Tonight I watched John Kerry respond to John McCain's remark about bringing the troops home from Iraq. I was reminded that Kerry was a superb combat commander. Military records and eyewitness accounts show Kerry was courageous and effective under fire. The enlisted men on his boat spoke up for him, an officer, and that says it all (including what we should think about the lone dissenter). All of this and his record was trashed by other vets, mostly officers who weren't there when he did what he did. The swift-boating of John Kerry is one of the most shameful episodes in the history of US politics and it was all about getting revenge for Kerry bringing light to the fact that the US military in Vietnam was out of control(the result of being inserted into a bizarre world of death and horror). For their efforts, the swiftboaters got us another 4 years of Bush, Cheney, Rove, Gonzales, Rice et al.
Barack Obama often calls John McCain an authentic war hero. No one should question this and no one with any standing in the public eye is likely to. But, it is a bitter irony that GOP operatives were willing and able to irreparably damage the reputation of another authentic hero of the Vietnam War, John Kerry. Not only did the swiftboaters play a key role in Kerry's narrow defeat in the 2004 presidential election; they caused people to question the authenticity of a man who served with great distinction and then did his best to bring home the troops who were still being sacrificed in the hopelessly lost cause of Vietnam.
We often imagine how different things would be if the votes had been counted in Florida and Al Gore had been awarded the victory he earned but didn't receive. Just as President Al Gore would have responded more effectively to the terrorist threat than the Bush administration (one could scarcely have been less effective), President John Kerry would have been uniquely qualified to salvage the developing debacle in Iraq and refocus our attention on countering terrorism. Can we doubt that he would have the troops home by now? And well before running for President, Kerry had done extensive research on terrorist infrastructure and methods. He was and is an expert on national security and foreign policy. Instead of plunging ever deeper into polarization and paranoia, our world would already be much safer after 4 years of President Kerry.
I am a psychologist who has some 27 years of experience evaluating and providing psychological therapy for Vietnam veterans. Long ago I learned how to analyze military records to document combat experience and stress exposure in order to validate the self-reports of veterans. If the records indicate that the vet has lied or distorted the narrative, so be it. Having done my best to honor and serve those who served us, and hoping desperately that George W Bush would be defeated in his bid for reelection, I was acutely concerned about the swiftboat controversy as it unfolded. This led me to scour the internet for all relevant information that would shed light on what Sen. Kerry actually did in Vietnam. I also sought the reasons that Kerry was trailing Bush among veterans in the voting population.
Professional fact checking journalists came to the same conclusions I did about Kerry's combat record- he was a first-rate commander. An illustrative example of his intrepid leadership is well-documented: when fired at by hidden machinegunners from shore, Kerry on at least one occasion ran his boat straight into the enemy position on the riverbank and jumped out with an M-16 to assault the shocked unfriendlies. So why were his combat credentials questioned and why did many older veterans vote against him? The main reason few vets sprang to Kerry's defense when he came under an assault more vicious than the VC machine gunners on the riverbank was his testimony at the Winter Soldier hearings in April 1971. By this time, the majority of Americans who would serve in Vietnam had completed their tours and gone home (some in a freedom bird, the rest in aluminum boxes). Kerry realized the futility of further deaths and decided to work to bring everyone else home alive. He spoke up at Senate hearings about what our troops were doing, how their morale, unit cohesion, indeed moral compasses had broken down, in short, what a debacle Vietnam had turned into. Kerry's testimony helped achieve his goal of getting the troops home. History has proven something Vietnam vets already knew- Kerry was telling the truth. But his testimony also reinforced the false perception of many people that Vietnam vets were deranged "baby-killers" who had failed to uphold the standards of past generations of soldiers. Some Vietnam vets were subjected to harassment when they arrived at the major airports in the USA (the validity of reports of vets being spit upon have been questioned). Whether the spitting was literal or figurative, many quickly learned to hide their Vietnam service, honorable service to America given under incredibly trying conditions. It's hard today to imagine Americans demeaning our returning soldiers; but, many vets felt stigmatized and the effect was devastating. Kerry came to be a scapegoat to the Vietnam vet community for the disrespect they felt after their homecoming. The hard feelings persist to this day among some. When Kerry was nominated as the Democratic candidate, some of those veterans set up an ambush. They hatched a plot to spit on and yell at and harass Kerry, just as they were abused once upon a time. And so a hero's well-earned reputation was tarnished as payback for his efforts to save other young Americans from death and psychological wounding.
One of the Vietnam vets who stood up for Kerry was John McCain who had himself been the target of a similar smear campaign when running against Bush in the 2000 GOP primaries. To his credit, McCain called the swiftboat smear for what it was and asserted his belief in Kerry's valor under fire.
In light of the swiftboating of John Kerry, we should be mindful not to attack any veterans running for office on the basis of his or her honorable combat service. McCain doesn't want his military medical records released and we should respect that. We don't know why, perhaps McCain received psychiatric care for PTSD (I'm speculating here) but why shouldn't he, after all he went through? Many vets with PTSD function quite well in civilian life and no one would know they suffer inside when they are alone. Let's defeat McCain because of his commitment to the failed policies of George Bush, not because of the price McCain has paid as a veteran. Let's also make sure that no one is allowed to believe that John Kerry was anything less than an outstanding combat leader. After he fought for America, he told the truth in order to spare others that burden. Thirty years later, this cost him the opportunity to become POTUS and we lost the chance to terminate George W. Bush's lunatic administration before it could do further damage. Sen. Kerry was cheated in the court of public opinion and as Democrats, we should take every opportunity to assert the truth about his military service. Whether we are doves or hawks, war will not go away anytime soon. Even after we pull our troops out of Iraq, America will send sons and daughters into harm's way somewhere else in the world. We can only hope they are fortunate enough to be in a unit commanded by someone much like John Kerry.