WHEN EIGHTEEN-YEAR-OLD RON KOVIC enlisted in the United States Marine Corps in the fall of 1964, he couldn't foresee that he would return from Vietnam paralyzed and in a wheelchair for life. His best-selling 1976 memoir Born on the Fourth of July is an antiwar classic and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film starring Tom Cruise as Kovic. His follow-up, Hurricane Street, chronicled his advocacy for Vietnam veterans' rights, including a seventeen-day hunger strike in the office of the late California senator Alan Cranston. A Dangerous Country: An American Elegy completes Kovic's Vietnam Trilogy, delving deep into his long and often agonizing journey home from war - his physical, sexual, and psychological struggles; his bitterness, loss of faith in God and country, and eventual healing, forgiveness, and spiritual redemption. The book opens with Kovic's never-before-revealed Vietnam diary (July 7, 1967-July 26, 1968). Deeply troubled by the growing antiwar movement in 1967, Kovic decided to set his own example of patriotism by returning to Vietnam for a second tour of duty. His entries from this period portray a patriotic young soldier with a strong moral and religious conscience, unburdened by the foreknowledge of the terrible events to come. The diary ends in Kovic's bedroom in Massapequa, New York, in the summer of 1968. Now confined to a wheelchair after his horrific injury, he makes a final entry, ending with the words,'May I say that through these 6 months I've never lost faith in myself, my God, or my country. I believe in everything I wrote in this diary with all my heart and soul.' In Part II, Kovic recalls his political awakening after his return from Vietnam, as well as the tremendous guilt and shame he feels over his accidental killing of a fellow Marine while on patrol. This killing psychologically torments him as much as his severe disability. Kovic experiences numerous failed romantic and sexual entanglements, along with a growing skepticism, a loss of faith in God and country, and a desire to expatriate to France. Struggling to leave the war behind and find his way home, he becomes severely depressed. On the brink of suicide, Kovic experiences a powerful epiphany that gives him a reason and purpose to live; a renewed faith and strength to carry on. Kovic tells his story in the passionate and brutally honest style that led to over one million sales of Born on the Fourth of July. Although his trauma is severe, his third memoir is ultimately the inspirational story of a young man finding a way to rise above his depression and despair, forgiving his enemies and himself, growing deeply committed to a new life.
