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Politics : Don't Blame Me, I Voted For Kerry -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: ChinuSFO who wrote (417)	1/31/2004 11:12:43 AM
From: American Spirit	Respond to of 81568

Veterans add power to Kerry's drive By Scot Lehigh, 1/30/2004 IF THERE'S ONE single experience that defines John Kerry in all his complexity, it's his military service in Vietnam. ADVERTISEMENT That experience has shaped and sustained Kerry over more than three decades, casting him as a figure of courage and controversy. His days as the captain of a swift boat in Vietnam's Mekong Delta won him a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, three Purple Hearts -- and a rock-ribbed reputation for bravery. His role as a war hero who became one of the leaders of Vietnam Veterans Against the War brought him to national prominence and put him at the center of a raging debate. His antiwar activities led to his April 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, in which a young Kerry posed his famous question: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" When he ran for Congress in 1972, Kerry was pilloried for his antiwar politics by The Lowell Sun's conservative editorial page. Friends from that era say Kerry emerged from the disappointment of that loss resolved never again to let anyone else define the terms of his military service. That resolution may just have been responsible for his election to the US Senate. In 1984, when then congressman Jim Shannon equated Kerry's change of heart on Vietnam to an issues flip-flop, Kerry used the remark to energize veterans on his behalf, overtaking Shannon in the closing days of the tight Senate primary. In 1996, with Kerry confronting a surging William Weld in the last weeks of their epic Senate race, Vietnam again became a pivotal issue. Kerry, facing embarrassing queries about the discount lodging he had once accepted from wealthy friends with interests in Washington, suddenly found himself the subject of a Boston Globe column that suggested, without credible basis, that he might have committed a war crime when he shot an enemy soldier in Vietnam. Kerry rallied outraged veterans to defend his honor -- and in so doing, left the questions about his cut-rate lodgings behind. Nightmares about his days in combat continued to disturb Kerry's sleep decades later. But his wartime experience has also given him emotional sustenance, for his connection with fellow veterans is deep and real, the gut-level affinity of those who have shared the perils of war. And now, as he runs for president, Kerry's status as a veteran has become a remarkable asset, one that could help blunt the automatic assumption of liberalism conjured up by a Massachusetts ZIP code. It has provided dramatic moments, like the tearful Iowa reunion with James Rassmann, the soldier Kerry plucked from the Bay Hap River while under fire in 1969. It's no coincidence that the senator's most powerful television ad, shown in both Iowa and New Hampshire, features footage of a young Kerry toting a rifle in Vietnam while crew member Del Sandusky praises his courage and leadership. (The Kerry campaign is running a version of that spot in the Feb. 3 states.) When Kerry celebrated his victory in New Hampshire on Tuesday night, a political platoon of fellow veterans stood with him. "We're a little older and a little grayer, but I'll tell you this: We still know how to fight for our country," Kerry said. And for their candidate. In Iowa, a group of 100 or so mostly Vietnam veterans made thousands of calls to other vets on Kerry's behalf. In New Hampshire, veterans from 26 states came to do the same. Kerry connects with veterans on several levels, says fellow Vietnam veteran John Hurley, who has known Kerry since his short-lived campaign for Congress in 1970 and who now volunteers as the national director of Veterans for Kerry. Many are deeply appreciative that he gave voice to their own doubts about Vietnam. And, Hurley adds, veterans feel a particular camaraderie with Kerry because, as a small unit commander, he lived with his crew, facing the war's daily dangers with them. Which is not to say they are with him on every issue. Some, Hurley acknowledges, were upset by the senator's vote authorizing war with Iraq. "They say, `I disagree with him on Iraq, but we want a vet in the White House, and he is my guy.' " There's no doubt that by highlighting their guy's wartime courage and underscoring the bond veterans feel with him -- a bond Republican candidates more often enjoy -- Kerry's brigades are brightening his prospects of arriving there.