The two pre-eminent concerns of thinking Americans at the time - the Vietnam war and the racial crisis - converge in this diary of a draftee's two-year tour in the army, from induction day through eight months of combat in Vietnam. It is a frank and often touching record of a young soldier's private hopes and fears, his reactions to the experience of killing and the thought of being killed, and his frustrations over army life and attitudes. Many of these frustrations grow out of the fact that he is a Negro from a relatively sheltered and affluent background and is unprepared for and embittered by the prejudice he encounters from some officers and GIs. Like many soldiers, Parks is oppressed by the poverty of the Vietnamese and sickened by the death and maiming of his buddies. Fatigue, the heat and mental pressure take their toll; after three months of combat, his company is investigated on complaints of war atrocities. The book is a close-up view of the drudgery and drama of war, but it is also a record of personal growth. David Parks' perceptions sharpen, and his attitudes mature visibly during the years this GI diary covers.
