At the time, I had recently returned to civilian life after service with the Marine Corps in Vietnam. I was outraged and hurt by Kerry’s grandstanding falsehoods. I wrote a long letter of protest about it to the then editor of the New York Times op-ed page, Harrison Salisbury (a respected journalist and historian, and an opponent of the war). Mr. Salisbury edited my letter and published it as a New York Times op-ed on May 13, 1971. In it, I wrote: “…the overwhelming majority of Vietnam veterans and Americans bitterly resent the charge from the left that they are all war criminals….It is not a crime to be American and young, but it is if one adds to that ignorant, foolish or irrational dialogue as citizens of a democratic government. The antiwar veterans are not ignorant of the facts; they merely use them to form an army of young people marching to their drums, exploiting issues, fears and people for their own ends. That is the crime.”

I received supportive calls from many other Vietnam vets, saying let’s do more to clear our reputations. One of the callers was a Vietnam veteran who had been a river boat commander at about the same time as John Kerry, John O’Neill, who was to soon leave the Navy and who had been denied an opportunity by Senator Fulbright to rebut Kerry. Other Vietnam veterans represented hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans in student and local veterans clubs around the country. We formed the Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. I borrowed money for airline tickets, some double-up rooms at the YMCA in Washington, rented a space at the National Press Club, sent out amateurish press conference invitations and sat in a phone booth at the Y for 24-hours begging newspaper and TV reporters to come to our meeting on June 1, 1971. Many did. We received national press for our rebuttal to Kerry and his gang. John O’Neill effectively debated and rebutted Kerry on Dick Cavett’s late night TV show.

Kerry’s launching pad to a political career now has him contending for President. Kerry never recanted his slurs of 33-years ago. Instead, he asserts his military service makes him more qualified than President Bush to lead the nation in war. We, who proudly served must serve again, to demand honesty.

Kerry denies calling us war criminals. Kerry did, testifying before Congress in April 1971: “Several months ago in Detroit we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”

The publicity to Kerry’s charges permanently scarred the reputation of those who served in Vietnam. Studies statistically rebut his claim: American “atrocities” in Vietnam did not differ from any other American war. Yes, bad things happen in war, which is why we hate war. But, Kerry did not stop with that, then or now. Kerry accused all Americans who served in Vietnam of being war criminals, led by war criminals, and Kerry continues that lie. The U.S. prosecuted the exception of My Lai perpetrators, and has done so when atrocities have come to light.

Kerry’s fellow Vietnam Veterans Against the War, like the 150 he praised, refused to prove their claims attacking the honor of Vietnam veterans. Exhaustive studies exposed their stories as bogus, and many were imposters who had not served in Vietnam. Even Kerry’s favorable biographer recently said: “The chickens are coming home to roost, and unfortunately he is starting to backtrack.”

Kerry testified in 1971, “We are angry because we feel that we have been used in the worst fashion by the administration of this country.” In his testimony, Kerry boasted of meeting in Paris with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegations at the peace talks, and that he supported their proposals. It seems Kerry was more useful to our enemies than used by the U.S. administration. Former POW Senator McCain complained in 1973 that Kerry’s testimony was “the most effective propaganda [my North Vietnamese captors] had to use against us.” Senator McCain, a nice guy, has lately forgiven Kerry. What about other POW’s, like Paul Galanti who last February said that Kerry’s charges, repeated by his captors during his torture, “jeopardize[d] those still in battle or in the hands of the enemy.” Galanti went on to say, “The Vietnam memorial has thousands of additional names due to John Kerry and others like him.” Sydney Schanberg, exposer of Cambodia’s Killing Fields and critic of Bush, documents that in the early ‘90’s Kerry’s U.S. Senate special committee squelched evidence of POW’s not released by the North Vietnamese.

In April 2001, Kerry wrote, “We returned home to an America that was indifferent, even hostile. There were no parades, only nightmares.” Yet, Kerry takes no responsibility for creating a negative atmosphere against Vietnam veterans. The truth of how Vietnam veterans felt emerged from a comprehensive 1980 survey by the Veterans’ Administration which reported 91% of those who had seen combat in Vietnam were “glad they had served their country;” 80% disagreed with the statement that “the U.S. took advantage of me;” and nearly 2/3rds would go to Vietnam again, even knowing the outcome of the war. The overwhelming majority of Vietnam veterans are proud of their service, not of Kerry’s treachery and lies.