Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry (hardcover)
by John E. O'Neill | Nonfiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: 0895260174 Global Overview for this book
ISBN: 0895260174 Global Overview for this book
Registered by yllus on 10/20/2004
2 journalers for this copy...
Amazon.com
Due to the timing of its publication, Unfit for Command could be dismissed as the sort of controversial, loaded book typical in a presidential election year: Either courageous and necessary, or untruthful and malicious, depending on one's political point of view. Filled with interviews of men who served in Vietnam at the same time as John Kerry, the book poses the following question: "Why do an overwhelming majority of those who commanded or served with John Kerry oppose him?" (Note that the issue of "service" has sparked investigation into its definition--in other words, just how close was the interaction between Kerry and those cited in the book during Kerry’s Vietnam tour of duty?)
The charges leveled against Kerry in this book are severe and include filing false operating reports; lobbying for and receiving three Purple Hearts for minor wounds, two of which were self-inflicted; receiving a Silver Star under false pretenses; offering false confessions of bogus war crimes in both print and testimony; and recklessness in the field, including the burning of a village without cause or direct order. The book also claims that Kerry left Vietnam after serving just four months instead of the usual one year tour and that he returned home and accused his fellow soldiers of atrocities without offering any evidence, endangering POWs in the process.
It is debatable whether the book will change any minds, or votes. Instead, readers will likely reach one of two conclusions: Either John Kerry grossly misrepresented his military service or the authors are spinning the interviews that they conducted for ulterior motives. There is a third option, however; readers will further investigate both sides of the debate, and by doing so, may reach conclusions independent of partisan extremes.
Due to the timing of its publication, Unfit for Command could be dismissed as the sort of controversial, loaded book typical in a presidential election year: Either courageous and necessary, or untruthful and malicious, depending on one's political point of view. Filled with interviews of men who served in Vietnam at the same time as John Kerry, the book poses the following question: "Why do an overwhelming majority of those who commanded or served with John Kerry oppose him?" (Note that the issue of "service" has sparked investigation into its definition--in other words, just how close was the interaction between Kerry and those cited in the book during Kerry’s Vietnam tour of duty?)
The charges leveled against Kerry in this book are severe and include filing false operating reports; lobbying for and receiving three Purple Hearts for minor wounds, two of which were self-inflicted; receiving a Silver Star under false pretenses; offering false confessions of bogus war crimes in both print and testimony; and recklessness in the field, including the burning of a village without cause or direct order. The book also claims that Kerry left Vietnam after serving just four months instead of the usual one year tour and that he returned home and accused his fellow soldiers of atrocities without offering any evidence, endangering POWs in the process.
It is debatable whether the book will change any minds, or votes. Instead, readers will likely reach one of two conclusions: Either John Kerry grossly misrepresented his military service or the authors are spinning the interviews that they conducted for ulterior motives. There is a third option, however; readers will further investigate both sides of the debate, and by doing so, may reach conclusions independent of partisan extremes.
Journal Entry 2 by yllus at Controlled Release in Controlled Release, A Bookcrossing member -- Controlled Releases on Thursday, December 23, 2004
Released on Thursday, December 23, 2004 at about 6:00:00 AM BX time (GMT-06:00) Central Time (US & Canada) at Controlled Release in Controlled Release, Controlled Release Controlled Releases.
RELEASE NOTES:
Released to cyber-librarian as RABCK
RELEASE NOTES:
Released to cyber-librarian as RABCK
I received this today from yllus in VA ... as a RABCK.
c. 2004 -- 185 pages + Appendix + Notes +Index -- Hardcover -- Current Affairs -- 5 weeks on the USA Today top-10 Bestseller list:
#1 on 8/29/04 and 9/5
#3 on 8/22/04 and 9/12
#5 on 9/19/04
Back Cover: Find out why John Kerry is "Unfit for Command" as told by the men who served with him. Unfit for Command reveals a John Kerry you don't know -- the true John Kerry that his political image-makers are trying to hide. But the veterans who served with him know better, and in Unfit for Command, they tell their stories, including:
* How all three of John Kerry's Purple Hearts were for minor injuries, easily treated with band-aids, not requiring a single hour of hospitalization.
* How captured Americans were tortured in North Vietnamese prisons for not endorsing John Kerry's false testimony -- before the US Senate -- about alleged American war crimes.
* How John Kerry carried a typewriter and an 8-mm home movie camera with him to Vietnam so he could record his own exaggerated version of his war exploits and film staged reenactments of his "combat actions" to advance his political career.
* Why John Kerry's photograph hangs in a place of honor in the Vietnamese Communist "War Remnants Museum" in Ho Chi Minh City.
Want to know the real John Kerry? Read Unfit for Command -- and prepare to be shocked.
c. 2004 -- 185 pages + Appendix + Notes +Index -- Hardcover -- Current Affairs -- 5 weeks on the USA Today top-10 Bestseller list:
#1 on 8/29/04 and 9/5
#3 on 8/22/04 and 9/12
#5 on 9/19/04
Back Cover: Find out why John Kerry is "Unfit for Command" as told by the men who served with him. Unfit for Command reveals a John Kerry you don't know -- the true John Kerry that his political image-makers are trying to hide. But the veterans who served with him know better, and in Unfit for Command, they tell their stories, including:
* How all three of John Kerry's Purple Hearts were for minor injuries, easily treated with band-aids, not requiring a single hour of hospitalization.
* How captured Americans were tortured in North Vietnamese prisons for not endorsing John Kerry's false testimony -- before the US Senate -- about alleged American war crimes.
* How John Kerry carried a typewriter and an 8-mm home movie camera with him to Vietnam so he could record his own exaggerated version of his war exploits and film staged reenactments of his "combat actions" to advance his political career.
* Why John Kerry's photograph hangs in a place of honor in the Vietnamese Communist "War Remnants Museum" in Ho Chi Minh City.
Want to know the real John Kerry? Read Unfit for Command -- and prepare to be shocked.
