Having been a student and friend of Ernest B. Fincher to the time of his death from pneumonia in Easton, Pennsylvania on February 12, 1985; I understand and appreciate the background of personal committment to social change, reconciliation, and peace that motivated his perceptions.His long service as a member of the Executive of the Steering Committee of the American Friends' Service Committee (Society of Friends, or Quakers) saw him commit personally to a life of reconciliation that included his own imprisonment for two years for his refusal to kill or support killing others in the Second World War. It was from this perspective that he saw the brightest and best of American society being again called to the barbarism and dehumanizing training for war. His book, written from that perspective, carries factual accounts not only of the history of the Viet Nam war itself, but of the tremendous social upheaval that affected the young people of the day. He captures to some extent the legitimacy and the passion of the youth movement against the war and against the draft; in both of which he became my advisor and friend.The world at present needs more writers like him, who, despite years of ethical living, carried on faithfully to his values, as reflected in this history written for the young. But the old should not be so bold as to think that the lessons for youth are not intended for them as well.P.S. "Eby," as he was known, penned in the front of my copy: "For Joe -Who fought the Viet Nam war the proper way, Eby"I would never sell it.