Sorry- just to clarify, this was a response to BillyPilgrim84 and not Turtler.

Not sure what being a war veteran has with being a good historian. Ed Wood was a heroic WWII marine, but a lousy filmmaker. Admiral Stockdale was a herioic Vietnam veteran, but no great shakes as a VP candidate. I don't mind a bit of iconoclasm- I've written extensively of Henry Ford's unfortunate streak of anti-semitism, for example. But Zinn's histories are selective, ham fisted farces that are low on nuance or balance and high on propaganda. To call some of his sources questionable is being generous. For example, using David Irving as a source on WWII is probably not the best idea, considering his infamous Holocaust denials (but, hey, so long as he's trashing the US I guess he's ok for old Howard).
As for Matt Damon, I think he's still trying to make amends to his demagogue for starring in "Saving Private Ryan." Zinn wrote an article called "Private Ryan Saves War" which trashes that movie pretty thoroughly and which compares Steven Spielberg with Henry Kissinger (!). Hard to believe people take this guy seriously.