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On June 6, 1984, President Ronald Reagan visited France to mark the 40th anniversary of D-Day. The speech he delivered at the windswept Normandy promontory looking out over the English Channel--known now in history as the Boys of Pointe du Hoc address--was the opening salvo to a new American indebtedness to World War II veterans. By honoring the daring action of the 2nd Ranger Battalion--225 young Army volunteers whose mission was to climb the treacherous 100-foot-high Pointe du Hoc cliff while being shot at by entrenched German soldiers--he was paying tribute to an entire generation. (Out of those 225 "boys,"...

DENVER (AP) - Hunter S. Thompson, the "gonzo journalist" with a penchant for drugs, guns and flame-thrower prose, might have one more salvo in store for everyone: Friends and relatives want to blast his ashes out of a cannon, just as he wished. "If that's what he wanted, we'll see if we can pull it off," said historian Douglas Brinkley, a friend of Thompson's and now the family's spokesman. Thompson, who shot himself to death at his Aspen-area home Sunday at 67, said several times he wanted an artillery send-off for his remains. "There's no question, I'm sure that's what...

Diary Bombshell: Kerry Met with Terrorists In a bombshell development that could have turned President Bush's victory into a landslide had it come out before the election, John Kerry wrote in his Vietnam war diary that he met "terrorists" in Paris - a revelation that "flabbergasted" his running mate John Edwards. All during the campaign, Kerry had adamantly refused to release his diary, claiming that he'd given exclusive rights to use the document to his biographer, Douglas Brinkely. But when Brinkley told reporters that wasn't true, Kerry still declined to make the diary public. http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2004/11/7/101350.shtml

On Sunday, October 17 at 6:00 pm and at 11:45 pm ET -------------------------------------------------------- Interview with Douglas Brinkley, Author of "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War" followed by segment featuring John O'Neill, author of "Unfit for Command" Description: Douglas Brinkley talks about how he came to write "Tour of Duty," the research he conducted for the book, and the criticism he has received from groups like Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The interview is followed by a talk given by John O'Neill, co-author of "Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry."

http://www.c-span.org/ Brinkley Interview Tonight C-SPAN interviews Douglas Brinkley, author of "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War." Prof. Brinkley talks about how he came to write the book, the controversy surrounding John Kerry's Vietnam service, Sen. Kerry's run for the presidency, and much more.

NEW YORK Stung by a quote attributed to him in Friday's New York Times, author and historian Douglas Brinkley issued an unusual clarification this afternoon. In a news analysis titled "Truth Be Told, the Vietnam Crossfire Hurts Kerry More," Jodi Wilgoren quoted Brinkley commenting on recent attacks against both Kerry and Bush relating to their Vietnam era service: "Every American now knows that there's something really screwy about George Bush and the National Guard, and they know that John Kerry was not the war hero we thought he was." This "not the hero we thought he was" had to raise...

John Kerry's biographer today called on the presidential candidate to release his military records and warned a Navy investigation into his medals could prove to be the "death knell" of his campaign. In the past, Kerry has said he could not release some documents because of contractual obligations to Douglas Brinkley, author of "Tour of Duty." Brinkley said he has no contractual claims to any of the papers. "Clearly some of these military records should be made available to the press," he said on Steve Malzberg's WABC New York radio show today. Brinkley also said that if the Navy investigation...

Douglas Brinkley, author of the John Kerry biography Tour of Duty, was on Steve Malzberg's radio show today. He called on John Kerry to release his military records, saying: "Clearly some of these military records should be made available to the press." Brinkley also said that if the Navy investigation reveals deception in connection with Kerry's medals, it "could be" the "death knell" for Kerry's campaign. Professing uncertainty about what to make about the Swift Boat Vets' claims, Brinkley said: Right now it's unclear. So we have to just wait to see what all this adds up to. While the...

Sen. John Kerry's campaign biographer Douglas Brinkley said Sunday that if an ongoing Navy investigation into Kerry's military decorations turns up evidence of "purposeful" deception, it could spell doom for the top Democrat's White House bid. Praising reporter Thomas Lipscomb, who broke news of the Navy investigation on Friday, Brinkley told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg, "Journalists are going to have to see whether there's a discrepancy on [the citations posted to Kerry's] web site - whether there's something wrong that's said there or not." "If so," said the "Tour of Duty" author, "Kerry would have to fix it immediately -...

I haven't watched or listened to Don Imus for a while, but heard that he is no longer supporting Kerry (he is "undecided"). But today, he had Douglas Brinkley on, and Brinkley, of course, was naturally sympathetic to Kerry. But what was most disturbing was that Brinkley said the media would soon start going after the President with personal attacks (I'm paraphrasing), and that we could look forward to them soon. What's that about? Are they now all in collusion? And what is there to attack him with regarding his personal life? Don't we know everything about him already? And...

Friday, September 03, 2004 Kerry apparently signed Form 180 for Brinkley — thereby waiving confidentiality — but Brinkley is cooperating in the cover-up I had always assumed that Sen. Kerry had himself provided his biographer Douglas Brinkley with Kerry's official military records that were already in Sen. Kerry's hands. But in reviewing Brinkley's citations and references for ToD, I came upon this statement at page 520 of his "Acknowledgements" section (boldface mine): Also with Kerry's permission, I obtained his Navy records and have used them as a reliable source. I don't know any other way to interpret this than to...

Tuesday, August 31, 2004 Brinkley had in-hand the Belodeau Eulogy, but ignored it in telling the Rassmann rescue story My regard for Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley as an historian has dropped to a new low. I've discovered that Brinkley must have had in his hands — and ignored — an unimpeachable source in which John Kerry told a version of the Jim Rassmann rescue that is completely, mutually inconsistent with the version which Kerry has related, and Brinkley himself has repeated, everywhere else. In reading his book Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, I've mostly marvelled at...

Another John Kerry excuse for refusing to release some of his Viet Nam records has just taken a direct hit. And this one comes from his “official” biographer Douglas Brinkley, author of the fawning 546-page pro-Kerry tome “Tour of Duty.” The book jacket claims, “Tour of Duty" is the definitive account of John Kerry's journey from war to peace.”

Local author caught in the crossfire Kerry book becomes ammo for both sides When the time comes to write the history of this year's presidential campaign, how will presidential historian Douglas Brinkley be portrayed? In recent weeks, the University of New Orleans scholar has emerged as a central figure in the highly partisan debate about Democratic candidate John Kerry's actions in combat during the Vietnam War. Brinkley's writings about Kerry -- in particular his biography "Tour of Duty," which was made with Kerry's cooperation -- have been cited by both the senator's opponents and supporters. In a wide-ranging interview in...

Douglas Brinkley is the William Ginsburg of the Kennedy death circus. Before the crash, the boyish, gap-toothed Brinkley was known primarily as a Michael Beschloss-in-waiting, a telegenic historian fielding calls from the cable news networks. Now the University of New Orleans professor has parlayed a contributing editorship at George and a friendship with Kennedy into a job as a necropublicist. Between Saturday and Tuesday, Brinkley appeared on MSNBC, Late Edition, Meet the Press, Good Morning America, Dateline, Today (twice), and NPR (twice). He also penned columns about his relationship with Kennedy for Newsweek and the New York Times, and was...

Here's how "presidential historian" Douglas Brinkley figures it: Various factual inaccuracies and contradictions in Tour of Duty, his famously sycophantic biography of John Kerry, are frequently cited by opponents of Kerry's presidential campaign. On the other hand, the sycophantic parts of the book are just as frequently cited by Kerry's friends. In other words, both parties find his work useful. And what better proof of his academic objectivity and integrity could there be than that? So, nah, Brinkley's "not worried" about appearing biased, he tells the New Orleans Times-Picayune in a "wide-ranging interview in the soaring lobby of his Uptown...

August 27, 2004 DID DOUGLAS BRINKLEY single-handedly create John Kerry's Swift Boat nightmare? It appears so. First Douglas Brinkley inspired the founding of "Swift Boat Vets for Truth" with his book "Tour of Duty". Quotable: Retired since 1978 as a two-star rear admiral, [Roy] Hoffmann comes under particular criticism in the Kerry biography. Brinkley wrote that Kerry saw him as approving cowboy tactics and holding a cavalier attitude toward civilian casualties. Hoffmann said was stunned to find what he termed "gross exaggerations" and "distortions of fact" attributed to Kerry in the Brinkley book. That motivated him to contact other...

The MRC's Geoff Dickens caught this exchange, on Monday's Hardball on MSNBC, in which Matthews not only refused to admit his distortion of Malkin's point, but repeated it: Matthews: "Welcome back to Hardball. Before we go to Dick Cavett, we want to get some final thoughts from Doug Brinkley and Stanley Karnow. Let me go to Doug Brinkley on a hot point on this program. Doug, there was a woman on the show the other night, Michelle Malkin or something, who was discussing in rather loose terms the idea that maybe John Kerry had purposely wounded himself to win a...

John Kerry's Final Mission in Vietnam John Kerry's last mission in Vietnam was a deadly Swift boat patrol up the Bay Hap River where everything was ventured but nothing gained -- except another medal and more horrific memories. By Douglas Brinkley March 13, 1969, would prove among the worst and best days John Kerry spent in Vietnam. Three years earlier, with the main thrust of the antiwar movement yet to come, Kerry had graduated from Yale University, delivering his class oration. Although he had just signed up with the U.S. Navy, in that address he questioned U.S. involvement in Southeast...

One of the most powerful messages to come out of "Unfit for Command," the Swiftvets' book on Kerry, is how many times they cite Kerry's court hagiographer, Douglas Brinkley, in the book. That's because Brinkley wrote "Tour of Duty" for Kerry based on interviews with Kerry, plus access (that no one else seems to have) to his notes and journals. The Swifties demolish Kerry's claims so effectively, and so often, that it now calls into question Brinkley's work as a historian. Did he not attempt to contact ANY of the Swifties? Did he not interview any of them? Why not?...