affairs than most southerners. This attention, knowledge, and willingness to write rendered the authors a distinct minority within their communities and nation. Although many of their neighbors and fellow citizens nationally followed the war carefully and held strong opinions regarding the conflict, relatively few of them took the initiative to put pen to paper or sit before their typewriters. As Fry shows, what the letter writers had to say about their support or opposition to the war add to our understanding of the South and the United States as we continue to grapple with the historical record and significance of the Vietnam War"--

Book Synopsis

Joseph A. Fry's Letters from the Southern Home Front explores the diversity of public opinion on the Vietnam War within the American South. Fry examines correspondence sent by hundreds of individuals, of differing ages, genders, racial backgrounds, political views, and economic status, reflecting a broad swath of the southern population. These letters, addressed to high-profile political figures and influential newspapers, took up a myriad of war-related issues. Their messages enhance our understanding of the South and the United States as a whole as we continue to grapple with the significance of this devastating and divisive conflict.

Review Quotes

"Collectively, they are the voice of a region that was united, at times, in its effort to serve but divided by race during a time of tremendous domestic and international strife. Individually, they are the tales of those whose emotions ran the gamut. I highly recommend Letters from the Southern Home Front for southern specialists and Vietnam War historians alike."--Journal of Southern History

"Andy Fry tells us in his newest book that Southerners had a lot to say about the Vietnam War. Much of what they wrote to national leaders and newspapers was in support of winning the war. But they also wrote a lot that was poignant, prescient, and heart-breaking, especially about the experience of losing loved ones in the war. . . . Letters from the Southern Home Front breathes life into the complex views Americans expressed about the Vietnam War. It is a great resource for teachers and anyone interested in better understanding the war from a Southern perspective."--Journal of East Tennessee History

"Letters from the Southern Home Front amplifies the voices of average Americans during the Vietnam War and takes the reader on an emotional rollercoaster. The letters in this volume are taut with feeling, and collectively they reflect the racial, class, and other distinctive cultural and economic markers that distinguish the American South. Ranging from hostile to pleading, desperate to grief-stricken, the anguished expressions that fill this book provide a valuable and intimate look at the cost of this tragic conflict."--Kari Frederickson, author of Cold War Dixie: Militarization and Modernization in the American South

"Letters from the Southern Home Front is an indispensable primary-source guide to the divided America of the Vietnam War era. Fry's careful curation of the correspondence sheds light on the complexities of both international affairs and lingering regional distinctions within the United States."--Tore C. Olsson, author of Agrarian Crossings: Reformers and the Remaking of the US and Mexican Countryside

"A riveting new portrait of southern feelings about the Vietnam War drawn from letters of everyday citizens written amid that tortuous experience."--Tennant S. McWilliams, author of The New South Faces the World: Foreign Affairs and the Southern Sense of Self, 1877-1950

"In this unique and extraordinary collection, Joseph A. Fry expertly highlights the contours and complexities of the South's broad engagement with the Vietnam War from every side of the debate. A remarkable achievement."--Andrew L. Johns, author of Vietnam's Second Front: Domestic Politics, the Republican Party, and the War

About the Author

Joseph A. Fry is Distinguished Professor of History Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is the author of numerous books, including The American South and the Vietnam War: Belligerence, Protest, and Agony in Dixie and Lincoln, Seward, and US Foreign Relations in the Civil War Era.