Unfit for Command: Swift
Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry
by John E. O'Neill, Jerome R. Corsi
Due to the timing of its publication, Unfit for Command could be dismissed
as the sort of controversial, loaded book typical in a presidential
election year: Either courageous and necessary, or untruthful and malicious,
depending on one's political point of view. Filled with interviews of
men who served in Vietnam at the same time as John Kerry, the book poses
the following question: "Why do an overwhelming majority of those
who commanded or served with John Kerry oppose him?" (Note that
the issue of "service" has sparked investigation into its
definition--in other words, just how close was the interaction between
Kerry and those cited in the book during Kerry’s Vietnam tour of
duty?)
The charges leveled against Kerry in this book are severe and include
filing false operating reports; lobbying for and receiving three Purple
Hearts for minor wounds, two of which were self-inflicted; receiving
a Silver Star under false pretenses; offering false confessions of bogus
war crimes in both print and testimony; and recklessness in the field,
including the burning of a village without cause or direct order. The
book also claims that Kerry left Vietnam after serving just four months
instead of the usual one year tour and that he returned home and accused
his fellow soldiers of atrocities without offering any evidence, endangering
POWs in the process.
It is debatable whether the book will change any minds, or votes. Instead,
readers will likely reach one of two conclusions: Either John Kerry
grossly misrepresented his military service or the authors are spinning
the interviews that they conducted for ulterior motives. There is a
third option, however; readers will further investigate both sides of
the debate, and by doing so, may reach conclusions independent of partisan
extremes. --Brian Neff
-- amazon.com Editorial Review, used with permission.
