John Kerry: The New Soldier
Updated: According to
John O'Neill in the Wall Street Journal, Mr. Kerry has prohibited
the reprinting of his book.
The New Soldier was published by Collier / McMillan in 1971 and attributed to "John Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War." The book's cover (left) shows VVAW members in a parody of the Iwo Jima flag-raising, with the flag turned upside-down as a symbol of distress.
The byline is a bit unusual, but perfectly justified: Kerry was a co-founder of VVAW, and he was its public face. One of the main events of the veterans' march on Washington in April 1971 was his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. (For a short version, click here.) The main text in The New Soldier is taken from that testimony, in a foreword entitled "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" and an epilog that's not attributed to him. Here's a sample, with Kerry referring to "The Winter Soldier" mock investigation that preceded the march on Washington:
"[The veterans] told stories that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghengis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country."
There's also a short preface by the two
men who are identified as the book's editors, David Thorne and
George Butler. That's the only text, apart from photo captions.
Kerry's photograph appears several times in the book--with his trademark teeth and jaw, he's instantly recognizable. However, none of them shows him taking part in the guerrilla theater that was a big part of the event (and of the era): throwing medals onto the Capitol steps, staging a mock search-and-destroy mission, and raising the flag upside-down. His hair is shaggy, which is also typical of the times, but he's clean-shaven and tidy compared to most of the participants.
It was the VVAW that launched Kerry onto the public stage, but evidently it derailed his hopes of running for Congress in 1972. Instead, he went to law school, became a prosecutor in Massachusetts, and successfully ran for lieutenant governor in 1984. It was 1990 before he made his successful bid for national office, as a U.S. Senator.
For a less than flattering photo-essay of his career, see the page posted by the Veteran Veterans Against John Kerry. For more about The New Soldier, see wintersoldier.com. For the viewpoint of the man who took command of Kerry's Swift boat after he went home early, see the Wall Street Journal online.
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