They Marched Into Sunlight: War and Peace Vietnam and America October 1967 [Hardcover]

At one level, "They Marched into Sunlight" is a set of parallel narratives that shifts between the jungles near the "Long Nguyen Secret Zone" north of Saigon and the campus of the University of Wisconsin. Both narratives climax in the events of October 17-18, 1967. Yet the two stories -- one of ambush and a jungle of death in which 58 U.S. soldiers died (along with many Vietnamese) and the other of an anti-war demonstration that twisted into anarchy and bloody violence -- were, as David Maraniss so deftly reveals, interwoven in more ways that just being part of the same single spin of the globe.

Maraniss is a master story-teller. In providing a deep reflection of the Vietnam experience, his point of view is not just that of the two isolated yet interwoven events. More important, his story is that of the individuals whose life threads led into those days and of those who survived. His spectacle of words is obviously based upon a wealth of interviews, first-hand accounts, personal letters, and more official documents. In case after case, Maraniss always seems to have captured just the right quote to allow the stories to bear witness to themselves.

In a lyrical touch, the book's themes center around a poem, "Elegy" by Bruce Weigl (p. 139). This literary twist provides a philosophical foil to the hard journalism of much of the material. How do we deal with the loss suffered when "Some of them died. Some of them were not allowed to."? Both the title of the book and of this review derive from the poem.

In addition to the accounts of the extraordinary ordinary people, Maraniss adds a third sequence to the main two. The third is the background of the increasing frustration within the Johnson administration to come to terms with a strategy that was not working. It is against this much larger backdrop that the stories of the soldiers and the demonstraters stand out in such sharp relief and transform into broad metaphors for the much longer stretch of time covered by the Vietnam War.

There is profound power within "Sunlight" that comes with the perspective of time. The relevant events occurred more than thirty-five years ago, but they were transformational for those who experienced them and, in the case of the soldiers, survived them. Similarly, for any of us who lived through that era, "Sunlight" is a mirror in which our own memories, reactions, and transformations are reflected.

It would be easy to derive a sense of fatalism from the stories of the soldiers and the protesters - that history is often fortuitous and arbitrary rather than controllable. Yet, within the relentless onrush of events, a crisis will reveal the souls of its particpants. I will carry this book in my memory for a long time.

Based not only on contemporary newspapers and documents, but on the letters home and interviews with participants and spouses of those killed. A brilliant book.