John Kerry Served in the U.S. Navy and is a Veteran of the Vietnam War...Kerry volunteered for the United States Navy after college and served from 1966 through 1970 rising to the rank of Lieutenant, Junior Grade. Kerry served two tours of duty in Vietnam--one tour as commander of a Navy Swift Boat in the Mekong Delta.
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I'm beginning to think Kerry's getting campaign advice from that guy who lied to his diary.
Kerry is a life member of the VFW, which he joined in 2001 per his Financial Disclosure Forms.
John Kerry has sometimes corrected media reports that he was Irish, but he has generated some, too. As Slate, the Boston Globe, and others have reported, Kerry is on record at least twice as maintaining his Celtic roots.
In a draft of prepared remarks reported in the Boston Globe, Kerry told a group in 1984: "As some of you may know, I am part-English and part-Irish. And when my Kerry ancestors first came over to Massachusetts from the old country to find work in the New World, it was my English ancestors who refused to hire them."
Then in 1986 on the floor of the Senate, John Kerry said, "For those of us who are fortunate to share an Irish ancestry, we take great pride in the contributions that Irish-Americans ..."
It's interesting that each of these events occurred relatively early in Kerry's career, at a time when ethnic voting patterns would be the most important to a candidate. It's also interesting that, in classic Kerry fashion, the senator claims they never happened.
His spokesperson says the quote from the Senate floor was in a written statement submitted for the record by a Kerry staffer but never read by Kerry. Kerry's staff also claims that Kerry rejected the "Luck O' the Irish" speech in 1984 as well. Gee, what a coincidence.
It also seems an odd coincidence that at least two of Kerry's staffers thought he was Irish, probably a good indicator of just how hard the senator was working to set the record straight. And not a single attendee of the traditional Southie's St. Patrick's Day political breakfast has yet to mention the year Kerry announced he was not part of the Celtic clan.
In a state where ethnic politics is key, such an overt admission could hardly be considered a winning strategy. And the evidence that Kerry pushed the false impression he was Irish is thin. Then again, so is any evidence that John Kerry has a coherent foreign policy, so perhaps that's just part of the Kerry English/Austrian/Jewish/French/African-American charm.