In 1971, the same year that he published The Drifters, Michener published a nonfiction book entitled Kent State: What Happened and Why. The release of both books in the same year indicates the intensity of Michener's concern with the effects of the Vietnam War on American youth and society. Considering that much of the action of The Drifters transpires in Spain and Portugal, one must recall that Michener had become quite familiar with these locales in preparing Iberia (1968), a nonfiction book of travels published only three years before The Drifters.