Kerry's '72 Army Comments Mirror Latest


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Nov 2, 3:12 AM (ET)

By JOHN SOLOMON

(AP) John Kerry, Democratic congressional campaigner in
the Fifth District, speaks at a news conference...
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WASHINGTON (AP) - During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades ago,
John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be dominated by
the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone to "the
perpetuation of war crimes."

Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran who turned against the war, made the
observations in answers to a 1972 candidate questionnaire from a
Massachusetts peace group.

After Kerry caused a firestorm this week with what he termed a botched
campaign joke that Republicans said insulted current soldiers, The
Associated Press was alerted to the historical comments by a former law
enforcement official who monitored 1970s anti-war activities

Kerry apologized Wednesday for the 2006 campaign trail gaffe that some took
as suggesting U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq were undereducated. He
contended the remark was aimed at Bush, not the soldiers.

In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his comments
about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the questionnaire that
he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army "a greater anathema."

"I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the black
and the brown," Kerry wrote. "We must not repeat the travesty of the
inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a professional army
that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply 'doing its job.'

"Equally as important, a volunteer army with our present constitutional
crisis takes accountability away from the president and put the people
further from control over military activities," he wrote.

Kerry's spokesman, David Wade, said Wednesday the historical document needed
to be viewed in the era in which it was written but that it nonetheless
raised a "bedrock question in a time of war when sacrifice should be shared
by all Americans."

"These are the words 34 years ago of a 28-year-old veteran home from a war
gone wrong, wondering who in America will bear the cost of battle and
shoulder the responsibility of military service," Wade said.

Kerry filled out the candidate questionnaire at the request of Massachusetts
Political Action for Peace, an anti-war group that decades later turned over
its historical documents to university researchers.

AP obtained the document from someone who gathered it from archives during
Kerry's unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign against President Bush.
Republicans in that election relentlessly assailed Kerry's role in the
anti-war movement decades earlier.

Kerry and Bush renewed their rivalry again this week, with the president
accusing Kerry of offending troops. Kerry said he botched the text of a joke
and didn't mean to insult troops.

On Wednesday, Kerry canceled campaign appearance on behalf of Democratic
congressional candidates and issued an apology.