Amazon.com: The Education of Lieutenant Kerrey: Gregory L. Vistica: Books

Amazon.com
Bob Kerrey has been many things in his long and successful career: Navy SEAL, Medal of Honor winner, millionaire businessman, governor of Nebraska, U.S. Senator, and presidential candidate. But is he also a war criminal? This is the disturbing question at the center of Gregory Vistica's absorbing book, based on over four years of research, including much time spent with Kerrey himself. The issue in question is a dark secret that remained buried for nearly 30 years: in February, 1969, Lieutenant Kerrey led a small group of SEALs on a raid in which 21 unarmed women and children were killed. The official version was that it was an unfortunate accident and that the SEALs were defending themselves against enemy fire. As Vistica began to dig, however, a remarkably different account surfaced--a version corroborated by one of the men involved in the raid, as well as by two Vietnamese eyewitnesses.

Vistica does an excellent job of presenting the psychological harm Kerrey suffered as a result of his experience and is particularly sensitive to the fact that Kerrey is considered a hero by many--in short, this is no hatchet job. At times, Vistica genuinely seems to wish that he had never discovered the story at all, despite the enormity of the scoop. Still, his desire to find the truth overrides all other concerns, and he manages to maintain his objectivity. Kerrey did his best to control the story and even to quash it by offering Vistica a job on several occasions. He also changed his story repeatedly: "After the many talks I'd had with Kerrey over two-plus years, I came to see that he regarded the truth as fluid--something that could be modified, mixed, or diverted to suit his needs at the moment." Vistica is remarkably frank about how he was almost drawn in by the charismatic Kerrey and describes how difficult it can be to accuse famous and respected people of heinous behavior. But in following the facts all the way to his conclusion, he has written a brave and important book. --Shawn Carkonen

From Booklist
Vistica writes for the New York Times Magazine (in which a cover piece appeared that is the basis for this book) and is a 60 Minutes II producer; he is also the author of Fall from Glory: The Men Who Sank the U.S. Navy (1996). Four years of research stand behind his new book, which is about Senator Bob Kerrey--and, as the author insists, his account is underscored by his "belief that there is no higher calling for a journalist than the honest pursuit of the truth." And that truth, as he reconstructs it, is that Kerrey's adult life and career represent one long attempt to assuage his guilt over a huge, haunting secret he "carried . . . through three decades of what was, by all appearances, a storybook existence: war hero, self-made millionaire businessman, governor, and a United States senator." The secret? In Vietnam, 25-year-old Lieutenant Kerrey led a commando raid on a village, and 21 unarmed women and children were killed. In Vistica's emotion-laden account of how the secret was borne by Kerrey all those years, how it informed his post-Vietnam goals and aspirations and achievement, and how he dealt with the situation once his secret became public, we see a prominent politician as very much a human being; as a result, this book is an important contribution to the literature of contemporary American politics. Brad Hooper
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

The Education of Lieutenant Kerrey (Hardcover)

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought