Cover; Contents; Acknowledgments; Introduction: "A Chance for Learning"; 1. For the Wounded and the Worthy: Veterans' Benefits from the Early Republic to the Vietnam Era; 2. The Clash of the Texans: The Making of the 1966 Cold War G.I. Bill; 3. A Peacetime Bill for the Warrior: Shortchanging the Vietnam Vets; 4. Mr. President (Have Pity on the Fighting Man): Nixon's Right Turn for America, Wrong Result for the Veterans; 5. On the Streets and in the Schools: The Veterans Come Home; 6. Denouement: Ford's War on Inflation and Teague's Last Stand; Conclusion: "A Chance for Learning" Missed; Notes
Summary
The original 1944 G.I. Bill holds a special place in the American imagination. In popular mythology, it stands as the capstone of the Greatest Generation narrative of World War II, a fitting reward for the nation's heroes. Given the almost universal acclaim afforded the bill, future generations of warriors might well have expected to receive similar remuneration for their sacrifice. But when soldiers of the Vietnam conflict shed their fatigues and returned home to civilian life, they found that their G.I. Bills fell well short of what many of them believed they had earned. In this first legisl
