The Command Post - Op-Ed - Kerry surrogate threatened Kerry crewmate with "firestorm" if he criticized the candidate

April 29, 2004

Kerry surrogate threatened Kerry crewmate with "firestorm" if he criticized the candidate

As the campaign season heats up, a Kerry surrogate, historian Douglas Brinkley, has reportedly threatened an old Kerry crewmate with a "firestorm" if he went public with his criticisms of the candidate. Via Boston.com News:

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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.

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In "Tour of Duty," Brinkley makes much of how Kerry shared all his Vietnam records, and of the extra research the author brought to the book. And yet, just a few months after publication, here are three examples of lazy puffery in Brinkley's tome.

Brinkley told the Atlantic magazine, which excerpted a portion of the book, that he interviewed "every single one" of John Kerry's crewmates on the so-called swift boats that Kerry captained in Vietnam. But in fact he did not interview crew member Steven Gardner, and -- surprise! -- Gardner turned out to be the only one of Kerry's crewmates who disliked his former commander. "I would have talked to Gardner, but I couldn't find him," Brinkley says now.

It gets worse. After the Kerry campaign learned that the Globe had interviewed Gardner for its Kerry biography, Brinkley called Gardner. The presidential historian -- Brinkley has written about Franklin Roosevelt and is a disciple of the late historian and biographer Stephen Ambrose -- warned Gardner of a "firestorm" if the vet went public with his doubts about Kerry, and then hacked out an article attacking the former gunner's mate on Time magazine's website!

Hilariously, Kerry declined to talk to the Globe about Gardner's criticisms, but graced Brinkley with his opinion -- uncritically relayed by the historian -- that Gardner's stories were "made up."

Who needs opposition research when Doug Brinkley is on the case?

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Via Instapundit.

This is a duplicate of the original post at the nikita demosthenes website.

UPDATE:

Of course, being a flack for Kerry - while posing as an "independent" historian - is bad enough. But hopefully Brinkley will not sink to the kind of hate-America-first poison that many on the left are so proud to express. This link is via the apparently quickly recuperating Andrew Sullivan. (Scroll down). Get well soon, Andrew.

Posted By nikita demosthenes at April 29, 2004 10:59 AM | TrackBack

Comments

Definition:
Buddythugs -- Friends of a candidate one can depend on to do dirty work but that you can plausibly deny asking to do it for you. Found in both parties and political extremes.

Posted by: sbw at April 29, 2004 01:12 PM

I saw Brinkley on Fox, the guy was toeing the party line all the way. No objectivity, no credibility.

Posted by: Helen at April 29, 2004 05:58 PM

This story about a lone dissenter or two from the widespread acclaim by John Kerry's co-patriots regarding his service in Vietnam is ridiculous. You make it appear as though Brinkly is "threatening" the antagonist with a "firestorm" of disapproval, whereas this is simply a likely reporting of an all-too-human and all-too-likely response by the vast majority of co-patriots who support Kerry.

What's the big deal about this and who cares if some one guy in a vast majority has a dissenting opinion. Who cares? Is this "objective" journalism, that is the way you try to color this "news" item? You've already just turned off this newbie reader of your newsblog. Bye

Posted by: bob at May 3, 2004 10:46 AM

OK, how about "Hundreds of former commanders and military colleagues"

http://www.cnsnews.com//ViewSpecialReports.asp?Page=/SpecialReports/archive/200405/SPE20040503a.html

Hundreds of former commanders and military colleagues of presumptive Democratic nominee John Kerry are set to declare in a signed letter that he is "unfit to be commander-in-chief." They will do so at a press conference in Washington on Tuesday.

"What is going to happen on Tuesday is an event that is really historical in dimension," John O'Neill, a Vietnam veteran who served in the Navy as a PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) boat commander, told CNSNews.com. The event, which is expected to draw about 25 of the letter-signers, is being organized by a newly formed group called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

"We have 19 of 23 officers who served with [Kerry]. We have every commanding officer he ever had in Vietnam. They all signed a letter that says he is unfit to be commander-in-chief," O'Neill said.

O'Neill, currently a Houston, Texas, based attorney, is no stranger to Kerry. O'Neill served in the same naval unit as Kerry and commanded Kerry's swift boat after Kerry returned to the United States. Kerry's command of the PCF boat lasted four months and ended shortly after he received his third Purple Heart. According to naval regulations at the time, any sailor who received three Purple Hearts could request a transfer out of the combat zone.

Posted by: keith at May 3, 2004 05:16 PM

Does anybody know if Gardner is among the signers of this letter?

Posted by: Dean Douthat at May 3, 2004 05:31 PM