After the Storm : A Vietnam Veteran's Reflections

As a 19 year-old draftee, Paul Drew could never have predicted the impact that combat and the underlying mood of the nation would have on himself and his fellow soldiers. These were soldiers who fought not directly for their families, homes, or to enhance their professional military careers, but principally to just get back home. Thirty-five years later, the social stigma still stings for most Vietnam vets, "they were drug-addicted baby killers -- drones behind a war that was an embarrassing mistake and failure." After the Storm is not Drew's diary from combat, but honest observations about his generation, the career politicians and those responsible for the conduct of the war, and the events that laid the groundwork for the state of the nation today -- a nation that still has yet to learn to hate war but respect its warriors. Drew examines the strategy and the policy that unfolded. The arrogance of former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara who in his self-proclaimed brilliance reduced soldiers into business-like assets. Drew confronts his continued feelings of betrayal and the consequences of still trying to catch up and emerge once again as an American citizen.