John Kerry's anti-war past-Truth! and "Unproven!

John Kerry eRumors during the 2003/2004 Presidential Run-Truth! & Unproven!

Summary of the eRumor
A collection of various eRumors about John Kerry during the 2004 presidential season.

The Truth

John Kerry is a Vietnam Veteran-Truth!
According to Kerry's bio and published reports, he is a Yale grad who enlisted in the Navy and served in Vietnam earning the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts.

John Kerry was in Vietnam for only four months-Truth!

The eRumor, as indicated, is taken from a guest editorial by Vietnam veteran Terry Garlock that was published in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution on January 29, 2004.

Kerry became a vocal critic of the Vietnam war and his image as a boat commander who became a protester made him an anti-war celebrity.
He joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War

His 1971 book The New Soldier was a collection of his and other anti-war Vietnam veterans writings and pictures.
The book became best known, however, because of its cover.
It pictured an anti-Vietnam war protest with a American flag flying upside down.
Some felt it was mocking the famous picture of the raising of the flag my Marines at Iwo Jima during World War II.
During his unsuccessful run for Congress in 1972, critics accused him of having desecrated the flag with the book cover

Regarding Kerry's medals, there was an emotional ceremony on 23, 1971, in which about one thousand veterans who were against the Vietnam war shed their military medals by throwing them over a fence barricade onto the steps of the capitol building in Washington D.C.
One of them was John Kerry and it was thought that he had forsaken his Vietnam medals.
The 1988 issue of Current Biography Yearbook says that Kerry explained that the medals were not his but those of another veteran who asked him to throw them on his behalf.
Critics of John Kerry say he either created a false impression by throwing the borrowed medals or spent a long time letting a false impression remain before he admitted that he still had his medals.
Defenders say Kerry never misrepresented the medals because he did not claim that they were his and openly displays them in his office.

Regarding Kerry's allegedly publicly supporting the POWs in Vietnam being used as bargaining chips, we have not been able to find that reference.
If anybody knows what that is in reference to, let us know.

Last updated 2/4/04

A real example of the eRumor as it has appeared on the Internet:

Subject: John Kerry: an opinion

Another view of John Kerry and his post-Vietnam activities

http://www.ajc.com/opinion/content/opinion/0104/29garlock.html

An excerpt of Garlock's editorial which can be read in its entirety at the
web page above.

A young Kerry, however, broke faith with his brothers when he returned to
the United States. With the financial aid of Jane Fonda, he led highly
visible protests against the war. He wrote a book that many considered to
be pro-Hanoi, titled "The New Soldier."

The cover photo of his book depicted veterans in a mismatch of military
uniforms mocking the legendary image of Marines raising the American flag
atop Mount Suribachi in the 1945 battle for Iwo Jima, holding the American
flag upside down.

Kerry publicly supported Hanoi's position to use our POWs as a bargaining
chip in negotiations for a peace agreement.

Kerry threw what appeared to be his medals over a fence in front of the
Capitol building in protest, on camera of course, but was caught in his
lie
years later when his medals turned up displayed on his office wall.

Many good and decent people opposed the Vietnam War. Many of us who fought
it hated it, too. I know I did.

But like Fonda's infamous visit to Hanoi in 1972, Kerry's public actions
encouraged our enemy at a time they were killing America's sons. Decades
after the war was done, interviews with our former enemy's leaders
confirmed that public protests in the United States, like Kerry's, played
a
significant role in their strategy.

Many of us wonder which of our brothers who died young would be alive
today
had people like Fonda and Kerry objected to the war in a more suitable
way.