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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: LindyBill who wrote (42475)	5/6/2004 6:58:37 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793838

"It's 1971, Kansas City!" The New York Times is finally on the story. May 6, 2004 F.B.I. Papers Describe Role of Young Kerry Against War By TODD S. PURDUM - NYT WASHINGTON, May 5 — A confidential F.B.I. memorandum dated April 29, 1971, on a just-concluded antiwar march on Washington by Vietnam Veterans Against the War concluded that the group's nominal leaders had been overshadowed by "a more popular and eloquent figure, John Kerry," who was "glib, cool and displayed best what the moderate elements wanted to reflect." One version or another of that assessment of the young Mr. Kerry is echoed repeatedly among 20,000 pages of once-secret F.B.I. files, released on Wednesday in response to Freedom of Information Act requests from news organizations. A memorandum from November 1971 notes that Mr. Kerry told students at the University of Oklahoma that members of the veterans' group "are against any type of violence." In all, the raw files — a mix of unsubstantiated tips from informers, newspaper clips and surveillance by F.B.I. agents — paint a portrait of extensive government scrutiny of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which Mr. Kerry served as a prominent spokesman for much of 1971. His involvement with the group catapulted him to national attention and drew wide praise, but also sharp criticism that dogs him to this day, for his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee citing atrocities by American soldiers in Vietnam. Days after the Oklahoma report, the office of the F.B.I. director, J. Edgar Hoover, sent what appears to be a "priority" telex message to President Richard M. Nixon, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and other top officials including the secretary of state and director of central intelligence. It reported that a "confidential source" advised that at a Nov. 12, 1971, meeting of the steering committee of the veterans' group in Kansas City, Mo., Mr. Kerry "announced to those present that he was resigning from the executive committee for personal reasons; however he would be available to speak for V.V.A.W." Mr. Kerry has said he has no memory of attending the Kansas City meeting — a multiday affair at which a proposal to kill American politicians who supported the war was discussed — but does not dispute that he might have been there. Some other veterans who were there have said they do not recall Mr. Kerry being present when the proposal was voted on, and the heavily edited F.B.I. files released here appear to make no direct mention of the assassination idea, except to note reports of "drastically increased militant posture of V.V.A.W. of considerable concern to internal security interests of U.S." Another F.B.I. memorandum from the period states only that during the Kansas City meeting, "it was learned that John Kerry and two others had resigned." A spokesman for Mr. Kerry's presidential campaign, David Wade, said that information in the files left Mr. Kerry "proud that he stood up to the Nixon administration out of conviction and conscience and helped veterans end a policy that was costing his fellow soldiers their lives in Vietnam, and that the veterans' movement also led the fight for Vietnam veterans abandoned here at home." Not everyone in the antiwar movement agreed with Mr. Kerry's approach at the time, however, and he was often faulted by other members of Vietnam Veterans Against the War as being too moderate. A memorandum from Nov. 10, 1971, citing a confidential source, reports that the Buffalo chapter of of the veterans' group decided to write a letter to the national organization "condemning John Kerry because of his family background and because of his political aspirations." The source said the Buffalo group "feels that Kerry is in support of the U.S. government and is only using V.V.A.W. to further his political desires." David E. Rosenbaum and David Stout contributed reporting for this article. Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company