Echoes and Mirrors

"Most shocking has been the treatment war wounded men received at some VA hospitals. Some of the institutions have consistently provided excellent care... But there were critical shortages of nurses, attendants, therapists, and even equipment. Some facilities had grown dilapidated, and wounded men, who surely deserved the best of all possible care, shared their sickbeds with rodents." —Tracy Kidder, on the plight of soldiers returning from Vietnam, in the March 1978 Atlantic.