Vietnam Awakening: My Journey from Combat to the Citizens' Commission of Inquiry on U.S. War Crimes in Vietnam

by Michael Uhl

Overview

In this vividly honest memoir, author Michael Uhl details his experiences in Vietnam as first lieutenant of a counterintelligence team attached to the 11th Infantry. Referencing his personal journal and wartime correspondence with friends and family, the author relives the most shocking events that he witnessed during his military service, including the abuse and torture of several Vietnamese civilians. In Part Two, the author outlines his years as an activist with the veterans' movement against the Vietnam War.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780786430741
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	06/06/2007
Pages:	263
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.53(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

As a political activist, Michael Uhl was co-founder of the Safe Return Amnesty Committee and the GI and veteran advocacy organization, Citizen Soldier. An independent scholar, his articles and reviews have appeared in The Nation and The Boston Globe. He lives in Walpole, Maine.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments     
Preface     

Book One
I. Days of Slumber     
II. Days of Wakening     
III. Days of War (1)     
IV. Days of War (2)     

Book Two
V. Days of Reckoning
1. Days of Reckoning     
2. Tod & Jeremy125
3. The Commissions     
4. How I Grew
5. The Commissions (bis...)135
6. A Grand Tour143
7. Antiwar Vets
8. The CCI–VVAW Split     
9. Organizing the National Veterans’ Inquiry     
10. Skirmishing in Washington: 1971     
11. Nuremberg, USA     
12. On Top Down Under     
13. A Personality Abroad     
14. In D.C. and Working Congress
15. Mopping Up     
16. A Farewell to War Crimes     

Chapter Notes     
Bibliography
Index     

Editorial Reviews

Uhl is an astute commentator on every aspect of the war”—Counter Punch; “a fascinating account of one of the lesser known but historically significant organizations to emerge in opposition to the American War in Vietnam...Uhl navigates deftly back and forth between the personal and the public facets...a valuable contribution to both the literature and the history of the Vietnam War, made all the more timely by American involvement in yet another ambiguous, costly, and arguably unwinnable war”—W.D. Ehrhart, author of The Madness of It All; “Michael Uhl tells us in great personal detail about the brutal absurdity of the Vietnam War environment. Uhl’s sensitive self-observation deepens our grasp of psychological currents of an ugly war and of boldly effective forms of opposition to that war”—Robert Jay Lifton, Home from the War: Learning from Vietnam Veterans; “Michael Uhl is a gifted writer whose memoir describes his struggle to fully engage and then defend his and our humanity. Uhl’s moral outrage and integrity led him to speak out about war crimes in Vietnam, to apply the lessons of Nuremberg, and to play a leading role in the Veterans movement to end that murderous war”—Joseph Gerson, Program Director, American Friends Service Committee in New England; “highly readable, immensely instructive memoir illuminates not only his own coming of age in the Vietnam era, but the struggle of Vietnam vets to tell the American people shocking truths about the criminal nature of the Vietnam war”—Richard Falk, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, Princeton University.

From the Publisher

Michael Uhl is a gifted writer whose memoir describes his struggle to fully engage and then defend his and our humanity. Uhl's moral outrage and integrity led him to speak out about war crimes in Vietnam, to apply the lessons of Nuremberg, and to play a leading role in the Veterans movement to end that murderous war

Program Director, American Friends Service Committee in New England - Joseph Gerson

Michael Uhl tells us in great personal detail about the brutal absurdity of the Vietnam War environment. Uhl's sensitive self-observation deepens our grasp of psychological currents of an ugly war and of boldly effective forms of opposition to that war

Home from the War: Learning from Vietnam Veterans - Robert Jay Lifton

a fascinating account of one of the lesser known but historically significant organizations to emerge in opposition to the American War in Vietnam...Uhl navigates deftly back and forth between the personal and the public facets...a valuable contribution to both the literature and the history of the Vietnam War, made all the more timely by American involvement in yet another ambiguous, costly, and arguably unwinnable war

author of The Madness of It All - W.D. Ehrhart