Wil Haygood, "The War within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home" (Knopf, 2026)

New Books in African American Studies · May 12, 2026 · 52m

Award-winning author Wil Haygood joins Michael Stauch to discuss The War within a War: The Black Struggle in Vietnam and at Home (Knopf, 2026) his new book on the experiences of Black soldiers during the first war fought with an integrated military, the Vietnam War. Through the lives of seven soldiers, a pianist, and a wartime journalist, Haygood details how Black soldiers’ attempts to rise through their merits in the military came up against white racism within that same military, even as the Civil Rights movement scored significant gains domestically, through the Civil Rights and Voting…