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<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nA number of people have been sending links to The Spectator<\/a>‘s article exposing historian and author William Manchester’s embellishment of his career in the Marine Corps, especially his participation in the battle for Okinawa. It’s a very long article and compares his own published writings to the letters he sent his mother during the battle and official Marine Corps records.<\/p>\n It seems that he claimed the Navy Cross, the Silver Star, and two Purple Hearts, one Purple Heart for some minor injuries being the only verifiable award. He also boasted about the size of his maleness, while complaining about his overall size, which might explain the reason that he felt a need to embellish his exploits as a cartographer on the commander’s staff, far from the action. Apparently, the Marine Corps disapproved his application to be an officer because of his size (overall).<\/p>\n Manchester wrote such blockbusters as The Death of a President, The Glory and the Dream, and a trilogy on Winston Churchill. He did not serve as valedictorian at the University of Massachusetts. He did not win the Navy Cross. He did not rate a Silver Star. He did not receive two Purple Hearts.<\/p>\n The lists of Silver Star and Navy Cross recipients maintained by the Department of Defense omit Manchester\u2019s name. His 199-page service record, obtained by The American Spectator, contains no mention of the Marine-turned-historian receiving two of the most prestigious awards given for combat valor. In the decades immediately following the war, Manchester not only never made such claims about his wartime heroism, but when noting the honors he did receive excluded any mention of a second Purple Heart, a Silver Star, and a Navy Cross.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n