James Wright joined the U.S. Marine Corps after graduating high school. His three years of service in the Marines fell during peacetime, but just a few years later American found itself fully immersed in the Vietnam War. Wright followed the war carefully at the time, but it was years later as an academic that he began studying the war very closely.

For his book, "Enduring Vietnam: An American Generation and Its War," Wright interviewed many Vietnam veterans and family members of those who never came home. He also visited Vietnam and some of the key battlegrounds of the war.

In this edition of "Veterans Chronicles," Wright explains what Vietnam veterans want Americans to know and appreciate about their service, what surprised them most when they came home, and how they ought to be thought of today.