Inflammatory portions of Jean Chretien's new book are simply "pouring salt" into the wounds of an already-hurting Liberal party, according to a former Liberal strategist.

"This is just going to further exacerbate the tensions, the bloodletting, in the party," Ray Heard, the communication director for John Turner while he was prime minister, told CTV's Mike Duffy on Monday.

"If I was Stephen Harper I would be so happy, on the eve of the throne speech, to see the Liberals once again committing hara-kari."

The new memoir, entitled "My Years as Prime Minister," refers to Chretien-successor Paul Martin's inner circle as "self-serving goons," blames him for putting Canadian soldiers in the most volatile region of Afghanistan and claims Martin got too much credit for cutting the deficit.

Heard accused Chretien of juvenile politicking, saying his memoir was written in the "rhetoric of the gutter."

"This is not healing wounds -- it's pouring salt in it. And it's in character for Mr. Chretien."

Heard pointed to Chretien's claim that Martin sent Canadian forces to 'the killing fields around Kandahar" - a reference to the Pol Pot regime's slaughter of an estimated one million civilians in Cambodia during the 1970s.

He said the families of soldiers who have died in Afghanistan have every reason to be upset at the connection being made.

"I don't know how a former prime minister of Canada could ever publicly use the term 'the killing fields,'" Heard said.

Biographer surprised by words

Lawrence Martin, a journalist and biographer on Chretien said he was surprised by Chretien's choice of words surrounding Martin.

"I thought there might have been a little more statesmanship, but I guess we must remember this is the little slugger from Shawinigan, after all, and the guy who always gets his man," he told CTV's Canada AM on Monday.

"He's obviously harboured these bitter animosities in regard to what happened. Paul Martin hounding him out of office, Paul Martin's handling of the sponsorship scandal, in calling that inquiry, which really put Mr. Chretien on the spot, under a cloud."

But Martin also warned that some of Chretien's controversial remarks in the book threaten to overshadow the entire work, and could give people a false impression of what it is all about.

Peter Donolo, the former director of communications for the Chretien government, said the book was a "fascinating account" of his time in office, not a direct attack on Paul Martin's government.

"Obviously he's going to tell events from his point of view," he told CTV's Mike Duffy.

Liberal Senator Jim Munson, a former communications adviser to Chretien, said his former boss still knows how to make headlines and isn't afraid of controversy. But he said he agrees Chretien's book is simply an attempt at honesty.

"I think from his perspective, he wants the record straight and straight from his own heart of what he feels happened at that particular time," Munson told Canada AM.

Martin's supporters have refused to respond to Chretien's statements in the book, claiming they threaten party unity.

But Munson denied that Chretien is opening up old wounds at a time when the Liberal Party is already fractured over Stephane Dion's leadership. In fact, he said the book paints an enlightening and flattering picture of Dion, and takes readers inside the Prime Minister's Office.

"I don't think it opens up old wounds. I think we move on," Munson said.

"There's lots in this book, by the way, about Stephane Dion. People say they don't know Stephane Dion -- take a look at Stephane Dion and the Clarity Act and keeping this country together... Mr. Chretien takes you into, in fact, the bedroom of the nation at 24 Sussex. There's the Iraq war, there's the Clarity Act, there's the referendum, and there are issues in this book where in his folksy manner Mr. Chretien tells it like it is."

Chretien had kind words in his memoirs for Dion, whom he tapped to lead his government's national unity effort in the post-referendum period.

However, had former Ontario NDP Leader Bob Rae joined the Liberal Party in 2000 when Chretien tried to recruit him, he says, Rae would probably be party leader today.