Bloods sheds light on the war from the perspective of African Americans soldiers at the time were unappreciated. Bloods is a collection of accounts of the war from 20 African American soldiers who at some point was involved in the Vietnam war. It was written by Terry Wallace who was an African American Journalist and Oral Historian. The stories ranged from gruesome to sorrow accounts. When discussing about the Vietnam war, it should be retold from those who actual involved and not those looking from the outside because they provide a better insight of what was really happening.
The first story that is introduced to us is from Private First Class Reginald “Malik” Edwards. Malik starts off his story by telling us how U.S. had this so called “protocol” that if a
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Edwards’s story shows not only the cruelty of the American peoples but sorrow of the war. Innocent people were being killed. His story reflects on how those involved had feelings and wasn’t all patriotic and gung ho. American soldiers were seen as these big boys who weren’t afraid of anything which included the Vietcongs . Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore in the movie Apocalypse Now fits this description perfectly. Malik story of him crying because he could have potential killed innocent people goes to show that everyone weren’t these big bad Americans. Malik at the time of joining the marines was only age seventeen. Details of the Vietnam war is usually told in high school where the kids are around the ages of 14-17. Malik’s age makes the audience think about how the way of life was then compared to now. His story also sheds light on how those of color were being treated in during the war. During his story his talks about how he once gotten caught up in a riot on base and was sent to jail where he was harassed and finally stood up and hit a warden. Of course, he got into more trouble for that incident and was eventually kicked out. Malik believed, “If I had been white, I would