Against All Tides

Overview

Simmering racial tensions inflamed by discriminatory punitive measures sparked a violent confrontation aboard the USS Kitty Hawk while it was engaged in air strikes off the coast of North Vietnam. 

The US Navy charged Black sailors with rioting and assaults on White sailors in an incident referred to as a race riot, while totally ignoring violent unprovoked assaults committed by White sailors and Marines.

Author Marv Truhe was a Navy JAG defense lawyer seeking justice for the accused Black sailors. Truhe possesses one of the most complete collections, personal or institutional, of original source documents of the Kitty Hawk incident and its legal aftermath—trial transcripts, investigation reports, hundreds of sworn statements and medical reports, federal court pleadings, and case files and witness interviews.

How could virtually all official and unofficial accounts of the incident have placed blame for the incident solely on twenty-three Black sailors? How could they have been subjected to blatant racial injustices without their story being told until now? 

It is time to reveal the uncomfortable answers to these questions and expose the injustices perpetrated against these twenty-three young men.

Reviews

“Marv Truhe has given us a long overdue and welcome chronicle of a shameful episode of racial injustice on a Navy aircraft carrier during the Vietnam War. As a young military defense counsel representing several unfairly accused Black sailors, Truhe is well positioned to set the record straight on what was mischaracterized as a race riot incited by Blacks against whites. Truhe tells an important, largely unknown story from the war many would like to forget.” —Eugene L. Meyer, author of Five for Freedom: The African American Soldiers in John Brown's Army

"Marv Truhe transcends military history and legal drama. This book goes beyond the strategies that shaped the Vietnam War or the courtrooms that determined individual sailors' destinies. Truhe delivers a compelling blow-by-blow account of events both on the Kitty Hawk and after—and in so doing, he crafts a powerful testimony to the American struggle for justice itself." —Ted Kemp, coauthor, The Ragged Edge: A US Marine’s Account of Leading the Iraqi Army Fifth Battalion

"Impossible to put down. Gifted author Marv Truhe has created a disturbing picture of lingering institutional racism in America's military. Meticulously researched, this eye-opening narrative adds necessary context to the historical record of Black sailors' service in Vietnam." — Robert Child, author of Immortal Valor: The Black Medal of Honor Recipients of World War II

“Against All Tides is a riveting account of simmering racial tensions aboard the USS Kitty Hawk during the Vietnam War, which resulted in one of the most controversial legal cases in the history of the US military. As a Navy JAG lawyer who defended several of the Black sailors, Marv Truhe is uniquely positioned to write this book. Drawing on his first-person experiences with the case, as well as a treasure trove of unpublished files and records from the trial, Truhe tells a powerful story of racial injustice.” —Matthew F. Delmont, Distinguished Professor of History at Dartmouth College, author of Half American: The Epic Story of African Americans Fighting World War II at Home and Abroad

"...an excellent analysis of an ugly military episode that has important bearing on the ongoing travesties of structural racism." — Booklist

"The book’s abundance of facts speaks for itself." — The VVA Veteran

""The bottom-up approach of Truhe’s book... offers important insights and a valuable addition to our understanding of the experiences of our naval past" — The Strategy Bridge

Author Biography

Marv Truhe served as a Navy JAG lawyer and military judge during the Vietnam War. Following his military service, he was an Assistant Attorney General for South Dakota before entering private practice. He defended six of the Black sailors charged with rioting and assaults in the USS Kitty Hawk incident. He lives in Denver, Colorado.