Beginning in May 1962 and finishing in November 1982 with the National Salute to Vietnam Veterans, Elizabeth Partridge tells the complicated and painful history of the United States' involvement in Vietnam. Through different perspectives, in Vietnam and in the States, Boots on the Ground gives young readers a linear history of the war while keeping the focus on the individuals affected.
"It looked like only dead-end jobs out there for someone like" Mike Horan, so he signed up for four years with the Marines. Horan, a military adviser, was "in country" from May 1962 to June 1963; he was captured by the Viet Cong, held for several days, then accidentally rescued and sent immediately back into "regular duties." Focusing primarily on such oral histories--recorded by the author via in-person interviews, phone calls and e-mails--Partridge's short chapters alternate between experiences in Vietnam and in the States. She tells the history from 15 points of view, including four presidents (Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon and Ford), Green Beret David Oshiro, nurse Lily Lee Adams and Vietnam Veterans Memorial designer Maya Lin.
With more than 100 photographs and ample back matter, Boots on the Ground shows the same dedication to detail that Partridge has displayed in her previous nonfiction works (Marching for Freedom). The people she chooses to highlight help tell a fully developed history, one that doesn't shy away from showing how men of all ethnicities fought side by side "in country" even though some couldn't sit next to each other at lunch counters back home. Partridge's work makes the morass that is the history of the Vietnam War accessible, brings all the facts to the front and gives voice to stories that have gone mostly untold. --Siân Gaetano, children's and YA editor, Shelf Awareness