Don’t Ask and I will Tell: Finding Myself in Vietnam

When John Carroll Whitener volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army, he had no idea that five months later President Johnson would begin sending combat and support troops to South Vietnam to fight the Communist insurgency. He expected to be assigned to a stateside military hospital, complete his tour of duty, and return to his hometown in rural North Carolina to live happily ever after. By 1966, however, he found himself in war torn Vietnam, setting up an army optometry clinic in support of the 101st Airborne. While the airborne troops faced the Viet Cong guerrillas and North Vietnam soldiers, Whitener faced a war within himself regarding his faith and sexuality. In this intimate and candid memoir, Whitener shares his diary entries, reflecting and connecting the events of the war with current political issues, as well as his spiritual war to reconcile his homosexuality with his fundamentalist religious upbringing. With wry observations Don’t Ask and I Will Tell chronicles his time in Vietnam and his further travels across Asia. He credits the American War in Vietnam as the catalyst for his career in public health and activism for gay rights. More than fifty years later, he looks back on his journey toward inner peace and self-acceptance.