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To Set The Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry

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Every time the term Swiftboating is used to describe incorrect criticism I wince. To this date, not one statement made by the Vietnam veterans who went on record with their recollections about John Kerry has been factually disputed. To those who think they already know everything about this subject, Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler have the answer. "Not so fast!" This book, To Set the Record Straight, presents not only further revelations about the Vietnam era and its repercussions, but also an examination of the media's attempts to influence the election by suppressing the original dissemination of information by these men who felt called to duty in a new way. The book is compelling reading. It is well documented. It contains chilling facts regarding collusion with the North Vietnamese. Read it for yourself and wonder why those who have served with honor have been relegated to an inferior position to John Kerry, the man who still has not released his military records.

Outstanding work. If anyone has any doubts about "Unfit for Command", and the motives of the "Swiftboat Vets", they must read this book. Balanced, fair, and thoroughly researched, this book will put any doubts to rest. I bought two, one for my friend, who WAS a Kerry believer.

I read Unfit For Command and followed the story in 2004. I also followed the Bush TANG story, which is discussed in this book as an example of the attempt by the MSM to defend Kerry by attacking Bush's war record. I notice a couple of the one-star reviews and comments here try the same approach. I supported McCain in 2000 and was aware that Bush was not running on his war record. I also saw a thorough examination of the Bush TANG story on a left-wing web site in the spring of 2004 that concluded there was no "there" there. If 60 Minutes has used blogger Kevin Drum as a researcher instead of ideologue Mary Mapes, they would have saved some embarrassment. That story is in this book. This book also details the slavish support of Kerry on the part of the TV networks and the major daily newspapers. That behavior, I think, contributed to the decline in ratings and subscriptions that threaten to make them relics of the past. It also includes an excellent description of the rise of the alternative media, which swamped the defenders of Kerry and even coined the term "a guy sitting in his pajamas" to describe bloggers. The history of the rise of bloggers is an integral part of the story. I highly recommend it for that and several other reasons. Other reviews have adequately covered the factual basis of the story and the credentials of the Swiftboat vets. The book is more than that. It is history and anyone interested in the role of blogging in politics should read it for that story. I bought several copies for Vietnam vet friends, including my brother-in-law who was an 18-year-old rifleman in the same part of Vietnam where Kerry "served." He will enjoy it.

Army veteran, two combat tours in VN, 20-year career, retired Lt. Col., writer of novels and writer references.

I'd seen parts of this story online and kept up with the Swift Vets in the campaign against Kerry. This book dug its talons into me and wouldn't let go until I'd finished. Overnight.

Astonishing that Kerry would be so blind as to expect to be either lionized or ignored by those he condemned. I was a contemporary witness to and victim of his attack on vets as war criminals.

Frightening that he would be the first VN vet president.

Astonishing that O'Neill and the others, including Scott Swett, were exactly the right people at the right time, so eloquent, so well-researched, so relentless against the ruthlessness of an enemy allied with and tougher than the VC and NVA.

Frightening that the old media would even risk disgrace rather than keep an open mind and tell the simple truth.

Astonishing. And frightening. That Carville and Davis and McDougald could be allowed to scream at O'Neill and that John was exactly the right, calm respondent to rise above them. I coulda never done it.

Authors: Thanks for your book and your service in bringing down Kerry's campaign simply by letting the truth be told in one wonderfully documented book.

Once I catch up on the sleep I lost while staying up to read this book and the horrific struggle all SwiftVets went through, I'm gonna be greatly satisfied that justice can be had, after all. Just not from those the institutions you'd expect to be just.

I am in awe of those who took the risks to tell this truth. You have restored my belief in honor.

I await the full disclosure of John Kerry's records and original discharge. Amazing how the press can uncover classified information and national secrets as well as the personnel records of Linda Tripp. But not show us the money shots on Kerry.

That vacuum of "media truth" speaks volumes to me.

SwiftVets were successful because we told the truth about John Kerry's actions in and after Vietnam. Scott Swett tells the truth about the media who tried to distort and destroy our story. To Set the Record Straight provides a straight forward, documented description of the media coverage. It is reassuring to those of us who participated in SwiftVets. We are the ones who have been "swiftboated" by the mainstream media and Scott's book is clear evidence that the media continue to misuse the word and categorize our actions as negative. The public should know the truth and this book provides the facts.To Set The Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry

This is an amazing book; I'd give it six stars if I could. And judging by the 27 reviews that have preceded mine, the only way this book could get a bad review is if members of the Kerry camp or other "supporters" try to object -- and if they do, the refutation of any such objection is probably already in the book itself.

To Set the Record Straight focuses on the activities of various Vietnam veterans' groups, chief among them the Swift Boat veterans (or "Swifties") themselves -- who had served with then-Lt JG John Kerry, knew him as a loose cannon, and thus deeply resented his wholesale slanders when he testified before Congress in 1971. A later group comprised former POWs, who had heard the recorded testimony of this "naval lieutenant" as part of their Hanoi Hilton captors' efforts to force confessions of "war crimes." Many of the chapters follow the activities of these and other groups, as their several individual efforts became a coalition movement to prevent Senator Kerry's election to the Presidency and thus become the nation's Commander-in-Chief. In retrospect, these interactive "chain-of-events" narratives provide a historical coherence that was not possible at the time, as successive claims, counter-claims, speculations and analyses "just kept on coming" via websites and E-mails to the rest of the public.

The most distinctive themes the Swifties and others developed during the 2004 Presidential campaign centered on:

* Sen. Kerry's decision to base his campaign on his war record, as supported by his combat awards and self-serving accounts in Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty -- both of which spurred his Swift Boat chain of command and comrades to oppose him, as first described in John O'Neill's Unfit for Command;

* Lt JG Kerry's dubious medals themselves, made the more so as Swifties shared memories of their joint operations some 35 years before, vs. (Kerry's) "official" reports and other irregularities;

* Kerry's anti-war activities following his return to the U.S. after 4+ months in-theater (his Swift Boat tour curtailed by dint of his third Purple Heart). These activities included leadership in the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), cooperation with other anti-war groups and activists, and "guerrilla theater" actions during the early 1970s, the most devastating of which was --

* Lt Kerry's lead-testimony before the Senate "Fulbright Committee" in April 1971, which (as described in other reviews) slandered both his country and his generation of veterans, and gave credibility to the barbarous "Vietnam Vet" image sustained by the media and Hollywood for decades thereafter.

* And finally, interleaved mentions of Kerry's 1970-71 visits with North Vietnamese and Viet Cong officials in Paris, from which he brought back (and advocated) Madame Binh's 7-point proposal for U.S. withdrawal from Southeast Asia.

With these aspects of now-Senator John Kerry's earlier "life and times" brought to new focus during the 2004 campaign, the Swifties and other vets groups developed their own P/R and "new media" support to deal with the counter-offensives of the Kerry campaign and partisan responses by the "old media." Throughout the struggle, authors Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler continue to "connect the dots" in reconstructing the many events and action-reactions of the vets' own counter-campaign ... through the election to victory, and beyond. Sources and other key documentation remain available for verification on Swett's and other relevant websites.

The "Aftermath" chapter states how in late-January 2005, the Swifties and POWs stood down, their mission successful, though they remain ready to reactivate should Senator Kerry again be nominated to represent his party. Meanwhile, media denials continued and VVAW lawsuits were not terminated or withdrawn till a couple of years later. At book's end, the authors sum up:

". . . In just a few months, an ad hoc collection of veterans and their supporters formed a political movement that dominated the course of a presidential election. . . .

" If the future of political speech remained unclear, one thing was beyond dispute. Though politicians, the media and Hollywood had freely smeared and denigrated America's Vietnam veterans for more than thirty years, something had changed in the wake of the 2004 campaign. Every post-election attempt to slander the U.S. military had sparked widespread resentment and active opposition. Trashing the troops was no longer the ticket to fame and success it had been in that long-ago spring of 1971. . . ."

My own afterword, however, would be that even these lessons are tenuous, as of 2008. The media remain careful, though again most oppose our troops' deployments in today's "war on terror," "supporting" them by emphasizing negative results and options for withdrawal. The VVAW lives on in a new generation of anti-war activism -- though no longer unopposed. Moreover, I recently observed one 2008 Presidential candidate refer (on TV) to the possibility of "Swiftboating" during the general election campaign to come.

As one could see even months ago, "Swiftboating" has become the casual codeword for "smear," or a vicious and dishonest political attack. However, they're not "smears" if they're true! This book corrects decades of false "history." The Swifties and other groups uncovered (as the authors set forth) a continuum of deceit and betrayal, both of Vietnam veterans and of our country -- such that their anti-Kerry revelations were first hard to accept, but then proven harder even to challenge, let alone refute; hence the "sour-grapes" slur. Meanwhile, Senator Kerry continues to walk the halls of Congress a free man, with no apparent consequence or concern from anyone....

Over the years I have answered questions and explained to any number of friends who sincerely wanted me to explain not only my personal experiences as a Viet Nam veteran ('72 -'73) but also how the war was "lost." When I would tell them that in my opinion the American media had as much to set the course for the war with their "agenda driven" reporting of Tet '68 as any other single institution, they would realize that our "loss" was really a great military victory. But I was only one person. When the first book came out it focused on Kerry but it had the effect of providing a forum for others to individually set the recored straight about what really happened. This book comes full circle. It gives us a really good inside picture of the MSM, how back then they abdicated their roles as the fair and impartial reporters of what was going on in the world but also how a small group of men (and a few women) were able to wrest the microphone and pen from the MSM to give others a platform to tell the world what really happened then and what was happening now.

The point is made early in the book but nevertheless it was interesting to read the details of how a group of amateurs were able to stand up to the pros and expand the number of participants at the forum.

The Inside Story Of The SwiftBoaters Finally Told

This is the most important book you'll buy this year: To Set The Record Straight, How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry, by Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler, with Forward by John O'Neill.

Not only will you learn the inside details of the only book - Unfit For Command -- that ever decided a presidential election but, especially for those who have any doubts, you will learn about how the peoples' democracy can still work in the United States.

For those inclined toward political science, the book is an important contribution to understanding how political mobilization actually works and to seeing how the major media lost its Delphic grip on America's political fate to the remarkably democratic new media of the Internet. Vietnam veterans took it away.

As John O'Neill says in his Foreword to the book,
How the Swiftees, POWs and other Vietnam veterans circumvented the media and reached out to the public is a story that has profound implications for future political campaigns and news reporting....

...Honor, Loyalty and Patriotism...These values were able to rouse hundreds of Swifties and millions of other veterans from their deep political sleep of 35 years. The blindness of our opponents can be accounted for only because such values are rare and often considered laughable among Kerry's operatives and media allies. These values are neither rare nor a subject of amusement among most Americans. In 2004, they changed the course of history.

Fellow blogger Lorie Byrd credits me with knowing more about the SwiftBoat story than any other blogger. She's correct, as far as that goes. I founded the Vietnam veterans organization in 1971 that John O'Neill joined to confront John Kerry's fabrications. I was very active in the 2004 Vietnam veterans campaign for truth. I'm friends with all the Vietnam veterans and others who led in the 2004 campaign, that in a post-election San Diego Union-Tribune op-ed I dubbed, "The Revolt of the Vietnam Veterans." (These are described in the book.)

But, there's someone else who knows more about the 2004 Revolt, Scott Swett. I learned much about the Revolt from this book that even I didn't know. So will you.

The 389-page book is very well-written and documented, based on virtually every public source and on extensive exclusive interviews with all those involved. Footnotes abound, and there's an excellent index.

This is not a partisan diatribe, though of definite views, but an invaluable basic resource to anyone regardless of their politics. It's all true, and the truths - the depths to which the Kerry-aligned media stooped to try to squelch the Swiftees - are all here, and truly shocking when all pulled together in one place.

In early 2004, Swett, on his own, set up the website WinterSoldier.com. The site collected the various articles written over the years about John Kerry's Vietnam service and his subsequent disservice - in support of the program of the North Vietnamese -- denouncing Vietnam veterans as bloodthirsty, out-of-control murderers of innocent Vietnamese.

Once Kerry's nomination for president in 2004 seemed likely, WinterSoldier.com became a meeting place for many Vietnam veterans and others and provided a wealth of information that for the first time demonstrated how widespread were Kerry's exaggerations and lies.

John Kerry's hagiographic biography by courtesan Douglas Brinkley, Tour Of Duty, (I wrote a 2-part historiographic review at the academic site H-War.) contained so many assertions known to be untrue by those actually there -- fellow SwiftBoaters in Vietnam -- that the Swiftees came together to document the falsehoods.

Unfit For Command followed. The destruction of Kerry's invented heroic image followed.

Swett set up the Swiftees' website, SwiftVets.com, and was present and involved in most of what occurred.

For the past two years, Swett and co-author former Marine Captain Tim Ziegler, have labored to produce this book. Some other, better known writers wanted to tackle the subject and approached various publishers. Once the 2004 election was settled, major publishers weren't interested in documenting the Vietnam veterans revolt as key to a watershed election upset, nor in further distressing the liberal narrative of being treated poorly. (At MediaMythBusters.com, under Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, you can see how substantiated the Swiftee's charges were, compared to the repeated MSM use of the term "unsubstantiated.") I've witnessed these disappointments and the persistence of Swett and Ziegler to tell the story.

Our children may wonder what we did in the war, and what we did in 2004 to set the record straight. The first narrative will have to be done privately. The second narrative, this book, belongs on everyone's bookshelf. Otherwise, they won't get it, how we set the record straight, if they depend on the MSM.

This book is an extraordinarily comprehensive, documented telling of the Kerry-aligned media's losing efforts to squelch the Swiftees (as a Kerry campaign insider said, "The senior staff believes the media is committed to seeing us win this thing...") and how they were foiled (Kerry partisan Susan Estrich admitted "they're shell-shocked" at the implosion of Kerry's mythical self-glorification).

Moreover, this book is an important tale of personal and political heroism, a tale that bears remembering and passing on by anyone who cares for the US and for peoples democracy.

For those who depended upon the MSM-Kerry narrative, there is a big surprise: There was no vast right wing conspiracy, nor was there a Rovian one. Those who need to believe there was such a conspiracy need to believe that in order to avoid the truth.

There was a grounds-up revolt by Vietnam veterans who knew better than the ersatz heroism that Kerry and friends tried to peddle. The facts and details are in this book. Sure, it took big bucks to get the message across. That came from some big donors and 150,000+ other individuals who believed it should be heard and not smothered or ignored. Polls and the election proved them correct. Indicative of who was listening: 80,000 copies of Kerry's self-glorifying Tour Of Duty sold; over 800,000 copies of Unfit For Command sold. Very curiously, the pollsters didn't bother to survey Vietnam veterans, but polls of veterans generally - there are over 25-million, plus their families who support them -- found strong opposition to Kerry.

I hope that To Set The Record Straight sells as well. You can get your copy direct from the authors at their website, www.ToSetTheRecordStraight.com (It won't be up at Amazon until January, so the authors don't have to prematurely split their needed earnings from two-years' work.) There, you can also preview the contents, view excerpts and sources, and more.

For those Vietnam veterans, journalists and bloggers who joined in the battle, your contributions are described. Those of us who served in Vietnam needed your support, and are thankful. It took heroism on many's part for this victory - yours no less than the Swiftees.

The old media, however, is not grateful. The continuing decline of their reading and viewing audiences is partly due to Americans turning away from their repeatedly exposed sloppy and biased reporting.

The Vietnam veterans revolt, so well-documented here as it overcame MSM obstacle after obstacle, awakened millions of Americans to the MSM at its crudest and energized the new media to new heights. If Watergate spurred young journalists to be "investigative" to demand honesty from those in government, today's young journalists will hopefully find in To Set The Record Straight a new spur to demand honesty from those in the media.

John O'Neill and I had a better experience in 1971 with the major media than in 2004, which highlights how the major media has changed, and not for the better. As O'Neill is quoted from an interview:
The big difference is that, in 1971, while the media would spin facts on occasion and spin them very favorably to Kerry and his group, they wouldn't actually suppress the news....That is really a brave new world that did not exist in the 1970's.

For example, on May 13, 1971, I had an op-ed in the New York Times disputing Kerry's maligning of Vietnam veterans. By contrast, in 2004, as Kerry campaign insiders at Newsweek exposed, the New York Times acted as a conduit for Kerry releases. (So did the Boston Globe, perhaps leading to it being one of the three exclusive post-election recipients from Kerry of what he purported to be his military records, which they refused to publish for public scrutiny, even on their no-cost websites.) Otherwise, the major media ignored the Swiftees' evidence or maligned it while almost without exception refusing to actually investigate the charges and evidence.

As CaptainsQuartersBlog.com blog's Ed Morrissey sardonically notes,
The Boston Globe has put a lot more effort and resources into staking out the house of Mitt Romney [to investigate illegal aliens mowing the lawn] than they ever did on resolving the controversy over John Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia fables.

A notable MSM exception was Thomas Lipscomb, formerly founder and president of Times Books, who managed - with difficulty - to publish several devastating investigative columns on Kerry's mendaciousness in newspapers other than the ITALICNew York Times, Boston Globe or Los Angeles Times. Lipscomb succinctly summed up Kerry's mode of defense:
[W]henever one of Kerry's lies is under attack, he attacks everyone else - as liars.
And there is a pattern to his responses as well. When the lie becomes undeniable, the sources are attacked.

The book takes us step-by-step from 1971 to the present in a level of detail that most readers under the age of 60 probably never saw before. The "Aftermath" chapter is worth reading in and of itself, if only for bringing us up to date from 2004 to now.

As Scott Swett wrote me thanking me for my help, "On reflection, I think the best thing about this book is the happy ending." The book concludes:
Though politicians, the media and Hollywood had freely smeared and denigrated America's Vietnam veterans for more than thirty years, something had changed in the wake of the 2004 campaign. Every post-election attempt to slander the U.S. military had sparked widespread resentment and active opposition. Trashing the troops was no longer the ticket to fame and success it had been in that long-ago spring of 1971.

As someone who has been there from the beginning, fighting every step of the way for this day, I say Amen.

"Behold, the wicked man ....makes a pit, digging it out, and falls into the hole which he has made." Psalm 7.14-15

For a woman of several hobbies, one being watching the Shakespearean unraveling and demise of politicians, reading this story was exquisitely pleasurable. Jim Croce wisely advised us not to "tug on the mask of the old lone ranger". John Kerry blithely built his political house on the foundation of besmirching fellows Vietnam vets. It was bound to catch up with him and the story of his fellow 'Swiftboaters' uniting again to save their country from his further perfidy, and at the same time settling old scores, is sweet indeed. If you like stories with happy endings and where the bad guy gets his comeuppance, you'll love this.

This book quickly summarizes the book by O'Neil & Corsi, UNFIT FOR COMMAND, that came out just in time to impact the 2004 election. It then goes on to tell the back story of the evolution of the group Swift Boat Vets and POWs For Truth. If you were only aware of them through the mainstream media you will be amazed at how far from the truth the nature of the group, and especially the funding of it, was.

If there is a more honorable bunch of Americans today than these guys, who knew Kerry and what actually transpired in the rivers of Vietnam they patrolled, I'd like to know who they are. This book gave me even greater pride in being an American.

I thought that I knew everything about the Swift Boats and what they tried to accomplish when John Kerry was running for President.I ordered the book to see what the real story was and I could not put this book down.
I stayed up until 2 A.M. to keep reading which I never do.
This book reads like a thriller,it is so well written.I wish that every person who thinks that they know what went on would get this book and read it.