Posted on 12/05/2007 4:32:49 PM PST by Interesting Times
This is the most important book you’ll buy this year: To Set The Record Straight, How Swift Boat Veterans, POWs and the New Media Defeated John Kerry, by Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler, with Forward by John O'Neill.
Not only will you learn the inside details of the only book – Unfit For Command -- that ever decided a presidential election but, especially for those who have any doubts, you will learn about how the peoples' democracy can still work in the United States.
For those inclined toward political science, the book is an important contribution to understanding how political mobilization actually works and to seeing how the major media lost its Delphic grip on America's political fate to the remarkably democratic new media of the Internet. Vietnam veterans took it away.
As John O’Neill says in his Foreword to the book,
How the Swiftees, POWs and other Vietnam veterans circumvented the media and reached out to the public is a story that has profound implications for future political campaigns and news reporting….
…Honor, Loyalty and Patriotism…These values were able to rouse hundreds of Swifties and millions of other veterans from their deep political sleep of 35 years. The blindness of our opponents can be accounted for only because such values are rare and often considered laughable among Kerry’s operatives and media allies. These values are neither rare nor a subject of amusement among most Americans. In 2004, they changed the course of history.
Fellow blogger Lorie Byrd credits me with knowing more about the SwiftBoat story than any other blogger. She’s correct, as far as that goes. I founded the Vietnam veterans organization in 1971 that John O’Neill joined to confront John Kerry’s fabrications. I was very active in the 2004 Vietnam veterans campaign for truth. I’m friends with all the Vietnam veterans and others who led in the 2004 campaign, that in a post-election MSM op-ed I dubbed, “The Revolt of the Vietnam Veterans.” (These are described in the book.)
But, there’s someone else who knows more about the 2004 Revolt, Scott Swett. I learned much about the Revolt from this book that even I didn’t know. So will you.
The 389-page book is very well-written and documented, based on virtually every public source and on extensive exclusive interviews with all those involved. Footnotes abound, and there’s an excellent index.
This is not a partisan diatribe, though of definite views, but an invaluable basic resource to anyone regardless of their politics. It’s all true, and the truths – the depths to which the Kerry-aligned media stooped to try to squelch the Swiftees – are all here, and truly shocking when all pulled together in one place.
In early 2004, Swett, on his own, set up the website WinterSoldier.com. The site collected the various articles written over the years about John Kerry’s Vietnam service and his subsequent disservice – in support of the program of the North Vietnamese -- denouncing Vietnam veterans as bloodthirsty, out-of-control murderers of innocent Vietnamese.
Once Kerry’s nomination for president in 2004 seemed likely, WinterSoldier.com became a meeting place for many Vietnam veterans and others and provided a wealth of information that for the first time demonstrated how widespread were Kerry’s exaggerations and lies.
John Kerry’s hagiographic biography by courtesan Douglas Brinkley, Tour Of Duty, (A two-part historiographic review I wrote at the academic site H-War is here and here.) contained so many assertions known to be untrue by those actually there -- fellow SwiftBoaters in Vietnam -- that the Swiftees came together to document the falsehoods.
Unfit For Command followed. The destruction of Kerry’s invented heroic image followed.
Swett set up the Swiftees’ website, SwiftVets.com, and was present and involved in most of what occurred.
For the past two years, Swett and co-author former Marine Captain Tim Ziegler, have labored to produce this book. Some other, better known writers wanted to tackle the subject and approached various publishers. Once the 2004 election was settled, major publishers weren’t interested in documenting the Vietnam veterans revolt as key to a watershed election upset, nor in further distressing the liberal narrative of being treated poorly. (See this post about how substantiated the Swiftee’s charges were, compared to the repeated MSM use of the term “unsubstantiated.”) I’ve witnessed these disappointments and the persistence of Swett and Ziegler to tell the story.
Our children may wonder what we did in the war, and what we did in 2004 to set the record straight. The first narrative will have to be done privately. (Actually, Swett shared with me this diary of his father’s year in Vietnam in 1970, as a C-123 navigator and Civic Action Coordinator at Phan Rang. Here’s the letters sent by a young Marine about his feelings and experiences. One among 58,000 who didn’t make it home alive, 2004’s Vietnam veterans revolt was about honoring their sacrifices.) The second narrative, this book, belongs on everyone’s bookshelf. Otherwise, they won’t get it, how we set the record straight, if they depend on the MSM.
This book is an extraordinarily comprehensive, documented telling of the Kerry-aligned media’s losing efforts to squelch the Swiftees (as a Kerry campaign insider said, “The senior staff believes the media is committed to seeing us win this thing…”) and how they were foiled (Kerry partisan Susan Estrich admitted “they’re shell-shocked” at the implosion of Kerry’s mythical self-glorification).
Moreover, this book is an important tale of personal and political heroism, a tale that bears remembering and passing on by anyone who cares for the US and for peoples democracy.
For those who depended upon the MSM-Kerry narrative, there is a big surprise: There was no vast right wing conspiracy, nor was there a Rovian one. Those who need to believe there was such a conspiracy need to believe that in order to avoid the truth.
There was a grounds-up revolt by Vietnam veterans who knew better than the ersatz heroism that Kerry and friends tried to peddle. The facts and details are in this book. Sure, it took big bucks to get the message across. That came from some big donors and 150,000+ other individuals who believed it should be heard and not smothered or ignored. Polls and the election proved them correct. Indicative of who was listening: 80,000 copies of Kerry’s self-glorifying Tour Of Duty sold; over 800,000 copies of Unfit For Command sold. Very curiously, the pollsters didn’t bother to survey Vietnam veterans, but polls of veterans generally – there are over 25-million, plus their families who support them -- found strong opposition to Kerry.
I hope that To Set The Record Straight sells as well. You can get your copy direct from the authors at their website. www.ToSetTheRecordStraight.com. (It won’t be up at Amazon for a few months, so the authors don’t have to prematurely split their needed earnings from two-years’ work.) There, you can also preview the contents, view excerpts and sources, and more.
For those Vietnam veterans, journalists and bloggers who joined in the battle, your contributions are described. Those of us who served in Vietnam needed your support, and are thankful. It took heroism on many’s part for this victory – yours no less than the Swiftees.
The old media, however, is not grateful. The continuing decline of their reading and viewing audiences is partly due to Americans turning away from their repeatedly exposed sloppy and biased reporting.
The Vietnam veterans revolt, so well-documented here as it overcame MSM obstacle after obstacle, awakened millions of Americans to the MSM at its crudest and energized the new media to new heights. If Watergate spurred young journalists to be “investigative” to demand honesty from those in government, today’s young journalists will hopefully find in To Set The Record Straight a new spur to demand honesty from those in the media.
John O’Neill and I had a better experience in 1971 with the major media than in 2004, which highlights how the major media has changed, and not for the better. As O’Neill is quoted from an interview:
The big difference is that, in 1971, while the media would spin facts on occasion and spin them very favorably to Kerry and his group, they wouldn’t actually suppress the news….That is really a brave new world that did not exist in the 1970’s.
For example, on May 13, 1971, I had an op-ed in the New York Times disputing Kerry’s maligning of Vietnam veterans. By contrast, in 2004, as Kerry campaign insiders at Newsweek exposed, the New York Times acted as a conduit for Kerry releases. (So did the Boston Globe and Los Angeles Times, perhaps leading to both being exclusive post-election recipients from Kerry of what he purported to be his military records, which they refused to publish for public scrutiny, even on their no-cost websites.) Otherwise, the major media ignored the Swiftees’ evidence or maligned it while almost without exception refusing to actually investigate the charges and evidence. (See, for example, my correspondence with the New York Times’ ombudsman.)
As “Captain” Ed Morrissey sardonically notes, “The Boston Globe has put a lot more effort and resources into staking out the house of Mitt Romney [to investigate illegal aliens mowing the lawn] than they ever did on resolving the controversy over John Kerry's Christmas in Cambodia fables.”
A notable MSM exception was Thomas Lipscomb, formerly founder and president of Times Books, who managed – with difficulty – to publish several devastating investigative columns on Kerry’s mendaciousness in newspapers other than the New York Times, Boston Globe or Los Angeles Times. Lipscomb succinctly summed up Kerry’s mode of defense:
[W]henever one of Kerry’s lies is under attack, he attacks everyone else – as liars. And there is a pattern to his responses as well. When the lie becomes undeniable, the sources are attacked.
The book takes us step-by-step from 1971 to the present in a level of detail that most readers under the age of 60 probably never saw before. The “Aftermath” chapter is worth reading in and of itself, if only for bringing us up to date from 2004 to now. As Scott Swett wrote me thanking me for my help, “On reflection, I think the best thing about this book is the happy ending.” The book concludes:
Though politicians, the media and Hollywood had freely smeared and denigrated America’s Vietnam veterans for more than thirty years, something had changed in the wake of the 2004 campaign. Every post-election attempt to slander the U.S. military had sparked widespread resentment and active opposition. Trashing the troops was no longer the ticket to fame and success it had been in that long-ago spring of 1971.
As someone who has been there from the beginning, fighting every step of the way for this day, I say Amen.
I, along with several FReepers were at the one in Orlando. We later met them personally at a restaurant in Winter Park after the rally. They are great Americans, patriots and TRUE heros.
Congratulations. I know what to get my Vietnam Vet for his Birthday, now.
i think kerry was refering to his next sex orgy with hookers, terreeeza, john edwards and the klintoons...
How the Swiftees, POWs and other Vietnam veterans circumvented the media and reached out to the public is a story that has profound implications for future political campaigns and news reporting….
I first heard of the Swiftvets on another Viet Nam vet forum - made up of Army river vets. I joined the swift boaters and even sent a very rare (for me) donation. As more information became available I posted to other forum sites with the real news along with links to my own site.
One of my biggest complaints - other than his treason in Paris and testimony before Congress - was his Purple Hearts. Many leftists believed any wound, no matter how inflicted or how minor qualified. I often posted the qualifications and links and pointed out that he didn’t qualify for a single award. There were leftists so in favor of Hanoi John they refused to read the links because they were .mil or .gov!
I just read Chapter 13 on http://www.tstrs.com. Y’all did a terrific job!
Thanks for the post and the ping.
I will treat myself to this book to go with “Unfit for Command!”
God Bless all of the Swift Boaters. This small band of brave warriors and patriots saved us from being ruled by John Heinzy Kerry.
An interesting sidebar was how the Swift Boaters exposed so called conservatives to be otherwise from national figures to local figures.
The biggest national figure was BOR, Bill O’Riley.
Locally, a pseudo conservative, who used to be in our social group exposed himself one evening after a few glasses of wine re his hatred of the Swift Boaters. I ripped into him full bore. Since then, we say hello and that is it. After his outing as a liberal, he is on his 3rd job in less than 4 years, and his crazy wife is crazier. Their daughter turned 21 and doesn’t come home anymore. We call them the big D Family, Democrat and Dysfunctional.
I was a proud contributor to the Swifties. Would do it again in a heartbeat.
BTW, what was the name of the media company that Kerry’s lawyer goons intimidated into not airing the anti-Kerry documentary forcing it to only be broadcast over the internet? I’ve been trying to recall the name of that company for the past few weeks but no luck.
Thanks in advance to anybody who recalls.
Thank you for the ping. Maybe you can get someone, say like a Duncan Hunter to use a ‘special orders’ time to read this post into the Congressional Record for the record ....
Great post!
Great news Scott and Tim.
Can’t wait to read it!
Ping.
Thanks for the ping.
Congratulations!
Yep, that's their game plan. This is the antidote...
Thanks very much. I think the blogs are going to be particularly interested in that chapter, since the treeing of Dan Rather is the event that put several of them on the map.
Sinclair Broadcasting. They did air short excerpts from Stolen Honor, but not the entire documentary.
I just ordered 5 copies for Christmas gift giving...
The MSM and the democraps are still trying to undermine the credibility of these heroes, who stood up to set the record straight. When I hear the PIAPS ( or anyone) use the term “swiftboat” as a verb, meaning to “falsely accuse someone through a concerted effort by a group of individuals”, I go simply go ballistic.
The truth is that the term “swiftboating”, as a verb, means to stand up against the MSM and all those who would perpetrate a lie upon the American public, to mobilize people all across a country to disseminate the truth, to take propaganda head on and to defeat it.. If you “swiftboat” someone, you have done your country a great service.
These men were heroes in Nam and were heroes again in 2004 as they dared to stand against another enemy of America - those that would defend a lie against the pursuit of truth, those that would put political gain above the honor of men who served in Vietnam, and self-serving insignificant men like John Kerry who are unfit to command a nation.
BTD
Excellent job, I can’t wait to read the book!
Great post!
TS
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