Tour of Duty, Douglas Brinkley
Tour of Duty, Douglas Brinkley
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Tour of Duty

Author: Douglas Brinkley

Narrator: Douglas Brinkley

Abridged: 5 hr 31 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: HarperAudio

Published: 01/27/2004

Synopsis

One of our most acclaimed historians explores the decorated military service of one of America’s most intriguing politicians—the leading Democratic presidential candidate for 2004—and its profound effects on his career and lifeIn Tour of Duty, Brinkley explores Senator John Kerry’s career and deftly deals with such explosive issues as U.S. atrocities in Vietnam and the bombing of Cambodia. Using new information acquired from the recently released Nixon tapes, Brinkley reveals how White House aides Charles Colson and H.R. Haldeman tried to discredit Kerry. Refusing to be intimidated, Kerry started running for public office, eventually becoming a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts.Covering more than four decades, this is the first full-scale definitive account of Kerry’s journey from war to peace. In writing this riveting, action-packed narrative, Brinkley has drawn on extensive interviews with virtually everyone who knew Kerry well in Vietnam. Kerry also relegated to Brinkley his letters home from Vietnam and his voluminous “war notes” journals, notebooks, and personal reminiscences written during and shortly after the war. This material was provided without restriction, to be used at Brinkley’s discretion, and has never before been published.

About Douglas Brinkley

Douglas Brinkley is the Katherine Tsanoff Brown Chair in Humanities and Professor of History at Rice University, presidential historian for the New-York Historical Society, trustee of the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, and a contributing editor at Vanity Fair. The Chicago Tribune dubbed him “America’s New Past Master.” He is the recipient of such distinguished environmental leadership prizes as the Frances K. Hutchison Medal (Garden Club of America), the Robin W. Winks Award for Enhancing Public Understanding of National Parks (National Parks Conservation Association), and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Lifetime Heritage Award. His book The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast received the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He was awarded a Grammy for Presidential Suite and is the recipient of seven honorary doctorates in American studies. His two-volume, annotated Nixon Tapes won the Arthur S. Link–Warren F. Kuehl Prize. He lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife and three children.

Reviews

Goodreads review by William on February 27, 2021

Just the preface alone is a five star summary of modern American history. The core of the book is a close up look at John Kerry and his service, but the book really speaks to what so many others endured during both Vietnam and other following Americans wars.......more

Goodreads review by aPriL does feral sometimes on January 23, 2015

As this book is a campaign biography, written about John Kerry when he was running for President (he is currently America’s Secretary of State), he is shown to be a Perfect Gentleman. I don’t believe he is Perfect, but he definitely is a very interesting and exceptional person. There is a huge secti......more

Goodreads review by Liam on May 03, 2017

This book was well-written enough to earn four stars, but I had to dock it one star for both sloppy research & poor copy-editing. I did not write down every error, and I am not going to enumerate them here. I will, however, address the most egregious error of fact in this book, which is on page 271......more

Goodreads review by Will on October 30, 2008

This focuses on John Kerry's time in Vietnam, and his relationship with the war as an anti-war activist and then as a potential and then a real representative. It portrays him as a truly courageous guy, gung ho about getting done the job at hand, but thoughtful about the bigger picture as well, not......more

Goodreads review by Jack on January 20, 2025

Good introduction to John Kerry, especially pre-public service. Also a good introduction to swift boat warfare in Vietnam......more

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