In what purports to be an egalitarian society, the existence of class is the secret about which no one speaks.

Class was always the domestic issue during the Vietnam War, not communism.

There are no legends about the Duponts; the legends are about Howard Hughes.

There are no new facts about the Kennedys, only new attitudes, a literature that, like the automobile industry, puts new bodies on old chassis.

What is astonishing about the social history of the Vietnam war is not how many people avoided it, but how many could not and did not.

Most anyplace one lives is essentially dangerous. There are floods in the Midwest, and tornadoes. There are hurricanes along the Gulf. In New York, you get mugged.