The Nightingale's Song probes a fault line that has haunted American society for more than two decades - the generational chasm between those who fought a discredited war and those who used money, wit, and connections to avoid it. In passionate biting prose, Robert Timberg weaves together the lives of five U.S. Naval Academy graduates who achieved national prominence during the presidency of Ronald Reagan and who continue to claim our attention today.

The result is a riveting tale that reveals the flip side of the storied Vietnam generation - those who went.

The Nightingale's Song shows how unresolved conflicts over Vietnam resonated through the Reagan years and beyond, not solely in the careers of the five Annapolis men, but in the major events of their time. Chronicling their often intertwined experiences, the book follows all five through the Academy, the war, and its aftermath. With the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980, their lives intersect even more, culminating in the Iran-Contra scandal and the fallout from it.