Title: Jungle Jews of Vietnam
First published: 1995
Description: Written by Bernie Weisz Vietnam Historian Contact: BernWei1@aol.com July 8, 2010 Pembroke Pines, Florida Title of review: Jewish Participation in the Vietnam Conflict  I was very intrigued by this book when I first discovered it's existance. It's expensive, and like most historically important books, hard to find and out of print. Being a historian of the Vietnam War, I had to find out what this book was about and what was so rare about it. There are books about African Americans and Christians, Mexicans, American Indians, and other religious denominations and races, but there are no books besides "Jungle Jews" about the Jews that fought, and in some cases, died in the hot, steamy jungles of Viet Nam.  The author, Rabbi Winograd, starts out this book with a paradigm of a man named Asher Levy van Swellen, one of the first Jewish settlers of New Amsterdam, which New York was known as in 1654 under Dutch Rule. Winograd clearly states that Levy was one of the champions of the Jews, never permitting "an injury, however slight, to pass without protest". Winograd tells the story that in the year 1655 the Governor of New York, Peter Stuyvesant, was ordered by his superiors in the Netherlands (N.Y. was under Dutch rule) to attack a Swede settlement on the Deleware River. Styvestant issued orders for all adults to enlist in the army, with the exception that "Jews cannot be permitted to serve as soldiers, but shall instead pay a monthly contribution for the exemption". Levy wanted to enlist like other middle classed townsmen (called "burghers")and petetioned Styvestant to enlist like everyone else or be relieved of the tax. Levy's petition was rejected and was told by Styvestant that if he didn't like it, he could go somewhere else. Dissatified, Levy appealed to Holland and was granted permission to fight just like other citizens. Winograd points out that aside from Asser Levy's grandson serving as an officer in a New Jersey regiment during the American Revolution, from the very beginning of American Jewish history, "Jews have recoginzed that military service was a privilege as well as an obligation of American citizenship".  Winograd angrily states that even today there is a stigma that "we Jews are physically weak cowards".  Winograd, before going over 100 personal stories of men and women who served, fought and in some cases died in the Vietnam War states: "military service, like organized sports, has always been a short cut to complete acceptance in society for Jews and other groups. Like football, basketball, baseball and boxing, it has been a way to demonstrate physical power and courage in the face of those bigots" who claim Jews are afraid to defend this country and avoid their rightful military duty. Prime examples are Jerry Rubin, self proclaimed leader of the "anti-war" movement (Jewish, and interestingly enough now a successful stockbroker) and Abbie Hoffman, who took his own life a decade ago.  These two are falsely looked at by anti-semites as prime examples of "Jewish Treachery" against the security of the United States. But just like Karl Marx, a Jew who wrote the "Communist Manifesto", these individuals are not representative of patriotic, loyal American Jews, who when summoned during the Vietnam conflict proudly went and distinguished themselves in an American uniform. There have been other books about minorities, like the story of an American Indian's braveness in the Marine Corps in Vietnam, or the racial inequities in the draft and an inordinate amount of minorities in lower levels of the military (mostly in the front lines in Vietnam) What was it that compelled Winograd to go interview over 100 Jewish Vietnam Veteran combat veterans? First, Winograd explains: "Pat Buchannan went on to write that if we went to war, the fighting would be done by kids named McAllister, Murphy, Gonzales and Leroy Brown". Second, Winograd wrote this book to refute the big lie, espoused by David Duke, Pat Buchanan and those that admire them that "Jews did not serve in the military during that period (Vietnam)".  In Winograd's second chapter he profiles 12 Jewish Vietnam combat veterans that lost their lives in that war. Painful and tragic stories are told of lives cut short by North Vietnamese ambushes, pitched fire fights and even "friendly fire". Interestingly enough (and in tribute to the intelligence of the Jewish veterans who proudly and responsibly served, 80% went on to later in life become either judges, lawyers, rabbi's and especially physicians. This book gives you a good cross section of the American side of the Viet Nam War seen through Jewish G.I's from the problem of lagging morale of U.S. troops after the "Tet Offensive" (January, 1968) drug abuse of troops, atrocities and legal infractions. However, the most poignant anecdotes express anger of Jewish Vietnam War veterans towards non-recognition of the "Agent Orange" problem as well as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman misrepresenting the loyal, patriotic American Jews that served in this war. Finally, Winograd comes up with some very interesting statistics of Jewish-american military service. Forty six Jews served in the "Continental Army" during the Revolutionary War. There were 44 Jews that served in the U.S. Army in the war against Great Britain in 1812. In the Mexican War there were 58 Jews that served. In the U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) you had 90 Jews in the Union Army, and an additional 16 Union staff officers. For the Southern Confederacy, there were 11 Jewish Confederate officers in the Confederate Navy, 24 staff officers in the Confederate Army, and a total of 7,038 Jews combined who served in the Union and Confederate armies. Although the military did not keep figures based on religion during W.W I, II nor Korea, it is known that 55,000 Jews fought for America against Tojo's Japan and Hitler's Germany during 1941-1945. It is estimated that around 5,000 Jews fought for America in the Vietnam War, with nearly 300 listed as dead or missing in action. To conclude, most interviews were similar to the following example. Steve Glushakow, who served in Tay Ninh in 1968, had the following to say; "Jews didn't shy away from their obligations. All of us, Jews and Christians, have the same memories of the war. We all remember the day when the doors of the plane opened and the heat hit us. We remember the jungles and the monsoons and the helicopters. And we remember the day they told us we were going home...it was a rough war, and I hope in the future nobody has to go through one again". Another Jewish Vietnam vet, Robert Polinsky lamented: "Alot of guys who fought in W.W. II like to reminisce about the good old days in the war. We Vietnam Veterans don't do that. It was a dirty, ugly war, and when I came home I got questions like "did you do drugs over there"? or "did you kill babies"? I became disillusioned. It was a stupid war". The strongest interview was given by Marc Schneider, who was an executive officer and in combat in most of 1970 in Tay Ninh Province. Schneider wrote: "The belief that there were no Jews in Vietnam is generally accepted without question. Also the Jewish opposition to the war was self-serving,(i.e. if there was enough opposition to the war to end it, they wouldn't have to go), in that context, Jerry Rubin and Abby Hoffman were typical and proved the stereotype. I personally did not experience any hostility because I was a Jew, but I do feel like Jews were very conspicuous by their absence in the military compared to other groups in American society such as Blacks, Hispanics, Irish, etc. I could easily see how the image of the Jew in America is formed. That plus the constant reinforcement by the churches that Jews killed Christ and are hence basically evil". This book will clearly debunk the myth that American Jews avoided service during the tragic conflict in Vietnam, and will give a solid history lesson to the student of this conflict, from the Gulf of Tonkin incident in 1965 to America's final and sad departure fom S.E. Asia in January, 1973. Find this book!
Subjects: Biography, Jewish Participation, Jewish soldiers, Jews, Participation, Jewish, Veterans, Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975, Vietnam War, 1961-1975
Places: United States
People: Jews serving in the U.S. Military during America's War in Vietnam (1965 to 1973)
Time periods: 1965 to 1973
LC classification: DS559.73.U6 W56 1995