Reluctant Warrior

Chris Morgens was only one of a handful of Ivy League college graduates to be killed in Vietnam. Given his privileged upbringing, Chris likely could have avoided military service as many young men of his socio-economic status were able to do during the 1960s. Yet, his father, being a heavy influence in Chris's life, persuaded Chris to enlist as an officer in the Army at a time when the war was taking thousands of young American lives per year. Chris reluctantly agreed though he was personally against the prosecution of the war. In the interim, Chris and his father argued interminably about the purpose and advisability of the war, with Chris' father, a retired military officer, abhorred at his son's anti-war posture. This is the backdrop to Chris's story from the elite halls of Harvard University to being a combat platoon leader in the jungles of Vietnam. Though disagreeing with his Commander-in-Chief's prosecution of the war, Chris prioritized the well-being of the men under his command in all his actions. In the four short months in 1970 that he served in Vietnam before he was killed at the age of 22, he acquired a reputation as an effective and well-regarded combat leader. Many who served with Chris and were there on the day he was killed share their remembrances in this book. Needless to say, his father was devasted at the outcome of a path he had urged upon his son. Nevertheless, the author concludes that a death in combat might as well be blamed on the rain for all the practical difference it makes.