We Were There: Vietnam

Vietnam was a bloody and divisive war that shaped a generation.

In 1968, with the elimination of law school draft deferments, Steve Bailey's door to academia slammed shut. Another door opened to two years of training through Louisiana's swamps, Panama's jungles, and Officer Candidate School. In May 1970, he arrived in Vietnam as a 24-year-old Army infantry lieutenant for his one-year tour.After a brutal 72-hour firefight near the Iron Triangle and Cu Chi, Bailey searches the body of a fallen North Vietnamese soldier and finds the unexpected: a waterproof-wrapped art book of delicate sketches of palm trees, mountains, and portraits. The enemy soldier was an artist who carried his humanity into battle. That discovery haunts Bailey for fifty years.He returns home to a divided nation where scorn pains as deeply as any battlefield wound.We Were There confronts the moral weight and reality of combat, from a 14-year-old girl executed by the Viet Cong, to a friend killed during aerial reconnaissance, to memories that won't fade. Bailey writes about what soldiers carry home: not just trauma, but the responsibility to honor the fallen. His decades-long quest to return the art book culminates in 2022, when he meets with the Vietnamese Ambassador in Washington, D.C., and formally returns the drawings to the Vietnamese people. It is an act of reconciliation that transcends the war.This is an honest, unflinching memoir where brutality and compassion collide, where courage and doubt coexist. In war's aftermath, duty remains: to honor the fallen and bear witness for those who can no longer speak.

Author: Steve Bailey
Publisher: Fortis
Published: 05/18/2026
Pages: 234
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.70lbs
Size: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.49d
ISBN: 9781962729185

About the Author
Bailey, Steve: - Steve Bailey was commissioned as a second lieutenant and Commandant's List graduate of the Army Infantry Officer Candidate School, Fort Benning, Georgia. Following jungle school in Panama in 1970, he was assigned to lead a five-man counterinsurgency team in the Republic of Vietnam. He was awarded the Combat Infantryman's Badge, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry, a Bronze Star, and a Purple Heart. Steve is a graduate of East Carolina University, Greenville, North Carolina, received his J.D. from Tulane University School of Law, New Orleans, Louisiana, and was a member of the New Mexico Bar Association. He was a successful entrepreneur and the owner/president of a large real estate company in Connecticut.Steve and his wife, Mary, and their dog, Mia, live in Florida. They are the proud parents of three adult children and have six grandchildren. Steve is a hobbyist artist and boasts that his wife granted him permission to display one of his masterpieces in a guest bedroom.

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