“Be Ignored by a Journalist” — Part Two
Today is Part Two of my “Be Ignored by a Journalist” series. Part One is here, and yes, I’m still being ignored.
Today’s letter that I anticipate will be ignored was written to Michael Kranish of the Boston Globe. I was spurred to write this by a question from Ben Sands, in the comments to this post. Ben wanted to know more about the book (cited in this article by Kranish) that quotes John Kerry saying that he sought out swift boat service because he thought it would be relatively safe.
That seemed like a fair question, so I wrote Kranish and asked, in this very simple letter:
Dear Mr. Kranish,
On June 16, you published a story that said:
“I didn’t really want to get involved in the war,” Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. “When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that’s what I thought I was going to be doing.”
I am wondering if you could tell me the title of this book.
Thank you,
Patrick Frey
Failing a response from Mr. Kranish, perhaps one of the vigilant readers here knows the name of the book to which Mr. Kranish here refers?
UPDATE: Mystery solved, by a commenter, in just over an hour. The book is “Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War” by Douglas Brinkley. The commenter did a search for the text on Amazon, finding the quote on page 431.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0060589760/ref=sib_books_ref/002-9580827-3507228?%5Fencoding=UTF8&keywords=vietnam%201986&v=search-inside
It is referenced in the above link. Might be his source:
“on Page 431: “… Hon Khoai was a rare reprieve from the war for the men of Coastal Division 11. Swift boat duty in Vietnam had become a dangerous gambit for its young officers. Gone … little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. “They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that’s what I thought I was going to be doing.” Now the somewhat …” 3. on Page 763:”
Comment by Nanuk (e7d8b6) — 8/9/2004 @ 8:29 am
Gotta love the internet. Ask, and receive an answer in 66 minutes.
The next 50 years are going to be fun.
Comment by John (6479e1) — 8/9/2004 @ 8:55 am
The quote comes from a Boston Globe article – http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml – that refers to a “little noticed contributoin” to a book of Vietnam reminiscences.
“I didn’t really want to get involved in the war,” Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. “When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that’s what I thought I was going to be doing.”
Comment by antimedia (d7a3fc) — 8/9/2004 @ 6:28 pm
Antimedia —
I knew about the Globe article — my mistake was not providing a hyperlink for the words “this post” in, uh, this post. I was referring to this post, in which I discussed the selfsame Globe article. My commenter was asking what the book was — and as you can see, another commenter figured it out.
Comment by Patterico (f7b3e5) — 8/9/2004 @ 7:36 pm
Well, I didn’t find the answer to your question although I hoped I had alluded to it. In my sojourns today I passed the San Jose,Barnes and Noble bookstore, parked and went in to see if they had JFKerry-Tour of Duty hoping that the reference to VietNam reminiscences 1986 would be listed in the bibliography. The bad news is, they didn’t have the book. The good news is, and I’m sure your readers will love this, they had a lot of copies of the Enemy Within by Michael Savage. And they were out in the open.
Comment by Nanuk (888909) — 8/9/2004 @ 8:03 pm
I’m satisfied by your answer — it seemed clear from the link you provided.
Comment by Patterico (f7b3e5) — 8/9/2004 @ 8:05 pm