The education of Lieutenant Kerrey

by Gregory L. Vistica

"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