A Vietnam War Veteran [ wrote a novel then a memoir ]

 After returning stateside

Tracy Kidder

wrote

Ivory Fields

____________

but he soon regretted that

and sought to revise what

that book meant to him by

a Non-Fiction memoir

My Detachment (2005).

EXCERPT:

The working class of America had long been

among the war's staunchest supporters, at

least in part for a tragic reason: it was 

their sons, mainly, who were obliged to go 

to Vietnam and who did most of the fighting 

and dying there, and one could not expect

them easily to disown the cause to which

they'd sacrificed so much.

But over the years, memories altered, softened,

faded.  For many, even some of those directly

responsible for it, the whole enterprise came

to be viewed as misbegotten at best.  Others

held fast to the notion that if only

it weren't for politics, the war could have 

been won.  But no one blamed the veterans 

anymore.

______________________________________

Tracy Kidder

winner of the Pulitzer Prize

recently passed away : age 80

of lung cancer

OBITUARY notice in NY Times

2026/03/25/books/tracy-kidder-dead.html