They Marched Into Sunlight (101 page)

Authors: David Maraniss

Tags: #General, #Vietnam War; 1961-1975, #History, #20th Century, #United States, #Vietnam War, #Military, #Vietnamese Conflict; 1961-1975, #Protest Movements, #Vietnamese Conflict; 1961-1975 - Protest Movements - United States, #United States - Politics and Government - 1963-1969, #Southeast Asia, #Vietnamese Conflict; 1961-1975 - United States, #Asia

BOOK: They Marched Into Sunlight

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The arrest of Vicki Gabriner, Miss Sifting and Winnowing, was pure guerrilla theater. She went limp, then resisted vociferously as two policemen dragged her away. One of the defining pictures of the day was of Gabriner’s painted face staring out the back window of a paddy wagon.

There were messy scrums on the Commerce plaza, with students surging forward and policemen responding with billy clubs. “Everyone in the pile was swearing, ‘God damn, get off me!’”

Most of the students treated at nearby UW Hospital had scalp wounds that gushed with blood but looked more serious than they were.

In the aftermath of the Dow riot, Paul Soglin (
standing in sheepskin coat
) emerged as a student leader. Within six months he was elected to the city council, and within six years he was mayor of Madison.

William Sewell, the UW chancellor, testifies at a legislative hearing after the Dow riot. A renowned sociologist, Sewell was the classic liberal of that era, caught between radical students and conservative state politicians.

A connection that defies all odds, bringing together the worlds of war and peace. Dave Wagner (
left
) was at the Dow demonstration at Wisconsin while Michael Arias (
right
) was at the battle of October 17. Wagner’s son, Ben (
second from left
), married Arias’s daughter, Theresa.

Thirty-five years after the battle, Vo Minh Triet (
right
), commander of the First Regiment, greets Nguyen Van Lam, an officer with the local rear service group, at Lam’s house near the battlefield. “Oh my God,” Lam said. “You are still alive?”

Clark Welch and Vo Minh Triet retrace their steps on the battlefield. “We once fought against each other; now we are becoming old soldiers together,” Welch said. “We together grieve for the terrible losses.”

Table of Contents

Cast of Characters

A Brief Preface

Book One

1 Sailing to Vung Tau

2 Triet’s March South

3 Lai Khe, South Vietnam