"The best way to end this war is to threaten to use 'the bomb,'" said James Bennett, a white soldier from San Lorenzo, Calif. "If they don't surrender, then use it. You'll save a lot of GI's, and perhaps we won't have many more Vietnams."

As for why America is involved, most blacks and a large majority of whites rejected the notion that the war is stemming the spread of Communism; 32 per cent of the blacks, however, and 54 per cent of the whites agreed that the conflict is. More than 40 per cent of the blacks and nearly 20 per cent of the whites believe that America should not be fighting in what is essentially a civil war or Asian problem. About 14 per cent of the blacks and 21 per cent of the whites believe that the American presence is needed to build democracy in South Vietnam.

"Give it [Vietnam] to them," said Claude E. Bowen, a black Marine from Los Angeles. "If the cracker wants to stay here and fight, let him. If they kick his ass, too damned bad. It's about time somebody did."

What is frightening many black officers and a few knowledgeable white ones is not so much the course of the war as it is the potential of the young black to bring the lessons of violence he has learned in the war against the Viet Cong to America with him.

"It's a new breed of black over here," said Army Capt. Robert Robbins, a black officer from Wilmington, N.C., serving in the 9th Division. "He has graduated from peaceful demonstrations up to riots. He comes here to put his life on the line for some cause he probably doesn't believe in When he goes home, he'll think the only way he can get what he wants is to take it. He knows that first of all they stopped over in Africa and took us."

Lt. Col. Frank Petersen of Washington, D.C., a black Marine pilot who led a squadron of Phantoms at Chu Lai, agreed. "You have some very angry blacks who are here who are going to go back and are going to be more angry once they return. There is a hell of a chance that many of the blacks who are being discharged, if they encounter the right set of conditions, will become urban guerrillas."

Indeed, only 38 per cent of the black enlisted men surveyed agreed that weapons have no place in the struggle for their rights in the U.S. Nearly fifty per cent said that they would use weapons, while, 13 per cent said they would consider arming themselves if forced to.

"Half the brothers over here can build their own weapons," observed Washington. "They are going back ready for anything."

"I ain't coming back playing, 'Oh, Say can you see,' " said Marine Sgt. Paul Thomas of Chesapeake, Va., in Danang. "I'm whistling' 'Sweet Georgia Brown,' and I got the band."

"When you come back to the States and the [white] Man's going say, 'Sorry, son, but I'm going to give you these rights, but you ain't ready for the rest of them yet,' after I put my life on the line. Uh-uh," said Sgt. Randolph Doby, a black Marine from Milwaukee in Danang. "The man who says that, I'm going to try to kill him. If I can't kill him, he's going to wish he were dead."

Only one black enlisted man in three believed that the use of weapons would damage the black move for independence of choice and full opportunity. Thirty per cent contended that weapons would help, and 24 per cent believe they would make no difference.

A significantly high percentage promised to carry home the lessons they learned in self-defense and black unity to radical groups like the Black Panthers. Slightly more than 30 per cent said they would join such groups; 17 per cent said they might. Among combat veterans even more, 36 per cent, said they planned to.

"The Black Panthers is what we need as an equalizer," explained Seaman James Cannon of Gary, Ind. "The beast [white man] got his Ku Klux Klan. The Black Panthers gives the beast something to fear like we feared from the Ku Klux Klan all our lives." Said Seaman Milton Banion of Maywood, Ill., another sailor at Danang: "The honkies made the Panthers violent like they are. I'd join 'em, and I'd help 'em kill all these honkie motherfuckers, because do unto him before he do unto you." Albert Jackson of Chicago, a black Marine stationed at Chu Lai, promised, "If at all possible I plan to move as quickly as possible with a group that is ready to move. The Panthers are definitely the most readiest group in the world, because they move so awesomely."

The vast majority, 83 per cent, of the blacks believe that America is in for more race violence that has marred the nation in the last decade, and most of these, 45 per cent, believe that they would join renewed rioting.

"There's going to be more violence back in the world because we're going' back," said Bowen. "Hell, yes, I'd riot. If they're kicking crackers' asses, I'm going to get in and kick a few myself. I'm just doing what my grandfather wanted to do and couldn't." Said another black Marine: "My ancestors said, please. Yeah, they said, please. Did they get any mercy? Why should we turn around and say, please, may I have this. Hell, no. I say start an armed revolution." "I always back a riot," said a black sailor. "Riots is good. It makes people wonder what's going on, and they come in and check it out."