"Carefully, he takes out a flier, yellowed and brittle with age. The text at the top is Vietnamese. Underneath there is English. It reads: Colored Gl's! The South Vietnamese people, who are struggling for their independence and freedom, are friends with the American colored people being victim of barbarous racial discrimination at home. Your battlefield is right in the USA! Your enemy is the war lords in the White House and the Pentagon!"
"Haygood says: One of the soldiers I interviewed, Elbert Nelson, the doctor, he explains in the book that he found this leaflet directed to Black soldiers. And he was so touched that I tracked him down, he said, I want you to have this.' It was from the North Vietnamese, it was attached to trees and walls. It just gave me chills."
"The War Within a War tells such stories of Black Americans who from the mid-1960s to the mid-70s served in or otherwise experienced Vietnam: soldiers, marines, pilots, doctors and nurses, officers and drafted men, reporters and activists, cultural commentators and more. Saying this is my most important book, Haygood cites a great writer who pointed the way. We need to remind Americans who have a very short memory what James Baldwin said."
A yellowed flier in Vietnamese and English addressed "Colored GIs," urging Black soldiers to view the South Vietnamese as allies and to see their real enemy as the White House and Pentagon. Black Americans who served in or experienced Vietnam from the mid-1960s to the mid-1970s included soldiers, marines, pilots, medical staff, officers, draftees, reporters, activists, and cultural commentators. Some veterans encountered enemy propaganda aimed specifically at Black troops and felt profound emotional responses. Many grappled with the contradiction of fighting abroad while facing systemic racial discrimination at home. James Baldwin's 1967 words underscore the moral and historical tensions involved.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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