The War Within: America's Battle over Vietnam

About this book

The Vietnam war left a gash in the heart of America that can still be felt today. The War Within is the definitive history of Americas internal battle over that war and it chronicles as no other book has done the full story of how a powerful grassroots force--the antiwar movement--changed the course of American history.Tom Wells spent over ten years painstakingly researching government and antiwar-movement documents and interviewing virtually every key player from the Vietnam era--from Dean Rusk William Westmoreland and John Ehrlichman to Dave Dellinger Philip Berrigan and Daniel Ellsberg. Wells moves from protests at the White House gates to antiwar meeting halls recreating the activities of the student factions religious organizations political splinter groups and other organizations that waged campaigns of mass protest draft resistance civil disobedience and sometimes political violence. Here too are the behind-the-scenes planning sessions of Democra