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zelanator's review
4.0
There are very few reviews of this book because of its age and the fact that it has been out of print for a few decades. John Steinbeck IV, the son of the famous writer, John Steinbeck, volunteered for service with the United States Army after he finished college with a degree in communications. He was subsequently assigned to AFRVs (Armed Forces Radio, Vietnam) where he spent six months in Saigon and six months traveling in the field to report on what various units were doing and the morale and welfare of soldiers.
Steinbeck IV was most infamous for his writings on American soldiers’ marijuana use in Vietnam—he wrote in a Washingtonian article that upwards of 75% of American soldiers used marijuana sporadically in Vietnam, with a prediction that that percentage would rise when more Baby Boomers caught in the “Hippie craze” were drafted and sent to Vietnam in the late-1960s and early 1970s. Steinbeck IV made headlines when he was arrested on possession of marijuana and maintaining a public nuisance while he finished the last four months of his service at the Department of Defense, Public Information Office. Steinbeck had an abiding interest in studying “Hippies” and befriended a shop-owner known as Ian. When Ian was busted for running a mega-pot farm outside of Washington, D.C., Steinbeck put Ian and his two girlfriends up in his Washington apartment. Steinbeck was arrested after narcotics officers raided his small apartment and seized twenty pounds of weed (belong to one of Ian’s girlfriends) and found “traces” of marijuana in Steinbeck’s drawers, as well as, a bong.
Steinbeck hired an up-and-coming lawyer who was fighting the criminalization of marijuana use and secured an acquittal in federal court. After his acquittal, where he waxed poetic about his “sociological interest” in Hippies and his “expertise” on marijuana, he was given the limelight and invited to the first (of several) Senate hearings of Juvenile Delinquency where he testified about drug use in Vietnam. That’s the short version of all that happened and is covered in this book.
In Touch is divided into three sections: Steinbeck’s time in Vietnam, his arrest and trial in Washington, D.C., and an odd, eclectic drug-infused intellectual odyssey where Steinbeck describes, among other things, LSD use and meditation. The last section strikes me as odd given the matter-of-fact style of the first 2/3rds of the book. I chalked it up as Steinbeck’s attempt to mimic the style of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Also included in the book are full copies of Steinbeck’s published articles in the Washingtonian about marijuana use in Vietnam, a brief assessment of how marijuana compared to other mind-altering substances, and a copy of his testimony before the Senate Subcommittee hearing.
I was reading this book hoping that Steinbeck might provide some insights about why American soldiers were using marijuana in Vietnam and they particular ways in which they used the drug (e.g. in what settings and with whom). I was somewhat disappointed because Steinbeck, as much as he touted his general interest in the subject, offered only generalities (he admitted his 75% figure was essentially conjecture) and his own perspective on using marijuana while a “Saigon Warrior.” Needless to say, I found Steinbeck’s arguments about what infantrymen did unconvincing because he seemed to have little experience being around infantry and had not served on the front. To be fair, Steinbeck admitted early in the book that for the majority of his tour in Vietnam he bar-hopped, visited brothels, toked with others at restaurants in Saigon, and did as little work as possible for AFRV.
4/5
Steinbeck IV was most infamous for his writings on American soldiers’ marijuana use in Vietnam—he wrote in a Washingtonian article that upwards of 75% of American soldiers used marijuana sporadically in Vietnam, with a prediction that that percentage would rise when more Baby Boomers caught in the “Hippie craze” were drafted and sent to Vietnam in the late-1960s and early 1970s. Steinbeck IV made headlines when he was arrested on possession of marijuana and maintaining a public nuisance while he finished the last four months of his service at the Department of Defense, Public Information Office. Steinbeck had an abiding interest in studying “Hippies” and befriended a shop-owner known as Ian. When Ian was busted for running a mega-pot farm outside of Washington, D.C., Steinbeck put Ian and his two girlfriends up in his Washington apartment. Steinbeck was arrested after narcotics officers raided his small apartment and seized twenty pounds of weed (belong to one of Ian’s girlfriends) and found “traces” of marijuana in Steinbeck’s drawers, as well as, a bong.
Steinbeck hired an up-and-coming lawyer who was fighting the criminalization of marijuana use and secured an acquittal in federal court. After his acquittal, where he waxed poetic about his “sociological interest” in Hippies and his “expertise” on marijuana, he was given the limelight and invited to the first (of several) Senate hearings of Juvenile Delinquency where he testified about drug use in Vietnam. That’s the short version of all that happened and is covered in this book.
In Touch is divided into three sections: Steinbeck’s time in Vietnam, his arrest and trial in Washington, D.C., and an odd, eclectic drug-infused intellectual odyssey where Steinbeck describes, among other things, LSD use and meditation. The last section strikes me as odd given the matter-of-fact style of the first 2/3rds of the book. I chalked it up as Steinbeck’s attempt to mimic the style of Jack Kerouac’s On the Road. Also included in the book are full copies of Steinbeck’s published articles in the Washingtonian about marijuana use in Vietnam, a brief assessment of how marijuana compared to other mind-altering substances, and a copy of his testimony before the Senate Subcommittee hearing.
I was reading this book hoping that Steinbeck might provide some insights about why American soldiers were using marijuana in Vietnam and they particular ways in which they used the drug (e.g. in what settings and with whom). I was somewhat disappointed because Steinbeck, as much as he touted his general interest in the subject, offered only generalities (he admitted his 75% figure was essentially conjecture) and his own perspective on using marijuana while a “Saigon Warrior.” Needless to say, I found Steinbeck’s arguments about what infantrymen did unconvincing because he seemed to have little experience being around infantry and had not served on the front. To be fair, Steinbeck admitted early in the book that for the majority of his tour in Vietnam he bar-hopped, visited brothels, toked with others at restaurants in Saigon, and did as little work as possible for AFRV.
4/5
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