Why were they angry? Black Americans in the Vietnam War were angry simply because they had to fight two wars; a race war in America for African Americans and an independence war for Vietnamese.
Black Americans called the Vietnam War the "White Man's Folly" otherwise stated the white mans foolish act. Black Americans were not concern with communism in Vietnam; they were concern with the racist American society. Jim Crow might have died in 1965 but its' laws of bigotry, repression and racism remained unburied. Black Americans were fighting against racial segregation in America yet at the same time were drafted into the war and told to pick up riffles and defed their unjust country.
Wallace Terry II interviewed 392 black mean of all ranks and branches of service during the war. He noted a large majority of black enlisted men agreed that black people should not fight in Vietnam because they had problems of discrimination to deal with at home. 63% believed that their fight was in the U.S.
Marine Corporal James E. Baler, Jr., stated, "They way whites treat the natives of this country I know they don't give a damn about their [Vietnamese] freedom."Most blacks and a significant minority of whites rejected the notion that the war was supposed to stop the spread of Communism.
Terry stated that 50% of the black enlisted men surveyed agreed that their weapons had a strong appeal against the race war in America. They were going to fight a race war in America that their grandparents always wanted to do but were forced not to. Terry also stated that 60.2% of the black enlisted men and 49.7% of the black officers agreed that the war protests needed armed protection.
The black soldier was no longer silent over the discrimination he experience decades ago. Blacks were more tolerant; their right to protest and speaking out meant more to them. Many joined the Black Panthers or SDS (Students for a Democratic Society). Corporal Toby Hoffler, a black Marine from Brooklyn said, "The white man had his G...damn Boston Tea Party, so why cant we have our riots, and the white students their marches? Is there any difference?"