I cannot judge how Kerry performed in Vietnam.
I can, however, judge how he "performed" when he returned. That is what the whole country should judge him by.
Just watch his 1971 Congressional testimony.
Talk to some of the returning Vets. Ask them how they were made to feel on their return from Vietnam. Ask what it felt like to be spit on, called baby killers.
Talk to some of the POW's that had Kerry's words read to them by the North Vietnamese. That's what I judge Kerry on.
Kerry is why our POW's were not accorded the rights of the Geneva Convention.
The North Vietnamese used Kerry's words to show that they were war criminals, and not POWs.
He was 27 years old -- a man -- when he testifed about events in Vietnam. They were not the ramblings of a "misguided youth".
My first Chief was a Swift Boat vet before he converted from Gunner to an ET. I remember him telling us one day at quarters that he went home after serving 2 tours in Viet Nam and his sister's first words out of her mouth to him were "baby killer". He spent the rest of his career overseas in Japan and after 30 years retired. He never went back to the states.