Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (Hardcover)

~ Douglas Brinkley (Author) "Every public life has its point of origin..." (more)
Key Phrases: uncommitted soldier, winter soldier hearings, riverine war, John Kerry, Viet Cong, South Vietnamese (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Historian Douglas Brinkley's insightful Tour of Duty covers John Kerry's heroic Vietnam service (where he won the Silver and Bronze Stars and three Purple Hearts) and the fervent antiwar campaign it eventually spawned. Born to Boston Brahmin heritage, the son of an American diplomat, John Forbes Kerry was a child of good fortune--an eventual Yalie whose personal hero (John Fitzgerald Kennedy) shared his initials. However, Kerry's privileged upbringing instilled in him not a sense of entitlement, but a burning sense of public service. Though equally obsessed and revulsed by the burgeoning Vietnam conflict, Kerry's sense of duty led him to enlist in the Navy (after graduating Yale), and then volunteer for training as captain of a Swift boat (small aluminum vessels that patrolled the coastal waters and narrow, dangerous tributaries of Vietnam's massive Mekong delta). Brinkley's meticulous research relies on Kerry's detailed wartime diaries, logs, and interviews, (published here for the first time) as well as a wealth of accounts of the Navy's first extensive "brown water" riverine campaign since the Civil War. Those harrowing months only deepened Kerry's antipathy to the war, and he returned to become one of the most articulate leaders of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Brinkley's account gives crucial human dimensions to a man whose seeming aloofness has long plagued him. With Americans again dying in a controversial war halfway around the world, one cannot help but wonder if Kerry will yet again be able to pose the haunting question first put to a Congressional panel thirty years ago: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" --Jerry McCulley

From Publishers Weekly

Popular historian Brinkley's account of John Kerry's Vietnam experience could easily serve as the first part of a multivolume biography, examining the senator and presidential candidate's early life in rigorous detail. Entering the U.S. Navy soon after graduating from Yale in 1966, Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry commanded two Swift boat crews on river patrols in Vietnam, earning a Bronze Star, a Silver Star and three Purple Hearts. He kept "voluminous" notes during his service, maintained extensive correspondence with friends and family, and tape-recorded interviews with combat-seasoned comrades. With unrestricted access to this archival material and interviews with Kerry and surviving crewmates, Brinkley (coauthor with Stephen Ambrose of The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation) depicts war in riveting detail, down to what music the crew of PCF-94 listened to on patrol. Though clearly centering his attention on Kerry, Brinkley also stresses the navy's under-recognized role in Vietnam while emphasizing the "true battlefield heroism" of American forces. Kerry's combat experiences make for gripping reading, and later sections on his high-profile role in the antiwar movement are equally engrossing, including the Nixon White House's efforts (involving a young Armistead Maupin) to discredit veteran-turned-antiwar-activist Kerry as a "phony." Final chapters fully address Kerry's political failures in the early 1970s while quickly summarizing later successes and how these successes were shaped by his Vietnam experience and ongoing relationships with fellow veterans. Though never intended as a political biography, this book offers perhaps the most insightful examination available of the character of this or any other Democratic candidate. 16 pages of b&w photos not seen by PW.
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Product Details

• Hardcover: 560 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (January 6, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060565233
• ISBN-13: 978-0060565237
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (120 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #759,677 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

41 of 51 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History or Hagiography?, May 4, 2004

By	Doginfollow (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews

When excerpts from Douglas Brinkley's forthcoming book on John Kerry and the Vietnam War appeared in The Atlantic in December 2003, I couldn't help feeling sorry for the author. Obviously he had spent a lot of time researching and writing a book that would be forgotten before the ink was even dry. Of course, at that time Senator Kerry's campaign for the presidency was dead in the water, while the supposedly smart money was accumulating around Howard Dean.

Now Douglas Brinkley has the last laugh. His time spent on "Tour of Duty" looks like a shrewd bet. Not only has Kerry locked up the Democratic nomination to challenge George W. Bush--his experiences in the Vietnam War have become central to the campaign in a way few could have predicted.

Anyone hoping to gain a better understanding of the veteran senator who would be president should start here. Brinkley shows Kerry's growth from youth to manhood through the harrowing crucible of the Vietnam War. Anyone who doubts the genuine courage and skill that Kerry showed as a Navy lieutenant in that conflict must contend with the evidence that Brinkley has amassed. With the cooperation of his subject, he has also produced a highly intimate portrait of Kerry's thoughts and writings at the time. Brinkley thereby succeeds in warmly humanizing a public figure often criticized for aloofness.

Brinkley's Kerry is a compelling Renaissance Man: brave soldier, compassionate friend, charismatic politician, agile intellectual, avid sportsman. In short, he's a little too good to be true. And that's where one begins to have some doubts about this book. An associate of the late Stephen Ambrose, Brinkley seems to be a serious historian. And one might expect him to be broadly sympathetic to his subject--if he weren't, I doubt that Senator Kerry would have offered him access to his private papers.

Still, Brinkley seems reluctant to criticize Kerry or even raise questions about his motives or judgment. This becomes more apparent when the narrative shifts from Mekong Delta war stories to antiwar protests and political campaigns. The final chapter, a glowing description of Kerry's presidential announcement in September 2003 (an event which seemed to fall flat at the time), reads like a ghostwritten hack campaign biography.

It's too bad, because Brinkley was ideally situated to place the strengths and weaknesses of Kerry's candidacy in the context of his past. (A first-class example of this type of book is David Maraniss' biography of the young Bill Clinton, "First in His Class".)

Brinkley's book also seems to have been rushed a bit into publication. Editors of political books ought to be able to spell Rep. John Dingell's name right, for example, and to know that Chuck Hagel is a Republican Senator from Nebraska, not a Democrat.

That being said, Brinkley has produced a truly useful piece of work. Both Republicans and Democrats will be studying it carefully--the former probing for weaknesses, the latter looking for reassurance. But if John Kerry is half the man Doug Brinkley seems to think he is, the Republicans should be worried, and the Democrats should be proud.

85 of 112 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Revealing & Dramatic Account of War, January 9, 2004

By A Customer

I saw Doug Brinkley interviewed on the Today Show about this book and, although I don't know much about John Kerry, I thought "Tour of Duty" sounded interesting so I got a copy. Regardless of one's political views, this is an extraordinary book about the life and experiences of a young soldier in Vietnam grappling with what it's like to kill, survive emotionally and physically in a hellish environment (Kerry was wounded several times), and come to terms with a conflict he ultimately thought to be unwinnable--even thought he was right in the middle of it. This is not a Kerry campaign book, but a phenomenal, unbiased work of history on Professor Brinkley's part and, without question, one of the best and most riveting war books I've read. And I read a lot of them.

11 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Brinkley Sets the Standard, September 3, 2005

By	Military Brat (USA) - See all my reviews

Douglas Brinkley, a respected historian and biographer, has put together an extensively researched, well-written portrait of a young John Kerry as well as a fascinating account of an important period of American history.

Whether you like Kerry the candidate or not, this book will provide insight to the man. Kerry, by the way, gave Brinkley unrestricted access to his letters, journals, and personal papers, and exercised no editorial control over the end result. (And yes, Brinkley interviewed dozens of vets who served with Kerry.)

It is telling of Brinkley's professionalism that in almost every subsequent article or commentary about Kerry, "Tour of Duty" is used as a point of reference. The book is cited line and page to settle points about Kerry's life and times. It is also a mark of Brinkley's journalistic integrity that the paperback edition contains clarifications suggested by readers and interviewees.

When you scan the O'Neill/Corsi hit piece, compare the quality of the writing, research, and tone to Brinkley's. Like comparing Rush Limbaugh to Edward R. Murrow.


(An aside to a prior reviewer - even the FR site has exposed the old "Giap thanks Kerry" bit as an urban legend. Get with it.)