Liars never do.
Two weeks later, Williams reported, the two veterans squared off on the then popular "Dick Cavett show":
O’Neill: Mr. Kerry is the type of person who lives and survives only on the war weariness and fears of the American people. This is the same little man who, on nationwide television in April, spoke of, quote, "crimes committed on a day to day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."
Kerry: We believe as veterans who took part in this war we have nothing to gain by coming back here and talking about those things that have happened except to try and point the way to America, to try and say, here is where we went wrong, and we’ve got to change.
Later that year, even as the war continued, Kerry left the increasingly radical Vietnam Veterans Against the War. But the Nixon White House kept after John Kerry.
It’s said that when Kerry ran for Congress in 1972, as Haldeman had predicted, Nixon stayed up late on Election Night until he knew for sure that Kerry had been defeated.
To which I say: "I will too!"