“If the prime role of a free press is to serve as critic of government, cartooning is often the cutting edge of that criticism," declared legendary Washington Post political cartoonist Herb Block.

Jeff Danziger has lived on that cutting edge since 1975 when his cartoons skewering the powerful began running in the Barre-Montpelier Times Argus and Rutland Herald. His wit and art have also appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, VTDigger and other publications, and his cartoons are syndicated by the Washington Post Writers Group. Danziger is a winner of the 2006 Herblock Prize for editorial cartooning, among numerous other awards.

Fans of Danziger’s cartoons might be surprised to know that a source of his keen political sense and biting commentary was the four years he served as an intelligence officer and linguist during the Vietnam War. In 1970, Danziger was awarded the Air Medal and, to his surprise, received the Bronze Star, though he said he doesn’t know why. Vietnamese translators couldn’t pronounce Danziger’s name, so they came up with a nickname, Lt. Dangerous, which is the name of his new memoir.

In 1971, following his service in Vietnam, Jeff Danziger taught English at U32 High School in Montpelier. He has also worked for the Christian Science Monitor and New York Daily News.

Danziger, now 78, divides his time between homes in New York City and Dummerston, Vermont. He has two books out this year. “In Mob We Trust” is a book of his editorial cartoons from the Trump era. And “Lt. Dangerous” is a memoir about his time as a soldier in Vietnam.

Danziger said the Vietnam War was pointless, and he opens the book with an author’s note stating, “The Vietnamese are among the bravest and most wonderful people on earth.”

He has a message for other young men drafted into a similarly pointless and brutal war: “Don’t do anything you’re told. Disobey everything.”