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When I
Was a Young Man: A Memoir by Bob Kerrey Rating: •••• (Highly Recommended) |
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Click on title or picture to buy from amazon.com |
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Pain Former Nebraska governor and senator Bob
Kerrey discloses key events of his formative years in a memoir titled When I
Was a Young Man. The security and comfort of life in the heartland changes
after Kerrey trains as a Navy SEAL and finds himself in Vietnam, learning how
the country he loved betrayed him and others. One of Kerrey’s actions during
that war might be construed as a war crime, and his recollection of what
happened appears in this book. Kerrey lost a leg in the war, and came home
embittered. He received a Medal of Honor he thought he didn’t deserve from a
President, Richard Nixon, who he came to despise, especially because Kerrey
trusted Nixon and voted for him. When I
Was a Young Man tells a story of pain and struggle with seriousness and
clarity. Here’s a short excerpt about letters to his parents: “Both letters
were full of lies. My injury was worse. I didn’t have any war stories worth
telling. My fifty-plus days in Vietnam seemed to me to be at best a waste of
time. I didn’t hate to be leaving the platoon, and I was happy to be going
home even in the condition I was in. I had convinced myself that my injury
was retribution, punishment, rather than a combat wound from heroic duty. My spirit
was in darkness. Like Jonah, the whale had swallowed me; unlike him, I believed
I would spend eternity inside the belly of the beast.” When I
Was a Young Man is the best memoir I’ve read in a long time. When you
read this book, you’ll understand why and how a patriotic, loyal Republican,
became a Democrat, and how a war changed the attitudes of a generation about
their government and its policies. Steve Hopkins, June 12, 2002 |
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ã 2002 Hopkins and Company, LLC The
recommendation rating for this book appeared in the July 2002
issue of Executive
Times Hopkins
& Company, LLC • 723 North Kenilworth Avenue • Oak Park, IL 60302 E-mail: books@hopkinsandcompany.com |
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