This majestic book, published in 2004, won the J. Anthony Lucas Prize and was a Pulitzer finalist. A special thanks to my brother for the recommendation. The book is about two days in October 1967. The 17th and 18th saw an ambush of an American battalion north of Saigon, and a sit-in at the University of Wisconsin against Dow Chemical, manufacturer of napalm. The replacements for the Black Lions Btn. of the First Infantry Division arrived in Vietnam after three sweltering weeks on a WWII era troop transport. The men they would fight were led by an officer who had marched 600 miles south six years earlier. The Americans would be commanded by Terry Allen, Jr., son of the general who led the Big Red One in Africa and Italy. As the sole supplier of napalm, Dow Chemical was quickly becoming the face of corporate America's support for the war. In the fall of 1967, they were scheduled for four days of recruiting in Madison. The University of Wisconsin was more diversified, had a long Progressive tradition and leaned more to the left than your standard mid-western land grant university. There had been opposition to Dow's visit and clearly, the opposition would ratchet up this time. In Vietnam, there were now 500,000 Americans busily seeking out the enemy and not necessarily finding him. There were now many, particularly the war reporters in Vietnam, as well as a growing cadre of skeptics at home, who envisioned a stalemate, at best. In the sector the Big Red One patrolled, there was a sense that their opponent was wearing down. In Madison, the impending Dow visit generated significant preparation by both the students and the University. The students organized and planned their tactics to disrupt the visit. The University let them know what would, and would not, be acceptable conduct and coordinated a plan of action with the campus and city police. The strategy of the US Army was to search and destroy the enemy, but the challenge was that the NVA or VC chose when and where to fight. They knew the terrain and avoided anything like a pitched battle, where the US's superior firepower would defeat them. On the 16th, led by Clark Welch's Delta Company, the Black Lions headed out on another search and destroy mission. Welch was the only lieutenant leading a company in the division and one of the few officers commissioned in the field in Vietnam. They engaged the enemy, believed they may have located a sizeable force, and planned a follow-up action for the next day. Welch had been awarded a Silver Star by a general who then chewed out Lt. Col. Allen because he was supervising his battalion from the air, instead of the ground. Allen determined to attack the VC head on without an aerial prep. On the 17th, Alpha Company, with only half its complement, 75 men, took the point. Delta Company followed. The now grounded Terry Allen marched with Delta. The Yanks walked into an elaborately planned ambush. Within minutes, the commander of Alpha Company, and two his lieutenants were down. Alpha fell back. The Vietnamese closed in on Delta and opened fire. By the time Welch was hit, half of his company were casualties. Terry Allen was shot twice and died when hit a third time. Clearly defeated, the Black Lions were retreating. They were able to evacuate their wounded, but not their dead, who had to be left overnight. The American army practice of fudging the truth began immediately. The division commander declared the battalion had not been ambushed. The Big Red One did not get ambushed - they were too good. Fifty-eight Americans were dead and thirty-one wounded. The wounded were operated on in Saigon and all but one survived the first night. At MACV, Genl. Westmoreland was concerned enough to fly to the Division HQ to be debriefed. Again, there was no ambush. The Army press release stressed the victory with 103 dead VC, a number that everyone agreed was pretty much out of thin air. A young ABC reporter, Peter Jennings, questioned the veracity of the army's report and referred to the engagement as a regiment sized ambush. On Tuesday the 17th, the protest began in Madison. On the first day, there were speeches and a sit-in near the interview rooms. The police were restrained and the protesters under control. The next day saw more people protesting and the sit-in obstructed access to the recruiters and to some classes. This was a violation of the school's rules. The campus police called for city backup. The Chancellor and the student leaders met, but could not come to terms. The chief of the campus police ordered the cops to break up the crowd in the building where the interviews were conducted and they came in swinging their billy clubs. The thousand demonstrators outside the Commerce Building started pelting the police with whatever was handy. The police responded with tear gas. By the evening, the crowds dispersed. The following day, thousands boycotted classes. The following weekend was the first major march on Washington. While people were gathering for the trip, soldiers of the US Army were delivering the news of the deaths of sons and husbands to their families around the country. While the Washington marchers headed to Arlington to levitate the Pentagon, two thousand marched to the Capitol building in Madison. After the weekend, LBJ observed "We've almost lost the war in the last two months in the court of public opinion." At Dow, they debated whether to pursue a public relations policy defending napalm and decided to stay quiet. No one surmised that it would be Agent Orange that Dow would pay heavily for in the future. The following weekend in Milwaukee, Richard Nixon spoke of himself as a 'peace candidate'. The author grew up in Madison and was a freshman at Wisconsin that fall. He has done an extraordinary research job writing this book. He even walked the battlefield with Clark Welch and VC Colonel Triet. Reflecting on events from over half a century ago, I am struck by how fast the tables turned. In the middle of 1967, there were many opposed to the war, but the American center supported it. A year later, after Tet, Johnson's resignation announcement, the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy, my recollection is that support had dwindled and the majority were opposed.
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