Elizabeth Partridge's latest book is Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam, a new book for teens.From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: Why did you decide to write Boots on the Ground?--Marshal Zeringue
A: We saw a lot of coverage of the war on television and in magazines and newspapers when I was in high school and college. I was in the San Francisco Bay area where there were a lot of protests, and I often joined them.
I just could not see why our country needed to be in Vietnam, and I wanted us to get out. In the news coverage, I could see that not only were American troops being injured and killed, but Vietnamese military and civilians were as well. It all seemed senseless to me.
After the war, Vietnam veterans and protestors didn't mix. Most veterans rarely spoke about their service, just kept their heads down and tried to get on with their lives.
We had not yet learned as a country to separate the war from the warriors. Many veterans were traumatized, and there was little or no help for them from the Veterans Administration. PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) had not yet been invented as term to describe the complex mental health issues that some veterans face.
Several years ago I went to ...[read on]