A Hero's Welcome

Fülszöveg

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This is the story of one man's struggle to live by the dictates of his conscience. James Daly believed it was wrong to bear > arms. That is what the Jehovah's Witnesses taught. He hoped to be a Jehovah's Witness one day. In the meantime he wanted to serve his country, because he believed in its principles of equality and justice for all. His country was at war in Vietnam.
James l3aly enlisted in the Army, applying for conscientious objector status so that he could serve his country without compromising his beliefs. He was welcomed with the promise that he would receive it. Mysteriously, over the course of several months, his application for that status was repeatedly ignored. He ended up carrying a rifle in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where blacks like himself made up a disproportionate number of front-line combat troops. He was captiued before he had to fire his rifle, and spent five years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. There he grew to realize that the war he had at... Tovább

Fülszöveg

i

This is the story of one man's struggle to live by the dictates of his conscience. James Daly believed it was wrong to bear > arms. That is what the Jehovah's Witnesses taught. He hoped to be a Jehovah's Witness one day. In the meantime he wanted to serve his country, because he believed in its principles of equality and justice for all. His country was at war in Vietnam.
James l3aly enlisted in the Army, applying for conscientious objector status so that he could serve his country without compromising his beliefs. He was welcomed with the promise that he would receive it. Mysteriously, over the course of several months, his application for that status was repeatedly ignored. He ended up carrying a rifle in the jungles of Southeast Asia, where blacks like himself made up a disproportionate number of front-line combat troops. He was captiued before he had to fire his rifle, and spent five years as a prisoner of war in Hanoi. There he grew to realize that the war he had at first not understood was wrong, and that his country was wrong to be fighting it. He said so, publicly, because he believed what his eyes told him. It is easy to agree with him now. But at the time it was different.
The official policy for dealing with men like James Daly, who had spoken out against our Asian intervention, was to honor and forgive. Honor them for having spoken their minds? Forgive them—for what? When he came home, Jim was given a hero's welcome. He even went to Washington to shake the president's hand. But after the first few happy months, trouble set in. Jim and a group of his friends were brought up on charges of treason. There was a great deal of publicity. The Army opened formal trial proceedings against the men. One of Jim's group committed suicide.
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Through it all, James Daly stood his ground. Patriotism, he believed, did not mean the blind obedience of an Adolf Eichmann. True love of country demands that we open our hearts and speak out when we know we are wrong. Here is a book about a very important freedom which our Constitution means to guarantee, but which faces just as great a threat today as it ever did. Vissza