GREY FEATHERS (Led by Love of Country) is a book about the Vietnam War by someone who served in it. Author Daniel DeWald was a platoon leader in the U.S. Army 4th Infantry Division from August 1969 to August 1970. He begins his part-history, part-memoir account by discussing the political environment in the late 1960s and reviewing the pretext for this war, which wasn’t actually a war but a “police action.” (He writes this with no irony, which is itself an accomplishment.) From there, DeWald narrates a number of individual campaigns including Pork Chop Hill, Monkey Hill, Cadillac Hill and the Peanut. There are also compelling–and unsettling–details of day-to-day life for those boys in camouflage.
The book’s strengths, including DeWald ‘s unsparing eye for historical detail, are leavened by a few missteps. The bibliography lists only thirteen sources, which seems far too few for a 200-plus-page book. Chapter eight’s discussion of religions in Vietnam includes separate entries for Christianity and Protestantism, which is like an anatomy text having separate chapters for “hands” and “left hands.” DeWald explains his book’s title by telling us that “a grey feather is given to Indian Braves for every feat that they accomplished as they were growing up in the tribe . . . This philosophy of the Native American followed into the Vietnam War. All were ‘Braves’ sworn to uphold the Constitution, and to serve and protect.” Thousands of Vietnam-era protestors disputed that our country’s motive for entering the conflict was “the Constitution.” Moreover, in this era of reckoning with racism, a white author’s implication that all 567 federally recognized Indian Nations use the same stereotypical symbol is not a particularly good look. The Vietnam War has produced some bonafide literary classics, and while DeWald’s GREY FEATHERS may not add to the historical record, every soldier’s story deserves to be told. The casual reader might not find much of interest here but those having served or lived during the Vietnam War are sure to appreciate DeWald’s powerful and moving recollections.
In a controlled tone, and with an excellent eye for historical detail, Daniel DeWald tells the story of the Vietnam War as only an insider can in GREY FEATHERS (Led by Love of Country).
~Anthony Aycock for IndieReader