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Summary: Hungry for knowledge
Review: I didn't read the book. I heard that everyone in Woodbridge, NJ eats women and babies and was hoping this book would be a culinary adventure story. Is it true.
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Summary: A man of courage
Review: Whether you like John Kerry or not he is a genuine war hero and a man of profound courage and all the petty reviews here most likely done by Republicans can't change that reality. Face facts.I am an Edwards supporter but I can't deny that John Kerry is a good man with an honorable record of public service. He should be proud. This book is an honest assessment of his Vietnam experienes which are told warts and all. What comes through is a brutal honesty that is rare in politics these days. And a good overview of a dark period in our U.S. history. However, this book should be read to understand Kerry's greatness and to learn lessons from this ugly war. The Bush/Cheney war record is nonexistent. So far, the sketchy evidence of the Bush war record is that he was proven to have shopped at the base company store a few times and that he had his hair cut on the base on occasion (kidding). Truthfully, Bush's guard experience is difficult to assess and shaky to measure. This is not the case with Kerry. He actually fought in a war and was wounded. Read the book and learn what a great man John Kerry is.
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Summary: Campaign for Kerry
Review: To call this book an unbiased look at Kerry's life is extremely naive. From the very beginning it reads like a cheesy campaign commercial. If you like Kerry and his politics, you'll like the book, conversely if you don't, you won't.
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Summary: Great book no matter what the guy from portland says
Review: I note the he posted 2 reviews that slammed kerry so I guess I'll post my second review saying that everything he said is a lie and the book is good, kerry is an honorable man and that yes, the US did commit atrocities in vietnam. I know the truth is hard to take but it is the truth.
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Summary: Fails To Mention How Kerry Called American GIs "babykillers"
Review: O starts. The book fails to mention how Kerry smeared Vietnam Vets by calling them all "babykillers" in front of the Senate. Much of Kerry's speech before Congress painted his fellow GIs as so brutal that, today, they could easily be mistaken for Saddam Hussein's Fedayeen killers. He reported to Congress that U.S. soldiers had "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam." C. Stewart Forbes, Chief Executive Officer of Colliers International (Kerry's cousin), was awarded a contract worth billions designating Colliers International as the exclusive real estate agent representing Vietnam. Kerry's group, The Vietnam Veterans Against the War Organization, was funded by Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda personally sought out returning American soldiers from Vietnam to solicit them to publicly speak out against American atrocities against Vietnamese women and children during her broadcasts. North Vietnamese officials based in Canada allegedly coordinated her broadcasts. In 1972 Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden and others traveled to North Vietnam to give their support to the North Vietnamese's Government. When she returned to the United States, she advised the news media that all of the American Prisoners of War were being well treated and were not being tortured. As the American POWs returned home in 1973, they spoke out about the inhumane treatment and torture they had suffered as prisoners of war. Their stories directly contradicted Jane Fonda's earlier statements of 1972. Some of the American POWs such as Senator John McCain, a former Presidential candidate, stated that he was tortured by his guards for refusing to meet with Jane Fonda and her group. Jane Fonda, in her response to these new allegations, referred to the returning POWs as being "hypocrites and liars." The Wall Street Journal (August 3, 1995) published an interview with Bui Tin who served on the General Staff of the North Vietnam Army and received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975. During the interview Mr. Tin was asked if the American antiwar movement was important to Hanoi's victory. Mr. Tin responded "It was essential to our strategy" referring to the war being fought on two fronts, the Vietnam battlefield and back home in America through the antiwar movement on college campuses and in the city streets. He further stated the North Vietnamese leadership listened to the American evening news broadcasts "to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement." Visits to Hanoi made by persons such as Jane Fonda, former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and various church ministers "gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses." Mr. Tin surmised that "America lost because of its democracy; through dissent and protest it lost the ability to mobilize a will to win." Mr. Tin further advised that General Vo Nguyen Giap (Commanding General of the North Vietnam Army) said the 1968 Tet Offensive was a defeat. Gen. Giap in his book, made the same statement, adding that they were surprised by the news media reporting and the demonstrations in America. Instead of seeking a conditional surrender, they would now hold out because America's resolve was weakening and victory could be theirs. From 1969 to the end of the war over 20,000 American soldiers lost their lives in a war that the United States did not have the resolve to win. If General Giap was accurate in his assessment that North Vietnam was going to seek a conditional surrender at the Paris Peace Conference, but stopped due to the sensationalism of the American news media and the anti-war protests following the 1968 Tet Offensive, it follows that those who participated in these anti-war activities have to share partial responsibility for those 20,000 + Americans deaths. We won the war on the battlefield but lost it back home on the college campuses and in the city streets. Americans must realize that there are agents* operating in this Country attempting to undermine our Country and it's leadership through our democratic principles in an effort to achieve a foreign country's goal. A prime example of such a person during the Vietnam War was Jane Fonda, an admitted Socialist, who blatantly supported North Vietnam. * Agent - Any person who works to obtain the goals of another nation either for money or for their own political beliefs. A valuable lesson was taught by North Vietnam to other nations on how the United States may be defeated by fighting a two front war - the battlefield and the American home front. We must be aware of this vulnerability. In 1975, after the fall of the South Vietnam Government, Jane Fonda returned to Hanoi with her newborn son Troy for a celebration in her honor for the work she had done for North Vietnam. During the celebration, her son was christened after a Viet Cong hero, Nguyen Van Troi. Troi had attempted to assassinate Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara while on his visit to South Vietnam in 1963. The South Vietnam Government executed Troi for this attempted assassination.
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Summary: A "Must Read "in 2004
Review: Let's establish a couple of things first: 1) Douglas Brinkley is a professional historian and director of the Eisenhower Center, the mission of which is to preserve and honor the stories and sacrifices of American servicemen from World War II through Vietnam and beyond. No one can reasonably accuse Brinkley of being a knee-jerk "liberal historian" who only wrote this book to flack John Kerry's presidential candidacy. 2) Brinkley began his research for this book in 2002, before Kerry ever decided to run. To the extent that Brinkley became an admirer of Kerry--and clearly he did--I would suggest that this was a RESULT of researching and writing this book, not a CAUSE of it. That said, this volume is without question an eye-opener. Regardless of one's political persuasion and what one may think of John Kerry's presidential candidacy, this book is an education. Brinkley reminds us of how divisive the conflict in Vietnam was for Americans and how ambivalent many young men of Kerry's generation were about serving. He also accomplishes one of his primary goals with this book, which is to enlighten readers about the largely overlooked riverine war in southeast Asia, and how dangerous it was for the men involved. John Kerry and many others served bravely and well in this battle, despite its often unclear or contradictory goals. It was as a direct result of his experience in combat in Vietnam, and his belief that we were clearly not winning the "war for hearts and minds" that Kerry came to oppose American involvement in the conflict and the way our political leaders were conducting it. Additionally, we learn that Kerry's current campaign to honor servicemen through proper funding of veterans' hospitals and services is not an election-year gimmick; this is a cause he has supported and fought for throughout his career. As a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Kerry's focus was to bring an end to American casulties AND to see that proper attention was paid to those who had already given so much. He constantly visited with disabled veterans and railed against the "shabby treatment" they too often received. Finally, given the current political climate, it is impossible--it was for me anyway--to read this book and not constantly reflect on the comparison between John Kerry and our current president. Again, regardless of where one stands politically, the intellectual and moral depth of these two men seems remarkably different. Here is 25-year old John Kerry writing in anguish to his girlfriend upon learning of the battlefield death of one of his best friends: "Right now everything that is superficial and emotional wants to give up and just feel sorry but I can't. I am involved in something that keeps pushing on regardless of the individual and which even with what has happpened must, I know deep, deep down iside me be coped with rationally and with strength. I do feel strong and despite emptiness and waste, I still have hope and confidence...Judy, if I do nothing else in my life I will never stop trying to bring to people the conviction of how wasteful and asinine is a human expenditure of this kind. I don't mean this in an all-consuming world saving fashion. I just mean that my own effort must be entire and thorough and that it must do what it can to help make this a better world to live in." Can anyone even remotely imagine George W. Bush writing something like this when he was 25--or today?
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Summary: conservatives smear kerry over "hanoi Jane"
Review: conservatives are excerpting the part of this book that supposedly documents Kerry's association with Jane Fonda to claim that Kerry was a supporter of "hanoi" Jane Fonda's attempt to"give aid and comfort to the enemy".
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Summary: American Braveheart
Review: The William Wallace character in the movie "Braveheart" says at one point that "Men don't follow rank-men follow courage". How true, how true, and how applicable to the choice the American electorate will soon have. As noted historian Douglas Brinkley so vividly shows in "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War", Senator Kerry is a courageous man, both physically and morally. He went from being-literally-waist deep in the Big Muddy to rescue a wounded comrade under fire to coming home and assuming a leadership role in the Vietnam Veterans Against the War because he knew the war was wrong and must be stopped. He had been wounded three times. Ponder that for a minute. Three separate times he had been hit by enemy fire. Three Purple Hearts. Three more Purple Hearts than are possessed by the entire student deferred, 4F, national guard weekenders in the Bush administration. Siver Star. Bronze Star. These medals are not given away lightly; they aren't just pieces of tin hanging from a brightly colored ribbon. They represent personal valor and are earned with blood. Mr. Brinkley details how this bloodied warrior had the moral courage to speak out against an immoral war (and to later join his friend Senator John McCain in leading the fight to normalize relations with Vietnam, their old foe) and incurred the wrath of the Nixon administration; they went after him and branded this legitimate hero a fraud. This was always done from the shadows, a hallmark of our most corrupt president. No doubt history will repeat itself during the 2004 presidential campaign as Karl Rove and his henchmen try to make their man's flimsy service record appear better than it is. Fat chance, since there is no there there. John Kerry is a hero many time over; our war president is not. So back to "Braveheart". Recall that William Wallace was a battered, muddy fighter who inspired immense loyalty from his men because he was out there on the battlefield with them, leading them, sword in hand. The lords they fought for were above the fray, never dirty, never bloodied, but my they sure looked pretty sitting on their fancy steeds high on a hill wearing their fancy armor and clutching their fancy, pristine weapons, just like a certain war president who rented a fancy flight suit and bounded out of a fancy fighter jet onto deck of a fancy aircraft carrier. He looked very pretty, too. "Tour of Duty: Hohn Kerry and the Vietnam War" is well-documented and well written. Let's hope that it will be followed by later volumes about President Kerry.
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Summary: John Kerry, a real American Hero
Review: I read this book with some trepidation. I was not a Kerry supporter at the time, but I have to come to understand him as a person. I myself am a Gulf War veteran with a purple heart, this book struck close to home in the way I feel about War, patriotism, and service to our country. One thing is straight, John Kerry is the REAL DEAL. ... Read this book for yourself and see what a great man John Kerry really is, this is the guy we need to have in the White House.
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Summary: John Kerry, Savior of the Nation?
Review: It is regrettable that in our country "the politics of personal destruction" have become routine. When was it (during Nixon's administration, Clinton's?) that we collectively left behind any sense of proportion and prudence in our political passions and returned to the nineteenth century practice of just calling people names? Today individuals running for office are not allowed to be simply human beings but must either be "saviors of the nation" or plain "evil," depending upon one's political agenda. As a "swing-voter" who regularly votes a split ticket, and as one who tries to maintain some semblance of objectivity, I purchased Brinkley's book in the fond expectation that the pattern above would not be followed, and that instead I would learn something of the truth about an emerging political figure. Sadly I was disappointed, but I did learn some things; I learned that Kerry is indeed a "savior of the nation" who always brushes his teeth, is good to the little people, and stands like a valiant sentinel for truth and justice. In short, I was "treated" to two-dimensional characterization designed to draw votes during a campaign. There is no good explanation here of how such a sterling "hero" could then turn around and shamelessly attack and demean his own country while also engaging in such blatant self-promotion - even a scholar of Brinkley's skill cannot reconcile the two very different images - and does anyone really believe that it proves anything that Senator Kerry's war buddies like and support him, eveybody, even a crack dealer, has friends! I wish, too, like the reviewer below, that there was more about the connection to the Kennedy family, but in most regards that is probably outside the scope of this book. Brinkley is a very skilled writer, and that is evident here in the highly readable style. Nonetheless, this is "spin" written to promote Kerry's candidacy, a fact illustrated by its unusually low price. It will convince no one who does not wish to be convinced, and it will only evoke ridicule from those who do not. Surely good history or biography should do more than that? If Kerry becomes president, much better books will be written, if he does not, Tour of Duty will probably not even qualify to be cited.
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