In 1967, as the death count of American soldiers in Southeast Asia reached 20,000, Norman Mailer published a short, brilliant book called Why Are We in Vietnam? It was a work of fiction, not a political tract, and the plot itself had nothing to do with the war that was dominating American news and dinnertime debate. In fact, the word “Vietnam” did not appear — other than on the title page — until the very last paragraph of the novel. Why Are We in Vietnam? is, instead, about a hunting trip on