The Wages of War: When America's Soldiers Came Home-From Valley Forge to Vietnam

The title above is a quote/paraphrase from the book that has long stuck out in my mind. I read this book back in the '90s, and often find myself referring back to it. The authors make it clear in many cases where their sympathies lie and there is a pervasive politically leftist bias that runs throughout the book. That doesn't mean that myself or others would necessarily and automatically disagree with some of their digs and personal assertions. It is by no means a dry, boring text book on history, but the reader needs to be aware of the often not very subdued opinions the authors express. There seems to be a reasonable trade off there somehow between subjectivity and objectivity. Though I'm not really sure why it was included, the authors did write quite a bit about the so-called 'Shays Rebellion'-I suppose to give an indication of how Revolutionary War veterans were treated by the financiers in Boston and how these veterans and their plight was ignored or actually misunderstood by the rest of the new United States. That was an interesting account of a portion of American History we rarely read or hear about, and the authors clearly refuse to buy into the standard interpretation of the so-called Shays Rebels as being mere troublemakers bent on challenging Federal or even state authority. If convincing citizens to agree with them on this view was their intent, they certainly won at least one convert. The authors move steadily from the Revolutionary War on and show the evolution of U.S. veterans' medical care, pensions and benefits...or lack thereof. A huge portion of the book was spent on the Agent Orange issue, as well as the radiation exposure from 1950s atomic bomb tactical maneuvers. Another section that stood out for me was the hundreds of Spanish-American War veterans suffering from fever and virtually dumped into a makeshift field hospital on Long Island. Also, the authors spent a portion of the book pointing out atrocities and excesses committed by American soldiers against the rebels in the Philippines. It's not always clear why the authors included some of the information they did but these things were interesting nonetheless. The authors spent a reasonable amount of time on the Bonus Marchers (B.E.F) and how they were eventually run out of their Hooverville in D.C. . Certainly no book claiming to be about American war veterans would dare ignore this chapter and the authors did not disappoint here. The authors couldn't conceal their disdain for General MacArthur. MacArthur (along with Patton and Eisenhower who were also involved in the 'attack' against the B.E.F.) did indeed become famous in the next war...and the next-while the Bonus March veterans became a footnote. I must admit that though I believe MacArthur to be an important and brilliant American general I still have always sympathized with the Bonus Marchers. An exact quote at the end of the "After the First World War" chapter shows what I mean by inherent bi