Brave Men, Gentle Heroes: American Fathers and Sons in World War II and Vietnam - Hardcover

Takiff, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 006621081X ISBN 13: 9780066210810

Publisher: William Morrow, 2003

Synopsis

Brave Men, Gentle Heroes presents the frank, moving, and harrowing stories of men who served in World War II and of their sons who served in Vietnam -- fathers and sons bonded as deeply by their common experience in war as by blood.

These are men who served in the army, navy, air force, and Marine Corps. Officers and enlisted men, career servicemen and citizen soldiers. Men of European, African, Asian, Latino, and Native American ancestry. Men who speak with the authentic voices of an Indiana farmer, a Brooklyn bus driver, a Louisiana businessman, a Seattle machinist. The contrasts between World War II and Vietnam are everywhere in these compelling accounts: the clear aims of World War II, the muddled goals of Vietnam; the heroes' welcome accorded World War II veterans, the scorn heaped upon their sons. But the stories in Brave Men, Gentle Heroes are also rich with elements intrinsic to all wars and all soldiers: courage, honor, service, duty, youth, adventure, fear, idealism, love of country and of family, exasperation with military bureaucracy. In these pages you will find war's carnage and war's heroism, war's purpose and war's futility, war's meaning and war's tragic meaninglessness.

Taken together, the stories in Brave Men, Gentle Heroes tell the history of two wars, each the defining experience of a generation. This is history told not at the level of presidents and generals, but through the recollections of men who shouldered the rifles, manned the ships, and flew the planes. We're familiar with the effects of the two wars on world politics. But what did they do to American families? Molded by the awful crucible of war, these seemingly ordinary men offer extraordinary insights into what it means to be a warrior, an American, a father, and a son.

Brave Men, Gentle Heroes is a book for those who have been to war and those who have been spared its horror. It is a book for individuals to reflect upon and families to share.

About this title

About the Author

Michael Takiff is a Yale graduate whose writing has appeared in the New York Times and the Washington Post. He is the son of a World War II veteran and lives in New York City with his wife and son.

Reviews

"World War II and Vietnam...have more in common with one another, and are more connected to one another, than we ordinarily realize," Takiff argues in the prologue to his lengthy oral history of the two wars. In order to tease out the similarities and differences between the two conflicts, and to understand just how the first influenced the second, Takiff interviewed 20 pairs of American war veterans: fathers who fought in World War II and their sons who saw combat in Vietnam. The concept is a unique one; of the dozens of veterans' oral histories, none has focused exclusively on WWII dads and their Vietnam War sons. Much of what Takiff includes, however, has been said before in previous oral histories and memoirs. The Vietnam veterans speak of the misguided emphasis on body counts, commanding General William Westmoreland's cluelessness and the unfortunate existence of fragging, "the killing of officers by enlisted men." The WWII veterans provide details of the Battle of the Bulge, Iwo Jima and liberating German concentration camps. Nonetheless, Takiff does succeed in backing up his central argument-"war marks individuals for life, war marks families for generations"-and there are some surprises, including the thoughtful remembrances of a gay Vietnam veteran and an off-the-wall story about a squad of GIs who took two days off from the war to fraternize and smoke marijuana with three North Vietnamese soldiers. "War is a terrible crucible to go through," Vietnam vet Sandy Walmsley declares near the book's finish. In the end, that may be the greatest similarity between the two wars. B&w photos throughout.
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Takiff pairs the memories of World War II-veteran fathers and their 'Nam vet sons, following both generations through growing up, joining up or going to West Point, fighting or at least working hard, surviving, and coming home with memories most would rather not have. The fathers sensed more of a common purpose in the armed forces and in the nation during WWII; their sons seldom escaped feeling that the Vietnam War was going nowhere and their country was behind neither it nor them. The father-son pairs include some fairly well known ones, such as the Novosels, of which the father eventually won the Medal of Honor in Vietnam and commanded a helicopter squadron including the son. Tellingly distinctive are the African American Dunbars, stepfather and stepson. The former was limited by segregation to a stevedore's job during WWII; the latter saw combat in Vietnam and now has a son in the ROTC. For students of American society and the two wars, a seriously valuable book, albeit rather hard to get through. Roland Green
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 006621081X
• ISBN 13: 9780066210810
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 560