Combat by Trial

About the Book

Nancy Miller Saunders joined a group of filmmakers in 1971 to film the demonstrations of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. She’d already been impressed by the VVAW’s determination to end the war, but that hadn’t stopped the government from turning the children of the Greatest Generation into the Wasted Generation. While she hoped to help change that, she never dreamed she’d meet and fall in love with a veteran who would be targeted as a scapegoat—and that she’d be hounded as much as the veterans themselves. In this important historical account, she allows veterans and their families to speak in their own voices through interviews and personal writings. She also shares her own story, including her connection to two of the spies that the FBI sent to infiltrate the VVAW and how she worked with VVAW defense attorneys in the fabricated case against the Gainesville 8. With laws such as the Patriot Act and Military Commissions Act, citizens are once again being stripped of their rights. History is repeating itself, and it’s more important than ever to read the cautionary tales in Combat by Trial.

About the Author

Nancy Miller Saunders grew up in New England and worked as a filmmaker during Vietnam, documenting actions of veterans who opposed the war. Later, she helped attorneys defending the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. She retired from the University of Arkansas Press and lives with her husband in the Ozarks.