Being Black in Vietnam chronicles the experience of Donald Talbert, ’77, while serving in the military during a tour of duty in Vietnam. He provides a snapshot of various confrontations with his white counterparts and details how he was mistreated “by the same people who were supposed to protect me.” Talbert says he went from “hating almost all white people” to only hating those “who were trying to make life miserable for me.”

In the end, Talbert made the conscious decision not to be aggressive toward anyone “unless it was warranted to keep me out of harm’s way.” One thing that became evident, he says, was that it “wasn’t very many black people who came to my aid. It was mostly white people.” He also realized that most of the help he received was because he was willing to stand up for himself at all costs.