He failed to come up with a credible excuse for a draft deferment. Service seemed inevitable. He then took an alternative offered by the parental generation: The US Navy. The worst likely outcome for a Navy man was said to be daily showers, three square meals a day and no wallowing in jungles with snakes or being attacked by the VC or NVA. He did not consider being assigned to the river war which was outrageously dangerous and riddled with casualties.
BUT Kerry had done his homework and learned the vital information that 1) Three Purple Hearts would send him on a one-way trip home to the US and 2) Virtually any injury (no matter how minor) would qualify for the Purple Heart. So Kerry got a sliver of wood in a finger, a tiny piece of wire in a finger (the sort of injuries he could have received at summer camp as a child while row boating) and I forget what his third injury was but you can take it to the bank that it cost him nothing more than a quick trip to a doctor to document it for his trip home.
Then, Traitor John Kerry did at least two more things. He donned his naval officer's uniform and headed for the comic/tragedy opera "Paris Peace Talks" most of which were a stalling action by the communists to allow further demoralization of impatient and ignorant US public opinion. The big topic of discussion was whether the delegates to the talks should be seated at a round or square conference table. Kerry who had no official role spent his time in Paris yukking it up with and giving aid and encouragement and comfort to his comrades and heroes in the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese communist delegations over the victory that Nixon had decided to give them by even having such talks rather than relentlessly bombing the enemy back to the Stone Age. Second, Kerry returned to the US to form the "Vietnam Veterans Against the War" as a political vehicle to cooperate with the likes of Jane Fonda and lie to Congress.
Shimon Peres should feel a sense of shame that Traitor John chose Shimon Peres to persuade to agree to the destruction of the State of Israel and the relocation or mass murder of her people. Maybe Bibi Netanyahu should publicly invite Traitor John to join him on a hunting trip. If Kerry agreed, I bet Bibi would know what to do with that opportunity and that diplomacy would be low on the list.
@BlackElk:
Good reminder of the character of the fiction author, John Le Kerry; Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy.
If I recall correctly, it was grains of rice in his posterior caused when he threw a grenade into a sampan with rice bags.
Peres and Kerry, two grains in a sampan together like peas in a pod. Only people who live the evil inclination are more numerous than peas in a pea pod.