John Kerry - War Protester - (Part 1 of 3)

Kerry returned from Vietnam in late 1969. The decorated war veteran was confused, angry, and uncertain about his future. "I just came back really concerned about the war and upset about it and angry about it. It took me a little while to decompress. I saw someone who said, 'What happen to you? Your eyes are sunk way back in your head.' The tension and trauma in your life took its toll," Kerry said. Kerry took on a assignment as a aide to Admiral Walter F. Schlech Jr.

At the time, the country's troop strength in Vietnam was at its height of 554,000 with 33,400 Americans dead. Protests were surging, but Kerry, was still a naval officer, stayed on the sidelines until his sister helped introduce him to the antiwar movement.

Peggy Kerry was working in the New York office of a Vietnam war protest group. One of the groups leaders, Adam Walinsky a former speech writer for Robert Kennedy, said he needed a pilot and a small plane travel around the state and deliver speeches. Did anyone know a pilot? Peggy volunteered John.

On Oct.15 Kerry was drafted into service, flying Walinsky around New York in a small private plane. He did not wear his uniform or speak at any of the events but the experience drew him toward the desire to help the antiwar movement.

Kerry was at one of the rallies in Washington in Nov. Also there was the widow of Don Droz who skippered the swift boat that provided cover for Kerry on his Silver Star day. Droz had been killed two weeks after Kerry left Vietnam. Cradling their ten month old daughter in her arms, twenty three year old Judy Droz led a procession in which she placed a placard on her husband's coffin. "To many people are suffering what I am suffering and to many children will have to suffer what my daughter will suffer," she told the crowd.

On Jan 3,1970 Kerry formally asked Schlech to grant him an early discharge so that he run for Congress on an antiwar platform. "I just said to the admiral, 'I've got to get out. I've got to get out so I can do what I came back here to do, which is end this thing,'" Kerry recalled. The request was approved and Kerry was honorably discharged.

During Labor Day weekend 1970, Kerry gave his first widely noticed antiwar speech. Outside Massachusetts, joining other members of a fledging group called Vietnam Veteran Against the War at a rally at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania. One of the first to speak was Jane Fonda, the actress and antiwar activist who at the time was raising money for VVAW investigations. Kerry was the last the last to speak. Kerry's words deeply impressed Fonda and others. "I remember thinking, WOW!, this man is a real leader, a Lincolnesque kind of leader," Fonda recalled in a 2004 interview. She liked his literary style of speaking and thought he was a moderating influence compared to some veterans that came across as radicals.

Fonda had been speaking at around the country, collecting $2000 for each of the twenty, four hour speeches, she gave all the money to the VVAW for an investigation into the U.S. war atrocities called the Winter Soldier hearings, which were held in Detroit for three days in Jan.1971. Kerry and Fonda were both there. Kerry, for his part, did not make a public statement but instead was there listening to the gruesome testimony of 150 veterans.

Some of the most graphic testimony came from Sergeant Scott Camil, who described a horrific series of beheadings and other atrocities. "Two people had their heads cut off and put on stakes and stuck in the middle of the field," Camil testified, "The way that we distinguished between civilians and VC, VC had weapons and civilians didn't and anybody that was dead was considered VC. When we went through villages and searched people, the women would have their clothes taken off and the men would use their penises to probe them to make sure they didn't have anything hidden anywhere and this was raping but it was done as searching," Camil said. The event was quickly made into a film, The Winter Soldier, which briefly shows Kerry talking to some veterans.

Kerry not only believed his fellow veterans, but he based his his Senate testimony on their statements. "It really rocked him" Fonda said of the impact of the testimony from the soldiers on Kerry. Fonda said "there was a tremendous amount of sadness that the hearings didn't get more media coverage, and it was Kerry who suggested that the effort essentially be moved to Washington and brought before Congress. That was when John took over leadership."

"I was upset. These were heartfelt stories. I thought there was legitimacy to the testimony," Kerry said. So Kerry organized a march on Washington. "That was when we basically decided to go to Washington because I felt Detroit wasn't the right venue.... My sense was that the issue wasn't going to be heard unless we went to a place where the issue was joined. It was my idea to come to Washington it was my idea to do the march," Kerry said.

Still when Kerry arrived in Washington the week of April 18,1971 he was mostly unknown. Indeed, the new issue of Life magazine featured a cover picture of Fonda, with the title: "Busy Rebel, Jane Fonda, Pusher of Causes." Nowhere in the Life story about the antiwar movement was Kerry's name mentioned. But he was to become the face of the organization and media sensation, eclipsing Fonda from the limelight. One of the first tasks was to raise money to pay for buses to transport the veterans He called his friend Walinsky who run unsuccessfully from New York attorney general and had excellent financial connections, Walinsky arranged a meeting of potential donors at the Seagram Building in New York. Kerry delivered a speech about the importance of having veterans attend the protest. They raised $50,000.00 in a hour.

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All famous April 1971

That was the most famous pic of the whole event. He looks so pensive and young. (And what a head of long sixties-ish style hair.) I just love that look in his eyes, so attentive, and yet distant.

Very inspiring. I dig the armhair.

or else very little. And still gave the knock-out speech of his life. :loveya:

He actually had some of the shortest hair among the VVAW and that was one reason why he became their leader. He was so cleancut and well-spoken.