Additional information
by Richard W. May (Author)
Vietnam Behind Locked Doors is the semi-autobiographical account of a US Army Lieutenant stationed at the Pentagon from February 1969 to 1971. The cornerstone events are historically accurate. Some fictional characters and locations are included to recreate the nostalgia of this turbulent period in American history.
Storyline Narrative
Army LT William "Bill" Skeates prepares daily current intelligence briefs for the Army General Staff. Source material for these briefings comes from the CIA, the State Department, Signal Intelligence (SIGINT), and military resources.
Bill chose to enlist in 1968 to attend officer training school at Fort Belvoir, Virginia. As a newly-commissioned officer, he is assigned to the Pentagon as a Latin American analyst. His father, Wynn, heads the Associated Press office in Buenos Aires, Argentina and his Uncle Les is a highly decorated Air Force Colonel, also stationed at the Pentagon.
Bill's romance with Eleanor "Ellie" Towbridge serves as a platform for discussing the Civil Rights Movement, the Equal Rights Amendment, the violent 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago, and other significant events in the late 1960s and early '70s.
Vietnam Behind Locked Doors is set primarily in Washington, D.C. and Alexandria, Virginia.
Broader Implications of the Vietnam War
Vietnam is the focal point of this story, highlighting how political and military leaders chose to use highly classified intelligence to shape their messaging.
Chiseled into black granite at the Vietnam Memorial are the names of more than 58,000 men and eight women who lost their lives or are missing. Tens of thousands of others suffered gruesome injuries and physical or mental disabilities. Countless families and friends of these brave warriors had the trajectory of their lives tragically altered by events on the far side of the world. And lest we forget, some two million Vietnamese lost their lives in this War.
