Herman Graham, III. The Brothers' Vietnam War: Black Power, Manhood, and the Military Experience Gainesville.

Herman Graham, Ill. The Brothers' Vietnam War: Black Power, Manhood, and the Military Experience Gainesville: U of Florida P, 2003. 179 pp. $55.00.

During the 1960s, political movements that fought to express new racial awareness among African Americans in the United States rose amidst of the ideologies of Black militants such as Stokely Carmichael, Huey P. Newton, Malcolm X, and others. These ideologies sought to eliminate some, if not all, of the racial constraints that plagued African Americans since the first Africans set foot on New World soil as indentured servants in 1619. Activists began to crush some of the racial inequalities. For example, in 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the historic Brown v. Board of Education decision that outlawed segregation in America's public schools; the 1957-58 school year at Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, was perhaps the most radical and potentially far-reaching aspect of the Civil Rights Movement. Four years later, James H. Meredith, led by U.S. marshals, integrated the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi. Meredith believed that his enrollment at Ole Miss was "more for America than it was for me." With these triumphs, and many more to follow, African Americans had successfully prevailed over some of the Jim Crowisms that had plagued the South since Reconstruction. Their protest language was manifested in the forms of marches, sit-ins, freedom rides, and boycotts.

These movements had a major impact not only on blacks in America but also on Black GIs who served during the Vietnam War. Opposition to the war was expressed by African American leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr., Carmichael, and in numerous other dissenting voices, such as Black Women Enraged of Harlem, and the Nation of Islam's Muhummad Speaks. What impact did the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s have on Black GIs? What effects did the draft during the Johnson administration have on African American males? What influence did Muhammad Ali's resistance to Selective Service and the draft have on the African American community? How were intraracial tensions and rituals of unity personified among GIs? What role did race play in forging a sense of community during basic training for Black GIs? These are some of the fundamental questions that Herman Graham, III, sets out to explore in his book The Brothers' Vietnam War: Black Power, Manhood, and the Military Experience. Graham argues that, during the Vietnam War, Black GIs were able to draw from the Civil Rights Movements of the 1960s and forge a sense of male prowess, racial identity, and homosociality that they used for survival. Graham's organization of the book into seven chapters and a conclusion offers readers new avenues of inquiry and research on the subject of military history. The chapters are: "The Fight of Their Fathers," "The Draft and the Allure of Military Service," "Basic Training," "Combat and Interracial Male Friendship," "Combat and Interracial Male Friendship," "Muhammad All and Draft Resistance," "Black Power GIs," and "Black, and Navy Too." Readers will find that the progression of the chapters helps the text as an historical book because the heart of Graham's discussion consists of a detailed reconstruction of African American involvement throughout Vietnam.

As an historical text, Graham's study does extremely well, providing an illuminating discussion on the problematic involvement of African American military history. In the first chapter, which also serves as the introduction to the text, Graham takes readers on a journey through African American involvement in all American wars. Not much changed for Black servicemen during America's first 150 years of war. African Americans went from being used "as a tool of psychological warfare" in the Revolutionary War to seeing the first signs of desegregation during World War II to being charged with "cowardice" during the Korean War. Amid all this racial polarization about black involvement in America's wars, the author concludes that African American GIs in Vietnam who were "shaped by the civil rights and Black Power movements" were given a sense of identity.

Structurally, Graham centers the first half of his discussion on black GIs' attainment of male prowess during a still racially segregated military. On paper, America's armed forces had been formally "desegregated" in 1954. But the acquisition of manhood was not an easy task for African American GIs in Vietnam. As the GIs speak for themselves through storytelling, which helped to promote a sense of community, Graham articulates several significant dimensions to Black Power and male prowess in the other six chapters that comprise the text. One of Graham's strongest arguments is based on the relationship of black solidarity and the color line. Graham is deeply attuned to the ways African American GIs acquired manhood and concludes that, though racial conflict had always existed, it would become more defined through the evolution of the war, as African American GIs forged stronger ties to black solidarity. Graham writes:

   While African American warriors of the Vietnam era were the
   beneficiaries of the sacrifices of their forefathers and the
   lobbying of the civil rights community, many of the problems that
   had confounded previous generations of black military men ...
   burdened the Vietnam generation as well. These GIs, however, had
   greater resources at their disposal. Within the military
   institution, their numbers and their collective identity ... gave
   them a sense of power.

Throughout the text, then, Graham relies on quite a few rather exceptional participant interviews, and focuses his discussion on several dimensions that contributed to black empowerment and solidarity. Because of Graham's careful reading of the acquisition of black solidarity, which helps readers to reconstruct and to rethink the socio-political climate that existed during that time, The Brothers" Vietnam War broadens our conceptual understanding of black manhood during Vietnam. As Graham discusses these dimensions, readers are introduced to the challenging traditional notions of the relationships between black solidarity and popular culture and folklore. The "so-called John Wayne complex" played a significant role in the development of manhood; Wayne was a poised hero and some GIs were intrigued by his image, as portrayed in his military movies. This erroneous belief, however, left many GIs feeling a sense of immobility and confusion rather than a sense of manhood. Along with Wayne's mythical influence, Graham considers Muhammad Ali's draft resistance as a significant event in the development of black GI solidarity. This section comprises one of the most telling chapters of the text, as Ali's draft resistance inspired admiration and hatred among many--black and white-as public opinion about Ali's resistance varied. Ali's draft resistance is an important aspect of Graham's discussion because Ali chose to create an identity at odds with the government's national ideas about freedom and war. Ali claimed exemption from military service based on his religious beliefs; however, he was eventually convicted of draft evasion, and his boxing title was stripped from him, as his decision augmented trepidation about "racial discrimination and religious intolerance."

The persistent racial bias in the military also made black GIs feel like second-class citizens. With the promotion of Benjamin O. Davis as the armed forces' first black general, the assembling of the Tuskegee airmen, and the appointment of William H. Hastie as civilian advisor to the Secretary of War, Theodore Roosevelt attempted to eliminate some of these racial inequalities in the country's military forces. Interestingly enough, however, as Graham points out, more African American GIs were coming home in body bags than their white peers. Black leaders back home, then, began to equate the "impact of military service on black men with racial genocide." Later, Graham insists that the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., amplified hostility between African American and white servicemen. King, who adamantly opposed the Vietnam War, caused some uneasiness among the Civil Rights activists, who felt that his opinions would interfere with the greater cause. The launching of Project 100,000, which was intended to "transform troubled youths into productive men," also had an impact on the development of black solidarity among the GIs. Throughout the war, the government attempted to silence the escalating Black Power movements by drafting and/or recruiting those African Americans whom the movements' messages would most entice. Due to financial difficulties, however, Project 100,000 failed. In the end, many recruits of the program saw considerably more combat duty than usual.

Graham's examination of other "ritual[s] of unity"--storytelling, sex talk, cultural awareness groups, and older "Uncle Tom" officers--that helped forge a sense of community among African American GIs also provides a revealing discussion. "The dap," a symbolic way for black GIs to greet each other by handshaking, symbolized a shared closeness, love, and trust between them, as it confronted "the hegemonic values of the military." Popular culture played a major role in helping forge this sense of solidarity. For example, Afros, the "revolutionary hairstyle," were valued by many black GIs not only because the cut defied the military's regulations for having long hair, but also because it noticeably celebrated their masculinity from that of their white cohorts. Graham further explores the effect Black Power movements had on Black sailors on the Kitty Hawk and the Constellation in the early '70s, who had to deal further with "alienation and emasculation."

These multi-dimensional ways to male prowess forged by black GIs were employed with most effective use when they sought the value of manhood through "sharing bonding rituals, language, and leisure pursuits." Amid these dimensions, Graham suggests that,

   stimulated by Black Power thought and culture, young African
   American GIs developed counterhegemonic notions of masculinity as a
   strategy for overcoming their marginal status.... With the Black
   Power influence, black soldiers redefined homosociality to emphasize
   racial ties over military affiliations. In other words, these men
   ... stressed their identities as black men rather than their
   identities as marines and army soldiers. The Black Power movement
   called for a fundamental change in the way that black men perceived
   themselves and their relationship to white America.

Exploring the meaning of manhood, African American GIs defined their mascolinity through black awareness and opposition to racial subordination. Through their personal transformations, black GIs were on their way to manhood and to war as they "redefined their masculinity through the liberating ideas and cultural practices of the Black Power movement." Perhaps since they were abroad, fighting a war within a war, they were the ones who felt they needed black solidarity more than blacks in America. However, for the few black non-commissioned officers (NCOs), Black Power meant "caucusing to magnify their individual power or quietly wielding their influence behind the scenes." As they saw it, they had to sacrifice their manhood in order to move ahead in the ranks. Many African American GIs also believed that fighting alongside their fellow white Americans against communism would afford them better race conditions back home. As Graham points out, African American GIs were "outraged at the idea that they should fight to bring democracy to Vietnam when African Americans were denied freedom at home."

One shortcoming of Graham's text is his lack of attention to how the Black Power movement affected the African American prisoners of war (POWs). Obviously, black POWs had to draw strength from somewhere, as survival and manhood were equally important to them as well. At certain points in the text, it seems that Graham abandons the idea of black empowerment and racial solidarity among African American GIs. Notwithstanding this, The Brothers' Vietnam War is a pleasant contribution to African American studies and a must read for those who are interested in African American military history, African America's involvement in the Vietnam War, the Black Power movement of the "60s and its influence on Blacks GIs, and Black manhood. Graham creatively amalgamates servicemen interviews, memoirs, oral histories, storytelling, and GI folklore to provide a detailed and persuasive reading of African American GIs' male prowess and racial identity during the war. Graham has contributed to American history by integrating important material for scholars of African American and American history. The Brothers' Vietnam War is an extraordinary work that makes a challenging case for our understanding of the centrality of African American GIs during Vietnam. Graham's book adds an important discussion to the story of the Vietnam War as an important development in this country's political and racial histories.

Willie J. Harrell, Jr.

Kent State University