[Soliton]

The book doesn't say. The point is that Zumwalt didn't wait to see if congress would approve it. He was pushing Kerry's reputation.

[randog]

There's been some speculation on just who wrote up Kerry's medal requests/recommendations/whatever they're called. Some are saying that it was Kerry himself, but I've never seen anything to confirm that. I'm interested in finding out because it looks like Kerry was an anti-war activist first and a Vietnam soldier second, i.e. he just went to Nam to gain 'street cred' to further his career as an activist.