Vets Miffed at Kerry
The Swift Boat Sailors held their reunion at the Sheraton Waterside Hotel in Norfolk, Va., over a recent weekend. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) was one of them, but his brief attendance, and his media entourage, left some of the other Vietnam vets complaining about the cynical use of the reunion for political gain.
Reunion organizers told us that Kerry’s office had called and asked permission for an unspecified “media event” at the reunion and were told no politics. Kerry, who skippered one of the 50-foot boats in Vietnam, and was wounded, showed up on the second day of the reunion accompanied by a camera crew from NBC’s “Today” show and a sympathetic reporter from The Boston Globe.
Some of the vets were annoyed, particularly because Kerry only stayed for part of a day, skipping the evening banquet and the next day’s ceremony commemorating the deaths of 51 Swift Boat Sailors in Vietnam. Kerry gave no speeches, but that wasn’t the point. He did wear a lapel mike for the NBC camera as the network taped him hugging fellow vets, which maybe was the point, at least in the minds of those unhappy about Kerry’s bringing the camera crew. Kerry “used us as political backdrop,” said a former commander of a swift boat, “and some guys didn’t like it.”
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