To Set the Record Straight: How Swift Boat Veterans, Pows and the New Media Defeated John Kerry

by Scott Swett, Tim Ziegler

To Set the Record Straight is the inside story of how an ad hoc collection of veterans and political activists overcame their opponents' efforts to silence and marginalize them, and delivered the explosive truth about John Kerry's past to the public during the 2004 presidential campaign. It is a story of justice and vindication long delayed, of an insurgent assault on the old media by a new wave of online reporters, and of the long struggle of America's Vietnam veterans to make their way home.

389 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Robert Enzenauer · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was headed for my plebe year at the US MILITARY ACADEMY 1 JULY 1971 when John Kerry was appearing on Dick Cavitt with John O'Neill. Around the time of my high school prom, a high school girl friend was telling me that I was wasting my life going to West Point, commenting upon Kerry's congressional testimony April 1971 about widespread atrocities. So.by the time that Senator Kerry was "reporting for duty" I had completed over 25 years of military service. And I wasn't so much for Bush as I was AGAINST Kerry. Many Vietnam veterans were the mentors of my early military career. Although I was unsure of the specifics, I knew that it didn't pass the "smell test" that Kerry got a Silver Star, three purple hearts and a ticket home after only 4 months in county, and didn’t miss a day of work. But I do remember being told NOT to wear my uniform on leave etc. And although not a Vietnam vet myself (commissioned in 1975), I do remember being verbally harassed as a baby-killer in the 1970’s. So, it is amazing for me now to read Swett and Ziegler’s account of the ground swell of Swift Boat veterans and Vietnam POWs who came forward to challenge the mainstream media’s anointed one = John Kerry. The problem, of course, was that the vast majority of John Kerry supporters were NOT military veterans, and took “his story” as gospel, assuming him to be the “hero” that he purported to be. The authors’ day-by-day detail as to how the media attempted to distort, lie, degrade, and abuse the honorable Swift Boat vets and POWs. In John O’Neill’s forward 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.” Scott Swett and Tim Ziegler conclude their book, “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 US military had sparked widespread resentment and active opposition. Trashing the troops is no longer the ticket to fame and success it had been in that long-=ago spring of 1971,” This book is meticulously researched, with detailed footnotes. As noted by another reviewer, many good people consider themselves “informed” citizens because they follow the news as presented by CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, MSNBC, will be slow to admit what was withheld from them by the major news outlets about the Democratic Presidential candidate in the 2004 election. And a big “thank you” to the Marine veteran who gifted me this book.
Robert W. Enzenauer, MD, BG Retired, USMA Class 1975

[Kevin Cullis · Rating 5 out of 5]

WELL. DOCUMENTED. DEFEAT!

[D · Rating 1 out of 5]

🚫 Scott Swett is a screwball. Period.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

at times a little slow with a cast of characters that can be tough to keep track of, but a fascinating history of the campaign, and how independent groups began to use the web to influence politics.