Custer Battlefield: A History and Guide to the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Excerpt from Custer BattlefieldLater, in the Vietnam years, Custer became a different kind of symbol. For more than'a decade he personified all that was evil and brutal in America's historic treatment of the Indians and stood as a constant reminder of a deeply troubling guilt complex of the American people. Custer died for your sins proclaimed bumper stickers and the title of a best-selling plea for Indian rights. Custer and the Little Bighorn also became a metaphor for Vietnam. In the movie Little Big Man, a lunatic Custer staggered about the battlefield roaring with mad laughter, underscoring the parallel that many people already perceived between Vietnam and the Indian Wars.