Title: The education of Lieutenant Kerrey
First published: 2003
Description: "On the night of February 23, 1969, Bob Kerrey, an inexperienced twenty-five-year-old lieutenant, led a commando raid on the isolated hamlet of Thanh Phong in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. While witnesses and official records give varying accounts, one thing is certain: Around midnight, Kerrey and his men killed nearly two dozen unarmed women and children.".

"What happened that night and why? It's a terrible secret that Kerrey has borne for more than thirty years. Kerrey went on to do heroic things in Vietnam and later as a politician. Since World War II, he is the only Medal of Honor recipient to sit as a member of Congress. In many ways, Kerrey's life following that tragic mission has been a struggle for redemption.".

"So is Bob Kerrey a war hero or a war criminal? Gregory L. Vistica, who uncovered the Thanh Phong atrocities in a widely praised cover story for The New York Times Magazine, searches the entire span of Kerrey's life to answer that question. From his rural boyhood in Nebraska to his gut-wrenching Navy SEAL training to his aborted run for president, Kerrey's life will become a vehicle for understanding the Vietnam generation shaped in the fifties and sharpened by the tumultuous sixties.".

"The Education of Lieutenant Kerrey is an incredible story and a modern morality tale about a man of compassion and promise trapped by a horrible secret."--BOOK JACKET.
Subjects: Biography, Childhood and youth, Commando operations, Legislators, Soldiers, United States, United States. Congress. Senate, United States. Navy. SEALs, Vietnamese Conflict, 1961-1975, Vietnam War, 1961-1975, New York Times reviewed, United states, navy, biography, United states, congress, senate, biography, Legislators, united states, Vietnam war, 1961-1975, biography, United states, navy, seals
Places: United States
People: Robert Kerrey (1943-)
LC classification: E840.8.K43 V57 2003