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3. The Potential of Unofficial Histories:

No wonder, then, that in the pursuit of the meaning of Vietnam, some researchers have gone the opposite direction from the official view. We now know that what individual soldiers saw, felt, and later reported has great value, despite the obvious limitations. As participants in any activity, we are radically limited in what we observe, and our later report is certain to be a kind of distortion. But this kind of individualized distortion could hardly be more distorted than the official view. And we now accept the premise that a collection of individualized views when taken together could correct a distortion, could clarify a picture.

What has become a standard in the field of Vietnam research are the unofficial histories, often in the form of collections of narratives volumes such as Bloods, Grunts, A Piece of My Heart, Nam, and In the Combat Zone. In these collections, several groups have now had the opportunity to present their experiences in Vietnam: Blacks, nurses, pilots, Special Forces, and so on. Our knowledge of the Vietnam War is richer, wiser, more complete, and more accurate because of these accounts. With them we are closer to understanding the events.

In the effort of chronicle the record of the man, or woman, in the field, one group has been totally overlooked—the Native American.