The Inward War

A novel of the Vietnam War Resistance

It’s October, 1967, and the Vietnam War is at its height.  500,000 Americans are fighting overseas, 25,000 more are drafted every month, and cargo jets disgorging flag-draped coffins feature on the nightly news. But opposition to the war is growing, and on the eve of the first national draft protest, a young man must decide how far he’ll go to stop it.  

From the early peace demonstrations to the aftermath of Kent State—including the riots at the 1968 Chicago Democratic National Convention and the trauma of the national draft lottery—The Inward War explores the high price moral righteousness exacts from the vulnerable human heart.  

The Traynor family stands at the center of the story. Ed, the father, is the pacifist chaplain of a small women’s college. A framed message hangs on his office wall. The unprincipled life is not worth living.  Ed’s son Frank is an idealistic college sophomore who aspires to his father’s exacting moral standards, but wants to make his own mark.  Daughter Ellie, a college freshman, embraces the family’s values but chafes under the earnestness.  The fates of all play out in the convulsive weeks following President Nixon’s announcement of the Cambodia invasion.  No one comes through unscathed.

 At a time when the U.S. is going through profound political and social upheaval, The Inward War sheds light on a similarly tumultuous time, one that begged the same question:  how does an individual live a moral life when society has lost its moral compass.