"Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers

The black experience in Vietnam

February is Black History Month, and though the month is almost over, the book Fallen Angels will stay with me for a long, long time.

Touted as one of the best war books ever, black author Walter Dean Myers makes it not so much about the black experience in Vietnam, but about the American experience.

Yet he does not leave the reality of racism out of it, weaving a devastating story that places us directly in the mud of the war even as he opens our hearts to the plight of black American soldiers.

The main character is Richie Perry and after a stint in the hospital, he returns to his troop where his best friend Peewee catches him up on the recent events.

“I ain't too sure about the new sergeant . . . He took Monaco off point and put me on,” Peewee said. “I didn't think nothing about it at first until he put me on all the damn time.

Then he told Brunner [a white man] there he didn't want him pulling the rear. He put Johnson on the rear with the damn pig [large gun]!"

"What did Johnson say?"

"Johnson asked him to his damn face," Peewee said. "He asked him how come he put a brother on point and another brother in the damn rear with the sixty?"

"What did he say?"

"Dongan - that's his name - " Peewee said, "he said he do what he think he should do and it ain't for Johnson to tell him what to do.”

"What did Johnson say?"

"Johnson said he gonna mess around and get himself shot in the back of the head."

By this time in the story, Myers has so effectively created in us a deep love and empathy for every man in the troop, black and white, that we almost find ourselves hoping—for Peewee and Johnson’s sake—that Seagent Dongan does get himself shot, one way or another.

But we know that, with or without our wishes, the likelihood of death for American soldiers in the Vietnam backcountry was always high. But for black men, it was higher.

Although they represented only one-ninth (11%) of the U.S. forces in Vietnam, blacks constituted one-fifth (20%) of combat troops. Some infantry units were nearly 50% black. And blacks accounted for 14% of all battle casualties.

Additionally, black men were serving in disproportionate numbers since the many avenues of avoiding draft or enlistment that white men took advantage of were not open to them. (Vietnam, The Valor and the Sorrow, Thomas D. Boettcher)

Author Walter Dean Myers served in Vietnam though not in battle. He was there when the Americans were only acting as military advisors; from 1954-57 he trained South Vietnamese regulars.

“I joined the army at 17,” he says on a video about the book. “I was full of romantic notions about war . . . I went into the army but it was not like anything I imagined or wanted. Still I camed home and had a few bullets in my pocket and showed my brother. And he went into the army, and went to Vietnam and was killed on the very first day.”

That experience, of not only losing a brother but of being the one that had inspired him to join the army, left Myers devastated. He published a short story called “A Letter from Nam,” and, 20 years after his brother’s death, Fallen Angels.

The novel is not for the faint of heart. Every atrocity of the Vietnam War is brought into sharp relief. Yet, I found myself turning the final page with reluctance because, despite the trauma Myers unmasks, he also unearths a deep desire to care.

Myers dedicated Fallen Angels to his fallen brother, Thomas Wayne “Sonny” Myers.

Thank you for reading.

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Until next time,
Yours truly,
Kat ❦