Our Year of War: Two Brothers, Vietnam, and a Nation Divided

Bolger, a retired Army lieutenant general, shares a little-known Vietnam War tale as he recounts the internecine battles of the Hagel brothers, Chuck and Tom. These two brothers from Nebraska served together in the 9th Infantry Division, helped each other survive heavy combat, and fought each other over the war after they came home. Chuck was a strong supporter of the war and went on to become a U.S. senator from Nebraska (1997–2009) and a secretary of defense (2013–2015) in the Obama Administration. His younger brother Tom, however, adamantly turned against the war in 1968 and went on to teach at Dayton University School of Law from 1982 to 2015. Tom believed the war was immoral and felt shame for having fought in it. Bolger ably sketches the brothers’ prewar and wartime lives, mixing in his own history and analysis of the war. For instance, he criticizes commanding Gen. William Westmoreland’s misguided strategy of attrition, disdain for counterinsurgency measures, and inability to grasp the ramifications of the war’s turning point—the 1968 Tet Offensive, which took place when the Hagels were fighting. Bolger’s story of the two Hagel brothers shows how even close family members became alienated from each other by the war in Vietnam. (Nov.)