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Returning Vietnam veterans had every reason to expect that the government would take care of their readjustment needs in the same way it had done for veterans of both World War II and Korea. But the Vietnam generation soon discovered that their G.I. Bills fell well short of what many of them believed they had earned. Mark Boulton’s groundbreaking study provides the first analysis of the legislative debates surrounding the education benefits offered under the Vietnam-era G.I. Bills. Specifically, the book explores why legislators from both ends of the political spectrum failed to provide Vietnam veterans the same generous compensation offered to veterans of previous wars.
Failing Our Veterans should be essential reading to scholars of the Vietnam War, political history, or of social policy. Contemporary lawmakers should heed its historical lessons on how we ought to treat our returning veterans. Indeed, veterans wishing to fully understand their own homecoming experience will find great interest in the book’s conclusions.
"Failing Our Veterans is an outstanding legislative history of the G.I. Bill and its evolution during and after World War II. Boulton traces a clear and understandable path through a complex array of personalities and organizations involved in the public policy debate that comprised postwar veterans policy."
"This book fills an important niche, helping explain the difficulties encountered by those never labeled 'the Greatest Generation'."
"Failing Our Veterans is highly recommended for scholars of modern American history and anyone looking to gain a deeper understanding of veterans affairs."
"The book is well organized and presents convincing and compelling analysis of an extremely important issue."
"The shoddy treatment of our veterans is one of this nations dirtiest secrets. Mark Boulton deserves high praise for the systematic way in which he reveals how the betrayal of American veterans has been carried out through the course of numerous Presidential administrations. One can only hope that his no-holds-barred censure of callous politicians will lead to a new era, where the government that sends men and women to war acts responsibly in taking care of them once they return home. This book needs to be read by every politician who ever voted on, or ever will vote on, a veterans rights bill, and by every American who votes those politicians into office."
— Gerald Nicosia,author of Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans’ Movement
"With the country facing decades of costly health and service benefits for veterans of its 21st century wars, nothing could be more timely than Mark Boulton's look-back at the political, economic, and ideological battles that shaped public policies currently in place. He gives us a detailed but easy to read history with unsettling implications for our future."
— Jerry Lembcke,Associate Professor Emeritus, College of the Holy Cross
"[] Failing Our Veterans makes a valuable contribution to knowledge about the Vietnam veterans experience particularly useful for researchers who specialize in Vietnam veterans, education policy and veterans readjustment providing a context for an understanding of the relevant debates about educational benefits, and showing their connectedness to the broader history of their times."
"InFailing Our VeteransMark Boulton, an assistant professor of history at Westminster College in Missouri, provides a detailed examination of the legislative history of the Veterans Readjustment Benefits Act of 1966 and subsequent bills passed between 1967 and 1974 to explain why many veteran needs were not fulfilled.Failing Our Veteransably illustrates fundamental issues remain unresolved."