How the Colts Navigated America’s Darkest Times
Nostalgia is king in 2025, with reruns of The Vietnam War and disco-era scandals lighting up screens and sparking conversations. Enter Colt the Smoking Gun, Volume 1 by Colt Donaldson, a visceral plunge into the Colt family’s navigation of America’s most chaotic decades—the ’60s and ’70s. From Peter Colt’s harrowing Vietnam survival to shadowy connections at Studio 54, this book ties personal grit to the cultural upheavals that defined the 20th century, offering a front-row seat to history’s wildest turns.
With bullets tearing through his wrists and neck deep in a Vietnamese river, Peter Colt was swimming toward the enemy’s machine gun, guided by his inner voice. It’s 1960s Vietnam—a quagmire of war, dissent, and shattered innocence—and Peter’s ordeal is a microcosm of a nation grappling with its purpose. Donaldson’s recounting of this Vietnam War story is a raw reflection of a generation thrust into chaos, forced to adapt or perish. The Colts, it seems, always found a way to claw through.
Then there’s Studio 54, the glittering epicenter of ’70s excess, where the Colts brush against a different kind of darkness. With power, decadence, and organized crime, Donaldson hints at family ties to this iconic nightclub, where mobsters mingled with moguls, and wallets were stuffed for shadowy figures like “The Donald.” It’s a stark contrast to Vietnam’s jungles, yet the same Colt tenacity shines through: navigating a world where ambition could get you rich—or get you killed. These moments anchor the book in the cultural shifts of the time, where the war’s brutality gives way to disco’s hedonism, both steeped in an undercurrent of rebellion.
It was the time when Vietnam tested America’s moral compass. While Studio 54 revealed its desire for glitz and glamour in the midst of decay, the Colts, who played the shadowy games of peacetime, embodied the spirit and made it to the war. Donaldson’s firsthand accounts recount this time and pull you into the ’70s history, where anti-war protests clashed with the glitterati, and families like the Donaldsons were forced to straddle both worlds with a mix of grit and guile.
Moreover, the current interest in these periods, stoked by vintage television and a desire to know “what really happened,” makes this story relevant. Vietnam War stories still haunt us, while Studio 54 secrets keep us guessing about who pulled the strings. The Colts didn’t just live through these times. They shaped them, from battlefield miracles to backroom deals. They were the priors who stood the test of time and danger and proved that they could, can, and will continue to prosper.
If you are interested and curious about the chaos and ambition that defined America’s darkest decades. In that case, you should grab How to a Kill a President: Colt the Smoking Gun, both volumes one and two, and explore the firsthand accounts of a family that danced through the fire of the ’60s and ’70s. This historical fiction will transport you to a time where war, danger, and crime will shape the trajectory of America, past, present, and future.
Do you dare to explore and relive the legacy of the Colts? Grab your copies on Amazon:
Volume one: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DX3Y1QCQ.
Volume two: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DX3NHG2P/.