> Swift boat duty, as it existed when Kerry volunteered,
> was more dangerous than being a division officer on a
> DLG, but Kerrey must not have read Kerry's book to
> make the comment he did today.
It was probably less dangerous than Kennedy's PT-109
assignment, since NV had no real Navy.
Whatever, it probably looked to Kerry like a great way
to pad his resume with some "PT boat" service, and
continue to realize what he saw as his destiny to
be the second JFK.
Actually it was their Navy, their PT boats in fact, that led to the vastly increased US involvement in the Vietnam war. NV PT Boats attacked the USS Maddox with torpedos and shellfire. One dud shell was lodged in the Maddox, so we know that attack was quite real. USS Turner Joy joined Maddox and both ships then showed radar blips that they thought were attacking NV boats. They probably weren't. However the two incidents together are known as the "Gulf of Tonkin Incident", which lead Congress to authorize "whatever means necessary" in Southeast Asia. The rest is History, and a still festering wound in America.