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William Daniel "Bill" Ehrhart (30 September 1948-) was an American Vietnam War veteran and poet.

Biography[]

William Daniel Ehrhart was born in Perkasie, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1948. He supported Republican presidential candidate Barry Goldwater in 1964, riding around with his friends on the back of a pickup truck and singing his campaign songs due to their disappointment with Lyndon B. Johnson's lack of action in the Vietnam War. Upon graduating from his school in 1966, he joined the US Marine Corps and fought in Vietnam from February 1967 to February 1968, receiving the Purple Heart after being wounded at the Battle of Hue during the Tet Offensive. He recalled that his worst memory of the war was when he partook in group sex with a Vietnamese girl who offered her body in exchange for US rations, saying that he was not ready to disagree with his squadmates, and that he was a foolish 19-year-old. After the Kent State shootings, Ehrhart experienced a shift in his political views, coming "unglued" and supporting the anti-war movement. After the war, he became a poet and a teacher at the Haverford School, often writing about his experiences during the war.


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