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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...

There is one thing that has bothered me from day one about this Swift Boat affair. Adm. Hoffman & Commander Elliot in 1996 answered the call to defend Kerry against Weld in the very tight US Senate race in MA. They held their noses, praised him highly, and likely saved him. To prove that no good deed goes unpunished, fast forward to John Kerry's 2004 presidential bid. Kerry gets a historian by the name of Brinkley to do his official biography. In the released book, "Tour of Duty". John Kerry lashes out accusing both Elliot and Hoffman of being near...

Chapter 12: "Taking Command of PCF-94" in Douglas Brinkley's book "Tour of Duty" has the following quote from John Kerry: "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."

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...

NEW YORK -- Retired Rear Adm. William L. Schachte Jr. said Thursday in his first on-the-record interview about the swift boat veterans dispute that "I was absolutely in the skimmer" in the early morning on Dec. 2, 1968, when Lt. (j.g.) John Kerry was involved in an incident that led to his first Purple Heart. "Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 [grenade launcher]," Schachte said in a telephone interview from his home in Charleston, S.C. He said, "Kerry requested a Purple Heart." Schachte, also a lieutenant junior grade, said he was in command of the small boat called a Boston...

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - Leaders of the Swift boat veterans group criticizing presidential candidate John Kerry's Vietnam War record said Thursday they were motivated to attack in part by a book published earlier this year in which Kerry revealed the high opinion he held of himself - and the low opinion he held of some of them. Kerry's former commanding officer and two other officers who were above Kerry in the chain of command said the book "Tour of Duty" made it seem as if Kerry, as a junior lieutenant in the Navy, had been the only hero in a...

John Kerry’s 80 Day Cook’s Tour August 24th, 2004 The proper duration of individual front line troop deployments in wartime has been debated since the Revolutionary War without any clear conclusion. Our nation’s first Commander-In-Chief frequently despaired over perilously anemic troop strengths as enlistment contracts expired. Sometimes, battle plans were hastily drawn up and launched just in time before waves of militiamen and continentals were to shoulder their rucksacks and head home. WWII deployments, for all practical purposes, were for the duration. US Army troops, Marines and sailors posted virtually anywhere, but especially on the line, could look forward to...

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?...

Here's a letter I received today from Terry Sater, a Vietnam Vet who served with the Mobile Riverine Force in the Mekong Delta during 1968 and 1969. He writes that "I'm not part of a 527. I voted for McGovern, Perot and Bush. I didn't volunteer for Nam. I didn't want to go. I am not a hero. I served with heroes. Kerry has dishonored all of us." Sater said he sent the letter to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, but doesn't expect it will run. It it is reprinted here in its entirety: People don't get it. They point out...

What kind of a historian is Douglas Brinkley anyway? These days Brinkley is acting a lot less like a historian and a lot more like a PR flack for John Kerry, the subject of Brinkley's flattering bestseller "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War." Brinkley proclaims his independence from the Kerry campaign -- "This is my book, not his," he writes in "Tour" -- but he's become a major player in the Kerry agitprop machine. On television, in magazines, and on Kerry's website, Brinkley functions as a dependable surrogate for the candidate, quick to testify to Kerry's unflinching...

John Kerry made big mistakes when he: 1. Chose to trash the war & vets as a shortcut to stardom, thinking only of himself. 2. At 03 Reunion pushed aside shipmates and skipped memorial for those lost in Vietnam, thinking only of himself. 3. Published "Tour of Duty" as fact instead of fiction, trashing service and shipmates, thinking only of himself.

Kerry wrote a book called "Tour of Duty" that claimed all kinds great things that Kerry did in Vietnam (some already proven to be lies). There is a problem with the title of this book, it is very misleading (some may say that it too, is a lie).

Kerry’s March 13, 1969, “Medals” According to the records, Kerry claimed in the casualty report he prepared on March 13, 1969, that he was wounded as a result of a mine explosion. Within a short period, he presented his request to go home on the basis of three Purple Hearts. By March 17, 1969, Kerry’s short career in Vietnam was over. Regarding the action on March 13.1969, Kerry’s medals were once again a complete fraud. Notwithstanding the fake submission for his Bronze Star, Kerry was never wounded or bleeding from his arm. All reports, including the medical reports, make clear...

"KERRY WENT into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions," historian Douglas Brinkley told the London Telegraph last week. "He had a run dropping off U.S. Navy Seals, Green Berets, and CIA guys. . . . He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off." John Kerry was obliged last week to recant a number of...

The greatest frustration of the "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth" is the establishment media's reluctance to explore their powerful testimony. Follow running mate John Edwards' advice and spend three minutes with "those men who served with" John Kerry in Vietnam, and you sense the disgust over this absence of dedication. Compounding it all are the escalating personal attacks unrelated to the substance of these first-hand accounts and the vigor displayed in digging into President Bush's service and even the backgrounds of the "Swifties." Indeed, Kerry seems to have predicted this behavior, leaning heavily on his wartime experience despite possible revelations...

"KERRY WENT into Cambodian waters three or four times in January and February 1969 on clandestine missions," historian Douglas Brinkley told the London Telegraph last week. "He had a run dropping off U.S. Navy Seals, Green Berets, and CIA guys. . . . He was a ferry master, a drop-off guy, but it was dangerous as hell. Kerry carries a hat he was given by one CIA operative. In a part of his journals which I didn't use he writes about discussions with CIA guys he was dropping off." John Kerry was obliged last week to recant a number of...

Navy Vets: Kerry Unfit to Serve by David FreddosoPosted May 7, 2004Wounded Vietnam veteran Joseph Ponder approached the podium on crutches. The Swift Boat veteran nearly broke into tears as he took his turn speaking against his old war comrade, Sen. John Kerry (D.-Mass.). "My daughters and my wife have read parts of the book Tour of Duty," he said, referring to Douglas Brinkley's recent biography of Kerry, released this year in time for Kerry's presidential bid. "They wanted to know if I took part in the atrocities described." Ponder and about 20 other Swift Boat veterans appeared at a...

What kind of a historian is Douglas Brinkley anyway? These days Brinkley is acting a lot less like a historian and a lot more like a PR flack for John Kerry, the subject of Brinkley's flattering bestseller "Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War." Brinkley proclaims his independence from the Kerry campaign -- "This is my book, not his," he writes in "Tour" -- but he's become a major player in the Kerry agitprop machine.

* Documentary filmmaker George Butler (PUMPING IRON, THE ENDURANCE) is producing and directing TOUR OF DUTY, a film on Democratic candidate John Kerry, which will hit theaters during the peak pre-election period. Based on Douglas Brinkley's bestselling book of the same name, the film will focus on Kerry's Navy tour of duty in Vietnam, the years of peace advocacy that followed and how each contributed to shape his political life thereafter. Butler began work on the project in early 2003 and plans to have the film completed by Labor Day.