Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War [Paperback]

Douglas Brinkley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 21, 2004

Covering more than four decades, this is the first full-scale, definitive account of Kerry's journey from war to peace. Brinkley has drawn on extensive interviews with virtually everyone who knew Kerry in Vietnam.Kerry also relegated to Brinkley his letters home from Vietnam, voluminous "war notes" journals and personal reminiscences written during and shortly after the war. This material was provided without restriction, to be used at Brinkley's discretion, and has never before been published.

Throughout, Brinkley deftly deals with issues such as U.S. atrocities in Vietnam and the bombing of Cambodia. Using information from the newly released Nixon tapes, Brinkley reveals how White House aides Charles Colson and H. R. Haldeman tried to discredit Kerry. Refusing to be intimidated, Kerry ran for public office, eventually becoming a senator from Massachusetts. But he never forgot his fallen comrades returning to Vietnam numerous times to look for MIAs and POWs. When President Clinton officially recognized Vietnam in 1995, at long last Kerry's thirty-year-long tour of duty ended.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Douglas Brinkley is a professor of history at Rice University and contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Seven of his books have been selected as New York Times Notable Books of the Year. He lives in Texas with his wife and three children.

Product Details

• Paperback: 592 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (September 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060565292
• ISBN-13: 978-0060565299
• Product Dimensions: 7.9 x 5.3 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,414,676 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Douglas Brinkley is currently a Professor of History at Rice University and a Fellow at the James Baker III Institute of Public Policy. He completed his bachelor's degree at Ohio State University and received his doctorate in U.S. Diplomatic History from Georgetown University in 1989. He then spent a year at the U.S. Naval Academy and Princeton University teaching history. While a professor at Hofstra University, Dr. Brinkley spearheaded the American Odyssey course, in which he took students on numerous cross-country treks where they visited historic sites and met seminal figures in politics and literature. Dr. Brinkley's 1994 book, The Majic Bus: An American Odyssey chronicled his first experience teaching this innovative on-the-road class which became the progenitor to C-SPAN's Yellow School Bus.

Five of Dr. Brinkley's books have been selected as New York Times "Notable Books of the Year": Dean Acheson: The Cold War Years(1992), Driven Patriot: The Life and Times of James Forrestal, with Townsend Hoopes (1992), The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House (1998), Wheels for the World: Henry Ford, His Company and a Century of Progress (2003), and The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast (2006).

Five of his most recent publications have become New York Times best-sellers: The Reagan Diaries, (2007), The Great Deluge (2006), The Boys of Pointe du Hoc: Ronald Reagan, D-Day and the U.S. Army 2nd Ranger Battalion (2005), Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (2004) and Voices of Valor: D-Day: June 6, 1944 with Ronald J. Drez (2004). The Great Deluge (2006), was the recipient of the Robert F. Kennedy prize and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book award.

Before coming to Rice, Dr. Brinkley served as Professor of History and Director of the Roosevelt Center at Tulane University in New Orleans. From 1994 until 2005 he was Stephen E. Ambrose Professor of History and Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans. During his tenure there he wrote two books with the late Professor Ambrose: Rise to Globalism: American Foreign Policy Since 1938 (1997) and The Mississippi and the Making of a Nation: From the Louisiana Purchase to Today (2002). On the literary front, Dr. Brinkley has edited Jack Kerouac's diaries, Hunter S. Thompson's letters and Theodore Dreiser's travelogue. His work on civil rights includes Rosa Parks (2000) and the forthcoming Portable Civil Rights Reader.

He won the Benjamin Franklin Award for The American Heritage History of the United States (1998) and the Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt Naval History Prize for Driven Patriot (1993). He was awarded the Business Week Book of the Year Award for Wheels for the World and was also named 2004 Humanist of the Year by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities. He has received honorary doctorates from Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut.

Dr. Brinkley is contributing editor for Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times Book Review and American Heritage. A frequent contributor to the New York Times, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic Monthly, he is also a member of the Theodore Roosevelt Association, the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute, the Council on Foreign Relations and the Century Club. In a recent profile, the Chicago Tribune deemed him "America's new past master."

Forthcoming publications include The Wilderness Warrior: Theodore Roosevelt and the crusade for America and a biography of Walter Cronkite.

He lives in Austin and Houston, Texas with his wife and three children.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Needs to be Read, But I'm Still Puzzled, October 29, 2004

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (Paperback)

There was Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, now there's this book. This book is the 'authorized version.' It is based on letters Kerry wrote home and 'extensive interviews with virtually everyone who knew Kerry in Vietnam.'

I turned first to the story of Kerry's first Purple Heart. The versions in the two books can't possibly cover the same person. In one Kerry is in a fire fight at night and trying to clear his jammed M-16 when he feel a hot, burning thing hit his arm. In the other it is daylight and Kerry shoots a grenade launcher at a rock some distance from his boat and a piece of shrapnel comes back and hits him in his arm. Well, at least they both agree that he was hit in the arm. This is the incident, I understand, where the official Navy records are missing.

The essence of democracy is an informed electorate. I'm intend to vote in about five days. Somehow I don't feel very informed.

If you're a Kerry fan, this is clearly the book you need to read, it'll make you feel much better. If you're a Bush fan, you may want to read it just to see what the Kerry fans are saying. If you're trying to inform yourself about the character of this man, you probably should read both.

One final comment, I was out of the Army before Vietnam got started going good. I've only known two people that were in Swift boats, they both hate Kerry. My guess is that Brinkley didn't talk to them.

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars To see the real Vietnam try Naked In Da Nang, October 19, 2004

By 

Rod Rameus "flightsurgeon184" (Columbus) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (Paperback)

I don't care what you think of John Kerry -- war hero or traitor -- all you are going to get prior to November 2 is a pile of political mumbo jumbo targeted to the undecided voter. NOW, if you are interested in the REAL human perspective on the men who served in Vietnam, then Naked In Da Nang is the book you need to read. I have heard the authors speak and I have read the book -- twice. It is very simple in its presentation -- and very complex in all the images and emotions it stirs (especially for veterans.) You can read it and decide if it represents John Kerry's Vietnam or you can read Tour of Duty and contrast it with "Naked." Between these two men, I'd rather see Mike Jackson running for President -- but methinks he's a tad too smart for that! If you're interested in the TRUTH about the guys who fought and died in Vietnam, John Kerry is not the guy to consult.

11 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Lies and utter nonsense, January 6, 2005

By 

Cape Point "Cape Point" (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War (Paperback)

Ah yes, John Kerry's life written by none other than.... John Kerry. The Kerry simpletons might find this intriguing, but one should be careful to note that throughout this entire book, there is not a single interview with any of Kerry's peers or commanding officers. Nor is there any interview with the medical personnel that "dressed" Kerry's famous battle wounds. I challenge you to read what other Vietnam Veterans have to say about Kerry's life and times in Vietnam, and I will assure you that he behaved anything but honorably.