The Fourteenth of September: a pivotal time in the anti-Vietnam War movement

The Fourteenth of September by Rita Dragonette is a one woman’s journey through a pivotal time in the Vietnam War. On September 14, 1969, Private First Class Judy Talton celebrated her nineteenth birthday. She secretly joins the campus anti-Vietnam War movement and jeopardizes her army scholarship and her relationships with her family. As the Draft Lottery draws up her birthday, Judy realizes that if she was a man, she would be the first to be sent into war. Doubts creep in and she is torn between her conscience and her scholarship. The stakes get higher as she is faced with a life-altering choice as the clash between young adulthood, age of conscience, feminism and anti-war sentiment heats up to a look into the domestic politics of protest as the world burns. We all know the era but do we know the psychological battle of those who were there? 

I was looking forward to The Fourteenth of September. I don’t normally come across Vietnam era stories especially from the perspective of a young woman. I found the first half of the story to be fairly slow. I’d admit I was bored. There was a bit of confusion as I wasn’t clued into why Judy was nervous joining the movement until much later. Although I also admit I didn’t reread the book blurb before I dove into the story. However, the second half of the book was on fire as Judy finds herself in a no win situation and the war hits closer to home. Judy reminded me of Lucy from the 2007’s Across the Universe. Both women find themselves up against radicals they didn’t agree with and on a path they didn’t truly want to be on. Overall, I enjoyed and recommend The Fourteenth of September. 

The Fourteenth of September is available in paperback, eBook, and audiobook. 

The Harvard Square Mob: a war protest and its unforeseen aftermath

The Harvard Square Mob by Neil Mahoney is the story of one group of individuals plan a radical heist to protest the Vietnam War and the aftermath. It’s 1969 and the Vietnam War still ranges on and the Harvard Coalition is growing tired of the lack of progress of Washington listening to their protests and concerns. A group of five individuals, four students and a professor, break off from the Coalition to plan their own protest, a type of protest that will grab the attention of the nation. Frank, the professor and the story’s narrator, recounts the events which changed their lives forever. The students of the group: Total, Abigail, Nathan and Harry, all have their own motives and reasons to participate. When the plan is successful, it is the aftermath that threatens to tear them apart and expose them as the culprits. Will they figure out a way to stay silent and still bring attention to the cause? Will they be found out and their protest be for naught?

The Harvard Square Mob is an interesting story about a turbulent time in our country when a war ranges on and no one supports the cause. Frank has the age that has seen the change in the country. As Frank puts it a country that “sees ourselves as a heroic people with a high historical purpose” and a country that “invented the national paranoia of the communist menace” and made “national pride a religion.” These quotes and many others hit home for me as they are eerily familiar to what is going on today. However, the story itself is less about the war protests but about these people who are bound by a secret and a paranoia when they think they will be found out. The story started off slow but picks up quickly once the heist occurs. It is a story of how a group of people protest for a greater good but get caught up in their own individual concerns. I recommend The Harvard Square Mob.

The Harvard Square Mob

is available in hardcover and eBook