Lutherans and the Longest War: Adrift on a Sea of Doubt about the Cold and Vietnam Wars, 1964-1975

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Through the lens of American Lutheranism, this book offers a unique examination into the intersection of religion, war, foreign policy, church politics, and nationalism during the contentious 1960s and 1970s. It contributes a two-pronged investigation of American history during the Vietnam War era. First, it outlines how this diverse group of Christians understood foreign policy and the churches' relationship to it. Lutherans offer a broad spectrum of religious, political, and diplomatic points of view because they never have represented a homogenous or unified group in U.S. history. Second, this investigation provides the perspective of one cross section of Americans who often remain hidden from historic memory: the silent majority as so labeled during the Richard M. Nixon administration. Most Lutherans held 'moderate' religious and political ideologies, but Lutherans also had representatives from the far left and far right. Lutherans also signify the Cold War context of this decade with a relatively uniform hostility toward the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China. Yet, simultaneously they vigorously debated whether or not Communists had infiltrated U.S. institutions and contentiously disagreed about the Vietnam War. Further reflecting America at that time, by the mid-1970s they had reached a tentative reconciliation with one another because the infighting had so tired them. In doing so, they healed some of the wounds created by a decade of conflict but failed to learn lessons from the experience because they refused to dialogue further about it.

Reviews

Highly Recommended. -- W. T. Lindley, Union University * Choice Reviews *
[Settje's] approach and careful reading of sources are admirable. Lutherans and the Longest War is an excellent contribution to the genre of denominational studies and a useful starting point for exploring broader issues of religious assent, ambivalence, and dissent during the Cold War. * H-Net: Humanities and Social Science Reviews Online *
The author does an admirable job in concisely summarizing the historical literature on both the origins of the American war in Vietnam and the landscape of American Lutheranism in the era, carefully distinguishing between the major Lutheran bodies without too much jargon. . . . [Settje] has a keen eye for especially catching phrases. -- Perry Bush * Journal of American History *
Settje provides the first comprehensive look at Lutheran thinking on the Cold and Vietnam wars from pew to pulpit, and from editorial offices to denominational headquarters. It extends a microphone into a realm where the silent majority did not hold its tongue, exposing the wide-ranging views and vigorous debates that raged within church circles among those disinclined to march for either side. -- Jill Gill, Boise State University

Author Bio

David E. Settje is assistant professor of history at Concordia University.