1968 SPECIAL REPORT: "CAMP TIEN SHA RACIAL TROUBLE"

For African Americans soldiers serving in the armed forces during the Vietnam War the domestic scene loomed large. African Americans perceived racial issues—race relations, prejudice, and discrimination—in Vietnam through a lens heavily influenced by their earlier experiences in the United States. Issues related to race and race relations helped to define the African American experience in the United States, and these same issues defined the experiences of black soldiers in Vietnam. Race relations in combat were typified by cooperation, shared sacrifice, and a sense of brotherhood. These positive relations were largely a reflection of the fact that black and white soldiers in combat were heavily dependent on one another. Despite these positive interactions with whites, African Americans did not view the armed forces as an institution free of racial prejudice. Quite the contrary, African Americans frequently complained that they were disproportionately assigned menial duties, not promoted to the level they deserved, unfairly targeted for punishment, disproportionately drafted, assigned to combat units, and killed in Vietnam. Relations outside of combat were typified by racial tension and violence. Between 1969 and 1971 hundreds, if not thousands, of incidents of racial violence occurred in and around American military bases