|
Unfit for Command | 
| Authors: John E O'neill, Jerome R. Corsi
Creator: Jeff Riggenbach
Publisher: Blackstone Audiobooks
Category: Book
Buy New: $29.95
Rating:  3115 reviews
Sales Rank: 1269843
Format: Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Number Of Items: 5
Running Time: 6.5 hrs
Pages: 350
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.8 x 4.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 0786183276
Dewey Decimal Number: 324
EAN: 9780786183272
Publication Date: September 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
| Similar Items:
|
| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
A Blackstone Exclusive In their new book, Unfit for Command, John ONeill and coauthor Jerome Corsi bring together the words of more than two hundred Navy veterans who served with Kerry and who feel it their duty to tell why John Kerry is unworthy of the presidency. In 1971, John ONeill, the officer who took over John Kerrys swift boat in Vietnam, returned home from Vietnam only to realize that the man he served with, John Kerry, had become a leader of the radical group Vietnam Veterans against the War and was slandering his fellow veterans as war criminals. ONeill debated John Kerry on The Dick Cavett Show in 1971, successfully demolishing Kerrys accusations against his fellow troops in Vietnam. Find out why John Kerry is unfit for command, as told by the men who served with him. Unfit for Command reveals a John Kerry you dont know, the true John Kerry whom his political image makers are trying to hide. But the veterans who served with him know better, and, in Unfit for Command, they tell their story.from the book jacket
Amazon.com Review
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 Kerrys 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
|
| Customer Reviews: Read 3110 more reviews...
 Simply The Truth!!! August 13, 2004
2085 out of 3409 found this review helpful
Forget about "Fahrenheit 9/11", this is a real story by someone who has been around John Kerry, all written in black and white. John O'Neill speaks out about the real John Kerry and what it was like serving with him in Vietnam. O'Neill and co-author Dr. Jerome Corsi have pieced together the actual truth of a man who is in the running to occupy 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Did John Kerry actually buck the system in "earning" those three Purple Hearts when his wounds were very minor, especially when one of his "wounds" came from grains of rice in a paddy incident?
Kerry only exaggerated about himself being a "hero" saving lives when he would flee at the sign of danger just to save his own skin. He had no regard for the lives of others he accompanied, putting their lives at risk, and this is a guy running for president??? Why did he only spend four months in Vietnam while everybody else served a minimum of a year? And did Kerry actually shoot a young boy in the back? This is why Kerry will not allow his military record to be released to the public. To me the public has a right to know, and if Kerry wants to continue to be a public figure, certain things cannot be kept as a private matter, but already this book has unveiled everything and from someone who has actually been with Kerry unlike "Fahrenheit 9/11" where Michael Moore has never been anywhere near President Bush.
Want to know the truth about Kerry? Read this book and find out.
Inviolable Documentation August 15, 2004
1553 out of 2315 found this review helpful
An absolutely brilliant fabric of interwoven statements by the Officers and crews of Coastal Division 11, backed up with sworn affadavits, U.S.Naval records, historic fact and in many cases, John Kerry's own words. O'Neill shatters the mythological image of John Kerry: "War Hero", as presented at the Democratic Convention and replaces it with a "Paper Tiger", an Officer distrusted by his contemporaries, groveling for "nuanced" awards. You will come away from this book with a totally different view of the Junior Senator from Massachusetts.There should be no wonder as to why the Democratic National Committee is attacking this books authors.They will not find any openings to attack the documentation.
 Dubious authors and dubious claims August 14, 2004
866 out of 2755 found this review helpful
The book would have been a credible attack upon John Kerry and his leadership in the swift boat had the authors been able to engage even a single person who actually served under Kerry's command. The men who actually served under John Kerry universally have praised his leadership and courage during the war. The authors frequently level misleading charges against Kerry which raises a doubt about their motivation in writing the book. For instance, O'Neill--who repeatedly has demonstrated personal animosity toward Kerry since both men were young in the 1970s--suggests that Kerry's entire service in Vietnam consisted in the four month stint on the swiftboat. Kerry, in fact, served almost a year in Vietnam, first having manned a ship in the Gulf of Tonkin, then volunteering for swiftboat duty, coming home to the US for training, and finally returning to Vietnam to command his swift boat for four months. The failure of anyone who immediately served with John Kerry to co-author the book along with the spurious usages of fact cast a long shadow of doubt across the work, doubt rightly reflected in the media's growing reluctance to do stories both on the authors and their work.
"Unfit" Inspires Pause.... August 16, 2004
623 out of 894 found this review helpful
(Note: This review refers to an advance copy I was able to review)
As is the sad fate of any book reviewed on Amazon, Unfit For Command will be unable to garner few reviews not wildly biased one way or the other. Yet here is a book that, take it for what you will, raises some very pointed questions regarding the '04 election.
O'Neill does an excellent job here of laying out another side of the story--one that shows a vain and self-absorbed John Kerry that those of us in the military would immediately recognize as a bad officer archetype. To those who say this book is poorly documented or just plain false, I would argue that direct testimony is a lot more accurate than whatever the Damage Control at DNC Headquarters puts out.
Yes, there are those of Kerry's war buddies who support him whole-heartedly in his quest for the presidency. Yet this book also includes an open letter from over 200 of Kerry's former swift boat compatriots, in which Kerry is denounced as a fraud, cheat and liar.
For those that enjoy it when politicians sometimes wildly exaggerated claims are fact-checked, this book will be a source of delight. For example, the authenticity of Kerry's purple hearts are debated, along with his actual decorations and area of service. Also of interest might be the short time Kerry actually served as Swift Boat commander--quite unprecedented, it would seem.
In the end, there can be no doubt John Kerry served in Vietnam--but this book should raise plenty of doubts in your mind as to the authenticity of his self-praise as a "war hero". I sugest you read the book and decide for yourself.
take it from someone who actually was there August 31, 2004
593 out of 660 found this review helpful
Since I wasn't there, let's take the word of a Republican and retired police officer who actually was. I print below the op-ed article from the Wall Street Journal's opinion page:
Shame on the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush
John Kerry saved my life. Now his heroism is being questioned.
BY JIM RASSMANN
Tuesday, August 10, 2004 12:01 a.m. EDT
I came to know Lt. John Kerry during the spring of 1969. He and his swift boat crew assisted in inserting our Special Forces team and our Chinese Nung soldiers into operational sites in the Cau Mau Peninsula of South Vietnam. I worked with him on many operations and saw firsthand his leadership, courage and decision-making ability under fire.
On March 13, 1969, John Kerry's courage and leadership saved my life.
While returning from a SEA LORDS operation along the Bay Hap River, a mine detonated under another swift boat. Machine-gun fire erupted from both banks of the river, and a second explosion followed moments later. The second blast blew me off John's swift boat, PCF-94, throwing me into the river. Fearing that the other boats would run me over, I swam to the bottom of the river and stayed there as long as I could hold my breath.
When I surfaced, all the swift boats had left, and I was alone taking fire from both banks. To avoid the incoming fire, I repeatedly swam under water as long as I could hold my breath, attempting to make it to the north bank of the river. I thought I would die right there. The odds were against me avoiding the incoming fire and, even if I made it out of the river, I thought I'd be captured and executed. Kerry must have seen me in the water and directed his driver, Del Sandusky, to turn the boat around. Kerry's boat ran up to me in the water, bow on, and I was able to climb up a cargo net to the lip of the deck. But, because I was nearly upside down, I couldn't make it over the edge of the deck. This left me hanging out in the open, a perfect target. John, already wounded by the explosion that threw me off his boat, came out onto the bow, exposing himself to the fire directed at us from the jungle, and pulled me aboard.
For his actions that day, I recommended John for the Silver Star, our country's third highest award for bravery under fire. I learned only this past January that the Navy awarded John the Bronze Star with Combat V for his valor. The citation for this award, signed by the Commander of U.S. Naval Forces, Vietnam, Vice Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, read, "Lieutenant (junior grade) Kerry's calmness, professionalism and great personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service." To this day I am grateful to John Kerry for saving my life. And to this day I still believe that he deserved the Silver Star for his courage.
It has been many years since I served in Vietnam. I returned home, got married, and spent many years as a deputy sheriff for Los Angeles County. I retired in 1989 as a lieutenant. It has been a long time since I left Vietnam, but I think often of the men who did not come home with us.
I am neither a politician nor an organizer. I am a retired police officer with a passion for orchids. Until January of this year, the only public presentations I made were about my orchid hobby. But in this presidential election, I had to speak out; I had to tell the American people about John Kerry, about his wisdom and courage, about his vision and leadership. I would trust John Kerry with my life, and I would entrust John Kerry with the well-being of our country.
Nobody asked me to join John's campaign. Why would they? I am a Republican, and for more than 30 years I have largely voted for Republicans. I volunteered for his campaign because I have seen John Kerry in the worst of conditions. I know his character. I've witnessed his bravery and leadership under fire. And I truly know he will be a great commander in chief.
Now, 35 years after the fact, some Republican-financed Swift Boat Veterans for Bush are suddenly lying about John Kerry's service in Vietnam; they are calling him a traitor because he spoke out against the Nixon administration's failed policies in Vietnam. Some of these Republican-sponsored veterans are the same ones who spoke out against John at the behest of the Nixon administration in 1971. But this time their attacks are more vicious, their lies cut deep and are directed not just at John Kerry, but at me and each of his crewmates as well. This hate-filled ad asserts that I was not under fire; it questions my words and Navy records. This smear campaign has been launched by people without decency, people who don't understand the bond of those who serve in combat.
As John McCain noted, the television ad aired by these veterans is "dishonest and dishonorable." Sen. McCain called on President Bush to condemn the Swift Boat Veterans for Bush ad. Regrettably, the president has ignored Sen. McCain's advice.
Does this strategy of attacking combat Vietnam veterans sound familiar? In 2000, a similar Republican smear campaign was launched against Sen. McCain. In fact, the very same communications group, Spaeth Communications, that placed ads against John McCain in 2000 is involved in these vicious attacks against John Kerry. Texas Republican donors with close ties to George W. Bush and Karl Rove crafted this "dishonest and dishonorable" ad. Their new charges are false; their stories are fabricated, made up by people who did not serve with Kerry in Vietnam. They insult and defame all of us who served in Vietnam.
But when the noise and fog of their distortions and lies have cleared, a man who volunteered to serve his country, a man who showed up for duty when his country called, a man to whom the United States Navy awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts, will stand tall and proud. Ultimately, the American people will judge these Swift Boat Veterans for Bush and their accusations. Americans are tired of smear campaigns against those who volunteered to wear the uniform. Swift Boat Veterans for Bush should hang their heads in shame.
Mr. Rassmann, a retired lieutenant with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, served with the U.S. Army 5th Special Forces Group in Vietnam 1968-69.
|
|
|
|
Copyright 2008 BetterEditor.net
| |
