Print out and wear as a Campaign Button or go HERE to print.
Feel free to reuse this anywhere you wish...
Exactly. I've been telling my wife this for days. I think Brinkley's reputation will be severely diminished by the time this election. He's an historian? Sounds more like pulp fiction to me.
From what I understand he only interviewed the guys ON the same boat as kerry..except gardner said he couldn't find him but some newspaper did in just a day or so.
> Did he not attempt to contact ANY of the Swifties?
Do you have any idea how many "historians" Kerry had to
sift thru before he found one that wouldn't ask too many
questions?
:-)
I think.
It will be interesting to see if Brinkley decides to turn on Kerry in order to save his hide. His source lied, that's the bottom line. To protect himself, Brinkley will have to publicly say he trusted Kerry as a US senator and thus committed the worst sin a reporter can be guilty of, not double checking his source.
Excellent post. As an avid reader of history, I may disagree with an authors conclusions, but there is an implied trust that the basic facts are correct. If the points you make are true...he is toast. I read elsewhere that this author is not communicating with anyone at present. What does that say?....hmmmm
Bump for the new Bellesiles award candidate, Douglas Brinkley. Brinkley, no Bancroft award (or soup) for you.
hagiographer?
Is that the person that does Hillary's hair?
I recall reading a review on "Tour of Duty". It remarked that all of Kerry's crewmen were interviewed and quoted in the book -- save one.
That would be Steve Gardner. His absence was explained away by his "conservative politics". Brinkley evidently contacted him, but it wasn't clear whether Brinkley decided against using Gardner's comments (because they were undoubtedly negative) or because Gardner declined to be interviewed.
I'm not sure Brinkley interviewed any of Kerry's commanders -- on the Gridley or in the Swift divisions.
Accordingly, Brinkley didn't so much provide a biography of John F. Kerry, but a "Reminiscences of..."
He was writing fluff for the campaign not a serious book. He was writing "John Kerry as told by John Kerry.
Brinkley claims he couldn't locate Gardner before his book was published. But another BoB called Brinkley, claiming he had just gotten a phone call from Gardner. Brinkley then uses rest of article to do the traditional liberal anal exam of Mr. Gardner.
Bellisiles faked his research and got caught. He flat-out cheated, and that was proved. Even hard-wired liberal history professors understand that that is a no-no. Brinkley's wrong, on the other hand, was to accept Kerry's personal journal as accurate. As it turns out, that was a dumb decision.
Bellisiles was, in effect, beaten like a rented mule. Brinkley is only damaged. And apparently Brinkley recognized that he was being set up for the fall, and he made for high ground. Recall that the Kerry Campaign announced weeks ago that Brinkley would publish an explanation of "the truth" about Kerry's "Christmas in Shambodia" in that well-known academic journal, the New Yorker.
That article never appeared. Douglas Brinkley's number of interviews given on the subject of Kerry in Vietnam, rounded to the nearest one, is zero. Brinkley has read the handwriting on the wall, and made himself scarce. He is therefore damaged, but not destroyed. IMHO.
Congressman Billybob
Latest column, "Carville, Davis, and Other Pests -- 'Those We Don't Speak of' "
If you haven't already joined the anti-CFR effort, please click here.
Print out and wear as a Campaign Button or go HERE to print.
Feel free to reuse this anywhere you wish...
Looks like Kerry decided to follow that line of thinking.