In That Time
Michael O'Donnell and the Tragic Era of Vietnam
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- $19.99
Publisher Description
Through the story of the brief, brave life of a promising poet, the president and CEO of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art evokes the turmoil and tragedy of the Vietnam War era.
In That Time tells the story of the American experience in Vietnam through the life of Michael O'Donnell, a bright young musician and poet who served as a soldier and helicopter pilot. O'Donnell wrote with great sensitivity and poetic force, and his best-known poem is among the most beloved of the war. In 1970, during an attempt to rescue fellow soldiers stranded under heavy fire, O'Donnell's helicopter was shot down in the jungles of Cambodia. He remained missing in action for almost three decades.
Although he never fired a shot in Vietnam, O'Donnell served in one of the most dangerous roles of the war, all the while using poetry to express his inner feelings and to reflect on the tragedy that was unfolding around him. O'Donnell's life is both a powerful, personal story and a compelling, universal one about how America lost its way in the 1960s, but also how hope can flower in the margins of even the darkest chapters of the American story.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Art historian Weiss (Remaking College: Innovation and the Liberal Arts) eulogizes Michael O'Donnell, a poet, folk musician, and U.S. Army helicopter pilot killed in the Vietnam War, and summarizes "how America lost its way in the 1960s" in this poignant account. In March 1970, O'Donnell and his crew flew their helicopter into Cambodia to rescue a reconnaissance team "pinned down under heavy fire." They picked up the commandos, but were hit by a missile on their ascent; an air support team arrived just in time to see the helicopter burst into flames and disappear beneath the jungle canopy. Declared missing-in-action, O'Donnell left behind a cache of poems, one of which has been widely anthologized: "And in that time/ when men decide and feel safe/ to call the war insane,/ take one moment to embrace/ those gentle heroes/ you left behind." Weiss brilliantly evokes O'Donnell's fatal mission and the toll his MIA status took on his loved ones (his remains were recovered in 2001), but much of the war and postwar history feels like filler. As a pr cis on the tragic place Vietnam holds in the American consciousness, however, this slim book succeeds admirably.)
