40 Years Later, 'Born in the USA’s' Hidden Vietnam War Connection Explored

Abstract

Music critic and writer Stephen Holden wrote in 1984 that, for all its mostly upbeat sounding songs, the main theme throughout Bruce Springsteen’s seventh studio album, Born in the USA, is “the decline of small-town working class life in a post-industrial society.”1 Bruce himself has noted, “My Born in the USA songs were direct and fun and stealthily carried the undercurrents of [the much quieter, darker] Nebraska.”2 The title track in particular has been misconstrued, with many seeing it as a patriotic anthem instead of a lament about the unconscionable treatment of Vietnam veterans. Bruce fans and scholars, of course, rarely make this mistake. But there’s another tie between Born in the USA and the Vietnam War that only a very select few know about, and their numbers are dwindling. It has to do with what’s in Bruce’s back pocket on the album cover, and a military project from the singer’s home state of New Jersey.