Racial Conflict in the U.S. Army During the Vietnam War Era

In September 1969, African American journalist Wallace Terry reported on “another war being fought in Vietnam — between black and white Americans.” After the 1948 integration of the military, the U.S. Army had tried to be color blind, seeing not Black or white but just olive drab, but by 1970, the Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, Gen. Walter T. Kerwin, noted: “In the past year racial discord has surfaced as one of the most serious problems facing Army leadership.” So in the midst of fighting a deeply unpopular overseas war, the military also created the Defense Race Relations Institute (DRRI) and developed mandated race relations training.

Joining me to discuss race relations in the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War era is Dr. Beth Bailey, a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the Department of History at the University of Kansas and Author of An Army Afire: How the US Army Confronted Its Racial Crisis in the Vietnam Era.

Our theme song is Frogs Legs Rag, composed by James Scott and performed by Kevin MacLeod, licensed under Creative Commons. The mid-episode music is “Old Soul Record” by Musictown from Pixabay and is free to use through the Pixabay license. The episode image is “Photograph of Specialist 4th Class McClanton Miller Kneeling in Dense Brush Waiting for Orders to Move Forward;” picture was taken January 23, 1966 and is available via the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NAID: 17331387; Local ID: 111-CC-33199) with no restrictions on use.

Additional sources:

• “Vietnam War Timeline,” History.com, Published September 13, 2017 and Updated March 29, 2023.
• “Ho Chi Minh,” PBS American Experience.
• “Foreign Relations Of The United States, 1952–1954, Indochina, Volume XIII, Part 1,” Office of the Historian, Foreign Service Institute, United States Department of State.
• “Tonkin Gulf Resolution (1964),” National Archives and Records Administration.
• “Vietnam Lotteries,” Selective Service System.
• “Resistance to the Vietnam War,” by Jessica McBirney, Common Lit, 2016.
• “The Draft,” Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
• “Vietnam War Protests,” History.com, Published February 22, 2010 and Updates November 1, 2022.
• “The Forgotten History Of A Prison Uprising In Vietnam,” by Sarah Kramer, NPR All Things Considered, August 29, 2018.
• “History,” Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute.
• “Black and White in Vietnam,” by Gerald F. Goodwin, The New York Times, July 18, 2017.
• “Training for Vietnam, fighting for civil rights: Post an island of relative calm in a turbulent sea,” by Christine Schweickert, U.S. Army, May 14, 2015.
• “As we rethink the Vietnam War, we have to grapple with its racial implications,” by Hannah Gurman, The Washington Post, October 6, 2017.
• “African-American struggle for equality in Army during Vietnam still instructive,” by David Vergun, U.S. Army, February 25, 2014.
• “The military provides a model for how institutions can address racism,” by Margaret B. Montgomery, The Washington Post, June 23, 2020.
• “Serving without 'equal opportunity': Vietnam veterans faced racism at home and abroad,” by Erica Thompson, The Columbus Dispatch, Published December 3, 2020 and Updated December 9, 2020.
• “War within war,” by James Maycock, The Guardian, September 14, 2001.
• “Reflections On The Curse Of Racism In The U.S. Military,” by David Barno and Nora Bensahel, War on the Rocks, June 30, 2020.

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