Events

Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove
by Max Cleland

Book Signing on Tuesday, October 13, 7:00 p.m.
Jimmy Carter Library & Museum at the Day Chapel

Max Cleland, former U.S. Senator and American war hero, lost both legs and his right arm when a grenade exploded during his service in Vietnam. Drawing on his own experience of pain, depression, and frustration, he rose up to accomplish significant improvements for veterans returning from war.

Cleland recounts his recovery from the scars of war, politics and depression. Following the attacks of 9/11, the onset of the Iraq war and the loss of his senate seat in 2002, Cleland "awash in all the old sensations of war," descended into a two-and-a-half-year depression. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, as events conspired to nearly replicate the effect of his combat experience in Vietnam, where an exploding grenade left him a triple amputee.

The son of a Navy veteran, a star at his small Georgia high school and a graduate of Stetson University, whose semester in Washington program cemented his interest in government and politics, Cleland managed to put together an outstanding public-service career after his return from war.

He was the youngest chief and first Vietnam veteran to head the Veterans Administration and became a U.S. senator in 1996-the author acknowledges that holding these positions gave him confidence and purpose, a way to cope with life after Vietnam. The loss of public office and a new war-one his senate vote, much to his regret, helped authorize-plunged him back into the darkness of loss: "lost legs, lost arm, lost youth, lost innocence, lost war."

Most of Cleland's animosity dates back to the 2002 re-election race, when Cleland was running for a second term. He compares the GOP tactics used against him to what Republicans did to John McCain in the 2000 South Carolina presidential primary. As to the infamous TV ad the GOP ran against Cleland, which featured pictures of the senator alongside photos of Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein, Cleland called it a "new low in national politics" and an "absolute distortion of reality."

Cleland's talk begins at 7 pm. A Cappella will have copies of Heart of a Patriot for sale at the Carter Center. A book signing will follow.

If you cannot attend the reading and would like to purchase a signed copy of Heart of a Patriot: How I Found the Courage to Survive Vietnam, Walter Reed and Karl Rove you may use the shopping cart below.

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