Debt of Gratitude

Glenn Robins is professor of history, Georgia Southwestern State University, and author of The Longest Rescue: The Life and Legacy of Vietnam POW William A. Robinson and They Have Left Us Here to Die: The Civil War Prison Diary of Sgt. Lyle G. Adair, 111th U.S. Colored Infantry.

“Glenn Robins̻s A Debt of Gratitude: Jimmy Carter and Vietnam Veterans joins the growing body of well-researched scholarly books that set the record straight about the presidency and legacy of Jimmy Carter. It not only reveals in convincing detail both Carter the politician and Carter the humanitarian at work, it demonstrates how the often-maligned veterans earned and deserved the gratitude that the thirty-ninth president offered them.” - E. Stanly Godbold, Jr., author of Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: The Georgia Years, 1924–1974 and Jimmy and Rosalynn Carter: Power and Human Rights, 1975–2020“Based on prodigious archival research, Glenn Robins details how Jimmy Carter grappled with the complex issue of Vietnam veterans, ultimately to his political detriment. A Debt of Gratitude expertly uncovers Carter’s motivations and his efforts on behalf of the veterans of an unpopular war while simultaneously providing an intriguing window into US presidential politics and socio-cultural mores in the aftermath of the Vietnam conflict.” - Andrew Johns, author of The Price of Loyalty: Hubert Humphrey’s Vietnam Conflict“In this eye-opening book, Glenn Robins makes a convincing case that Vietnam War veterans do, indeed, owe a debt of gratitude to Jimmy Carter, who during his governorship of Georgia and while in the White House did more to recognize their service and support meaningful readjustment programs than any other American political leader. This is a clear-eyed and revealing look at the 1970s Vietnam War veterans’ movement and a solid addition to the history of that consequential time.” - Marc Leepson, arts editor and columnist, The VVA Veteran magazine and editor of The Webster’s New World Dictionary of the Vietnam War