“The Vietnam War became a mirror for the struggle of Black Americans — fighting for freedom abroad while demanding equality at home — and a powerful lens through which to understand the racial and political divides that continue to shape American life," according to press notes.
Haygood, 71, spent nearly five years working on the book, which is inspired by six Black teenagers from his neighborhood who served in Vietnam: Charles Bolden, Jimmy Bolden, Steve Collins, Skip Dunn, Robert Morse and Larry Wilson. Their absence brought the war close to home in a profound way.
“One day in 1967, I realized it had been two weeks since I had seen these guys at my local playground,” Haygood recalled. “At 13, I experienced first-hand what it does to a neighborhood when some of your best and brightest are taken away suddenly. I also remember the East Side of Columbus erupting in fire and flame in the summer of 1968, and I found myself running from National Guard troops who were sent to patrol and lock down the area.
“So, at a very young age I experienced, in a way, the war within a war. I saw these six Black young men be shipped off to war, and then because of anger, I found myself trying to stay safe from troops who were pointing guns at us — and we were just kids," he said.
The book chronicles soldiers, officers, doctors, nurses, journalists, activists, artists and politicians, a sprawling lineup that includes notable figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Marvin Gaye, Berry Gordy and Lyndon Johnson.
However, nine prominent figures emerge including: Air Force pilot Fred Cherry, the first Black officer captured by the North Vietnamese and a hero to millions back home; Elbert Nelson, a doctor who came to Vietnam after watching TV footage of the Watts riots in Los Angeles and soon found himself amid rising Black soldier protests overseas; Wallace Terry, a groundbreaking Black reporter whose book about Black soldiers in Vietnam, “Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War,” inspired Spike Lee’s Vietnam War drama “Da 5 Bloods”; and Philippa Schuyler, a biracial concert pianist who traveled to Vietnam to rescue mixed-race orphans, many fathered by Black soldiers, and died trying to bring them to safety.
Credit: AP
Credit: AP
“The Vietnam War is a big subject —it’s epic,” Haygood said. “People still don’t quite know how to get their minds around it. I thought if I could find some figures that could make the story feel intimate as well as epic I would be able to unleash my narrative muscle and tell the story in a way I felt readers across the spectrum would be able to connect with.”
Haygood, a Miami University graduate and Miami University Boadway Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence, was the 2022 recipient of the Dayton Literary Peace Prize’s Ambassador Richard C. Holbrooke Distinguished Achievement Award. His works include “The Butler” (2013), “In Black and White: The Life of Sammy Davis Jr.” (2003), the 2019 Dayton Literary Peace Prize nonfiction finalist “Tigerland: 1968-1969: A City Divided, A Nation Torn Apart, And a Magical Season of Healing” (2018) and “Colorization: One Hundred Years of Black Films in a White World” (2021).
He feels “The War Within a War” benefits from a relevancy he didn’t anticipate.
“When I started the book, I had no idea in which we would be in an era when personal freedoms would be under attack and books would be banned,” Haygood said. “Soldiers go to war to uphold our freedom.”
The idea of respecting the authenticity of history is also paramount.
“One of the things I find fascinating is how countries remember their hard times, their wars,” Haygood said. “In Germany, junior high and high school students are required to learn about the savagery of Adolf Hitler. In America, if we don’t teach and remember the darkness that has coursed through our history it harms the truthfulness and the honesty of the great moments of light.”
Haygood will discuss his book at the University of Dayton’s Roger Glass Center for the Arts from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25. He will be joined in a one-on-one conversation with retired Air Force Lt. General Richard Reynolds, former vice commander of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.
The event is hosted by the Dayton Literary Peace Prize Foundation in partnership with the Dayton Metro Library and the University of Dayton.
Haygood hopes the book, released Feb. 10, will be an insightful complement to Black History Month.
“I think any author of color who is bringing out work in the month of February is very proud to do so for the simple reason there are forces about trying to whitewash history,” he said. “Black history is American history. Without Black history there is no United States of America.”
HOW TO GO
What: Wil Haygood discusses “The War Within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home”
Where: University of Dayton’s Roger Glass Center for the Arts, 29 Creative Way, Dayton
When: 5:30-6:45 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 25
Cost: Free. Complimentary tickets are available at daytonliterarypeaceprize.org/get-involved/#events.
More info: Penguinrandomhouse.com
FYI: Haygood will have copies of the book available for purchase at the event.
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
Credit: CONTRIBUTED
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