{"id":19220,"date":"2026-05-01T12:07:46","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:07:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19220"},"modified":"2026-05-01T12:07:46","modified_gmt":"2026-05-01T12:07:46","slug":"the-war-within-a-war-the-black-struggle-in-vietnam-and-at-home-by-wil-haygood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/01\/the-war-within-a-war-the-black-struggle-in-vietnam-and-at-home-by-wil-haygood\/","title":{"rendered":"The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home by Wil Haygood"},"content":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Knopf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $35.00\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 362 pages<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Uncle Sam needs you.<\/p>\n

He has work for you, a steady job that may be the most difficult thing you\u2019ll ever do but you\u2019ll gain pride in your accomplishments and decent pay for the work, plus three hots and a cot. Hey, it\u2019s a great opportunity to gain on-the-job experience \u2013 even if, as in the new book The War Within a War <\/em>by Wil Haygood, <\/strong>you once might\u2019ve experienced racism, too.<\/p>\n

Dan Bullock was a boy who\u2019d always dreamed of becoming a Marine.<\/p>\n

And so he did, and after graduating from basic training, he was sent to Vietnam to fight. Sadly,\u00a0 Dan was asleep one night in May of 1969, when a Vietcong soldier threw a grenade into the tent where he lay. Dan Bullock was killed instantly.<\/p>\n

Wallace Terry knew about Bullock, and he couldn\u2019t stop thinking about him.<\/p>\n

Terry was one of a handful of Black journalists in Vietnam, and he\u2019d heard bitter talk and hot anger from Black troops – talk of discrimination, of terrible assignments, of seeing greater danger than white soldiers saw. Black young men enlisted in the military because opportunities for them were scarce at home. Once in Vietnam, they\u2019d become politically savvy and smart about current events, hoping things might get better in America but knowing, down-deep, that nothing would.<\/p>\n

Though the American military had been officially integrated for years, what Terry heard was that Black soldiers felt like Vietnam was a \u201cwar within a war.\u201d Many said that race didn\u2019t seem to matter in combat. At base camp and from their superiors, there<\/em> was the problem. In the meantime, President Lyndon Johnson signed bills to help the poor but his policies didn\u2019t stop racism or the war itself.<\/p>\n

By wars\u2019 end, more than 58,000 American soldiers died in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

One of them was Dan Bullock, who wasn\u2019t 16, as he\u2019d told the Marine recruiter. As Terry learned, Dan was 14 when he enlisted, 15<\/em> when he died, the youngest American soldier to perish in Vietnam.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not on there, but The War Within a War<\/em> should have a Trigger Warning sticker on the cover. If you\u2019re a veteran of combat, you should know that before proceeding.<\/p>\n

Using the stories of dozens of people who went to Vietnam in various ways and for myriad reasons, author Wil Haygood offers tiny stories and a window to American warfare that often goes unknown. Here, you\u2019ll meet the Common Man and those who were quite un<\/em>common, brave women who played parts in history, and entertainers who raised consciousness through music. You can smell the jungle here. You\u2019ll feel the heat and hear the sudden, terrifying silence as you read this must-read, highly relevant, heartbreak of a book.<\/p>\n

Just beware: it\u2019s sometimes very graphic and certain readers might want to skip it, even though it\u2019s one of the better books you\u2019ll find on the subject. Absolutely, if you\u2019re unfamiliar with or want to know more about this part of American history, The War Within a War<\/em> is a book you need.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Knopf\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 $35.00\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 362 pages Uncle Sam needs you. He has work for you, a steady job that may be the most difficult thing you\u2019ll ever do but you\u2019ll gain pride in your accomplishments and decent pay for the work, plus three hots and a cot. Hey, it\u2019s a great opportunity to gain on-the-job […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19221,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-19220","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19220","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19220"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19220\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19222,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19220\/revisions\/19222"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19221"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19220"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19220"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19220"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=19220"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}