On Sat, 6 Mar 2004 21:29:08 -0800, "Jik Bombo"
wrote:

Revealed: how 'war hero' Kerry tried to put off Vietnam military duty
By Charles Laurence in New York
(Filed: 07/03/2004)


Senator John Kerry, the presumed Democratic presidential candidate who is
trading on his Vietnam war record to campaign against President George W
Bush, tried to defer his military service for a year, according to a newly
rediscovered article in a Harvard University newspaper.

He wrote to his local recruitment board seeking permission to spend a
further 12 months studying in Paris, after completing his degree course at
Yale University in the mid-1960s.

The revelation appears to undercut Sen Kerry's carefully-cultivated image as
a man who willingly served his country in a dangerous war - in supposed
contrast to President Bush, who served in the Texas National Guard and thus
avoided being sent to Vietnam.

The Harvard Crimson newspaper followed a youthful Mr Kerry in Boston as he
campaigned for Congress for the first time in 1970. In the course of a
lengthy article, "John Kerry: A Navy Dove Runs for Congress", published on
February 18, the paper reported: "When he approached his draft board for
permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry
decided to enlist in the Navy."

Samuel Goldhaber, the article's author who is now a cardiologist attached to
the Harvard School of Medicine, spent 11 hours trailing Mr Kerry and still
remembers that the subject of the Paris deferment came up during long
conversations about Vietnam.

"I stand by my story," he told The Telegraph. "It was a long time ago, and I
was 19 at the time, so it is hard to remember every detail. But I do know
this: at no point did Kerry contact either me or the Crimson to dispute
anything I had written."

Sen Kerry's campaign headquarters in Washington refused an opportunity to
deny the report. Despite repeated telephone calls from The Telegraph, a
spokesman refused to comment. Another Democrat official said merely: "In
Vietnam, John Kerry proved his patriotism beyond question. Everyone knows
that."

A senior Republican strategist, who asked not to be named, said: "I've not
heard this before. This undercuts Kerry's complaints about Bush and it
continues to pose questions as to his credibility among ordinary Vietnam
veterans."

He said it would fuel concerns over the way Sen Kerry made a name for
himself by leading anti-war protests in Washington and Boston in the late
1960s and early 1970s after he had completed his service in the US Navy,
even while his former comrades continued to fight and die.

A newly-published biography of Sen Kerry by Douglas Brinkley, A Tour of
Duty, makes no mention of the requested deferment or planned year in Paris.
At the time, it was still unclear just how long America would remain in
Vietnam, and it might have seemed that a year's deferral of service could
render enlistment unnecessary.

According to the Democratic Party's version of Sen Kerry's military history,
he joined the Reserve Officer Training Corps at Harvard through eagerness to
do his duty, and sailed with the Navy for combat as soon as he graduated in
1966.

Sen Kerry won a gallantry medal for his service as a gunboat captain on the
Mekong Delta, and was honorably discharged with three "purple heart" medals
after sustaining three wounds. He has consistently presented himself as a
leader who argued against the war only after fulfilling his duty in the
field. Supporters argue that his war record makes him a more trustworthy
leader than President Bush, who served sporadically in the National Guard at
home.

"This means that Kerry didn't jump into all that heroic service until he was
pushed, and it is a very nice piece of information," said Lucianne Goldberg,
a prominent Republican campaigner.

Republican strategists for President Bush were already investigating Sen
Kerry's record of three wounds sustained in Vietnam. "We find that he had
only one day off sick - with three wounds? What exactly were these wounds?"
she asked.

Mr Goldhaber recalled that, during a day spent with Sen Kerry and one
assistant during his congressional campaign, he had described his
involvement, service and decision to oppose the war in great detail.

"I am not at all surprised that he wants to be president, because he exuded
ambition from the word go," said Dr Goldhaber. "At the time, the idea that
he tried to persuade the draft board to let him spend a year in Paris was
just a detail."

A spokesman for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign declined to comment.


Thanks, Jik. I think Kerry is keeping his service record hidden with
good reason. I too would like to see the medical records for his three
purple heart wounds. It's sounding more and more like Kerry had a
commander who wanted to inflate the perception of his unit by giving
medals away.

John H

On the 'Poco Loco' out of Deale, MD
on the beautiful Chesapeake Bay!