Reply #16: Senator Kerry and his friends spoke of this effort in 2006 [View All]

It was not being done just to defend Kerry in a future Presidential race, but because as one of his close life long friends was quoted as saying because that part of his life is very close to who he is - and he (and they) wanted the record 100% - or as close as they can get - proven. The SBVT were enabled by a shameless media to distort the Senator's very honorable service. More than most politicians, Kerry has lived a life where he has held himself to very high standards. His integrity and honor clearly are important to him. The friend quoted said that this effort would be done even if it were Kerry's decision to leave public life in 2008.

In 2004, it wasn't that Kerry did not respond - as he says here they thought the truth was out. In fact, had the media played even remotely fairly, it would have been. Kerry had 140 pages of Naval records on his web site - including fitness reports that spanned the interval he was in service. He had Brinkley's book over which he had no editorial control - Brinkley, an historian interviewed over 100 people including SBVT and their stories in 2004 were at variance with what they told Brinkley a few years before. Nixon had investigated him and found he was a clean war hero. All the guys in his boat when he got any of the medals were 100% behind him. Against this the SBVT had nothing, not one photo, message sent upwards complaining about Kerry - nothing. The media didn't even ask them when precisely many were in Vietnam - many had no overlap with Kerry.

This to me sounds as much like Kerry wanting to avoid the SBVT in the Senate campaign he is running - as well as to try to correct the record as much as he can. It has to be infuriating to see the AP always refer to the SBVT "questioning" Kerry's service. Nice way the Republican pay back a 25 year old kid with a wonderful future ahead of him, who risked losing his life. Kerry dated Jackie Kennedy's step sister a few years earlier and roomed with a nephew of the Bundys in the JFK/LBJ administrations, there is no question he had the contacts to get out of going to Vietnam.