About Kerry's history as an anti war protestor: He was against the war when he was facing the draft as spoke out at Yale. Rather than serve in the Army or Marines during the time of a ground war he somehow got into the Navy. I suspect that he had some pull from some powerful pol--perhaps the records will show that if they are ever released. In the Navy he avoided combat at least until after the swift boats were moved (by Zumwalt) to patroling the Mekong instead of patroling offshore.
I suspect that the Navy helped Kerry fudge the 3 purple hearts to get rid of him without clashing with whomever helped Kerry get in to the USN.
When Kerry got back to the States he tried to run for office as a war hero. He was defeated in the primaary by Father Drinan who was running strongly anti-war, and only then did Kerry go back to being anti-war--after losing that is.
Pure opportunist. No core beliefs. If he is elected we have no idea which part of the electorate he will betray. The hollywood idiots and the college intellectuals believe he will betray the "lower order that he needs votes from" before he would betray them. He may well betray his country.
...and spoke out at Yale.
I remember how hard it was to get into the Navy in the 60's. A lot of my classmates tried and failed. (born in 1945)
I would appreciate any information that anyone has about Kerry's first try at election. I have a couple of Boston Globe articles and the recollections of my sister who lived in Mass at the time, but the facts and memories of this time are smeary with age.