Note my highlighting in bold.
THE LATEST SMEAR: The New York Sun has a story that in November 1971, at a national meeting of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, one member of the group [Scott Camil, who was later arrested and tried as part of the so-called "Gainesville 8."] proposed a scheme to assassinate a group of United States Senators.
Kerry, according to differing accounts, either resigned from VVAW AT that metering, or shortly before that meeting.
According to Douglas Brinkley, Kerry resigned before the meeting. Brinkley says he sent a resignation letter dated November 10, 1971 (two days before the start f the meeting), but couldn't locate it.
A search of the VVAW archives located at the Wisconsin Historical Society in Madison, has not produce the letter either. Although the records are extensive, and it could be in there somewhere.
For the record, the assassination scheme was overwhelmingly rejected by VVAW at that meeting.
Full disclosure: I knew about this issue for a few weeks. There is a discussion of it in Winter Soldiers: An Oral History of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, by Richard Satcewicz via Twayne Publishing's Oral History Series, vol. 26. (1997).
That is one of the reasons I wanted someone from Madison to check the VVAW archives. Kerry had nothing to do with this plot, and in fact by all accounts either was unaware of it, or opposed it outright. But it is relevant if this is one of the principal reasons he resigned from the organization.
Here's what Winter Soldiers: An Oral History . . ." says about the incident:
"[Terry DuBose]: The Kansas City meeting was the beginning of the end for me. After the Dewy Canyon II [The VVAW's successful march on Washington] thing, the media attention became so intense [and] we were getting so many members that it got to the point where all we were doing was compiling a membership list. There was a practical discussion that developed in the organization about what was more important, using energy to build a membership or spending energy to do anything that would protest the war. It was turning into this bureaucracy of building membership lists and keeping records. It felt like we weren't protesting anymore.
That was also where there was actually some discussion of assassinating some senators during the Christmas holidays. They were people who I knew from the organization with hotheaded rhetoric.
They had a list of six senators . . . Helms, John Tower, and I can't remember the others, who they wanted to assassinate when they adjourned for Christmas. They were the ones voting to fund the war. They approached me about assassinating John Tower because he was from Texas. The logic made a certain amount of sense [Ed. Not in my mind, just to make that clear -- Hesiod] because there's thousands of people dying in southeast Asia. We can shoot these six people and probably stop it. Some of us were willing to sabotage materials, but when it came to people...I mean, there were a lot of angry people. They had been in Vietnam, they had lost friends. This had gone on for years; some of them had been protesting for five or six years. They were cynical, nihilistic, and some of them did talk real tough rhetoric. But nobody ever got shot by any of these people. It was just talk.
When I got back from that meeting, I couldn't get up the enthusiasm anymore." Winter Soldiers: An Oral History . . . at p. 294-5.
The book goes on to note, via the editor, that "[t]he meeting in Kansas City brought in a new steering committee . . . ." And that John Kerry, among others, "resigned from their leadership positions and were replaced by several new members." Id at 295.
There is some indication in the oral history that Kerry and Al Hubbard were having a major conflict and that the Kansas City meeting was called as an "emergency" to hash that all out.
In any event, I want to find out as much as I can and give you the information.