Betrayal: Will Stone in Vietnam
“Will Stone is an Everyman in search of the meaning of life amid the ravages of war. This author still remembers what every day was like in uniform. Whether it’s puking troop ships, stinking latrines details, sandbagging or card sharking, KP’s or LP’s, downtown night life or jungle night watch, it’s all here. If you really want an in-country view of young Americans with their lust for living and newfound skills in killing, here’s a guy sure to give you an eyeful.”
— , co-editor of Winning Hearts and Minds: War Poems by Vietnam Veterans
The Author’s Promise
Betrayal tells the story of Will Stone in another time, another place, another war. Forty years ago, like today, Americans were called upon to choose whether the nation would set aside its racial prejudices and move forward to a more integrated society. It was the time of the Cold War when Americans had, as they have in today’s “global war on terror,” been led by fear to fight in foreign lands, in this case fear of a monolithic movement to world communist domination led by the Soviet Union.
The Cold War got hot in many spots around the world, but none was more deadly for American troops than Vietnam. For America, that war officially began in August 1964 with little public concern and ended in March 1973 with intense public criticism and over 58,000 American battle fatalities.
Many of the questions raised then about the Vietnam War are the same questions raised today about the Iraq War.
Early in the story, Will Stone’s life changes when he witnesses racial injustice firsthand. It determines him, as a matter of principle, to take his turn serving in the Army, including volunteering to go to Vietnam. It also opens his eyes to the world as it is, not as he would have it.
Will’s experiences in Vietnam raise questions of American foreign policy and military strategy, but they go beyond that to the human level: What price must a man pay to remain moral? Are we all brothers? What is worth dying for?
At times, this novel contains graphic and disturbing scenes and uses raw language, including racial epithets. Don’t read it unless you want to know what war is really like. Just as good words can be used for bad purposes, bad words can be used for good. Literary fiction may rely on imaginary or composite characters and contrived situations, but its aim is to reveal truth, to expose and question the human condition.
There are basic differences between America’s Vietnam War and today’s Iraq War, but there are also telling similarities. The most prescient commentators on today’s Iraq War have viewed it through the lens of the Vietnam experience. Fair-minded readers of this book will better understand both wars.
Will Stone was changed by his experiences in Vietnam. Readers should expect nothing less for themselves.
“The story of Will Stone in Vietnam throws one into the turbulent cultural and political waves of the late 1960s via the travails of one American soldier who must learn to deal with racial turmoil at home, then the ghastly reality of jungle warfare in Vietnam. This story gets as hot as the jungle and the war it describes, leaving the reader to ponder age-old dilemmas: What is worth fighting for? What is worth dying for?”
— , author of The 13th Valley, For the Sake of All Living Things, and Carry Me Home
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Betrayal is scheduled for release in July 2008 by Plain View Press and is available online from Amazon.com, Barnes and Noble, Target, and other fine booksellers.