John Kerry's time in Vietnam should not be the central issue of the 2004 Presidential race, even though Kerry decided to tout it as his main -- perhaps only -- qualification for office. His running mate, John Edwards, told prospective voters, "If you have any questions about what John Kerry's made of, just spend three minutes with the men who served with him." Kerry's four months in Vietnam ended thirty-five years ago; a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then. Doesn't he have any more recent acquaintances who could vouch for his character? Personally, I'd like to hear more about the people he spent time with when he returned from Vietnam. Although Kerry would have us believe that the period between his Vietnam days and the present time -- or at least his election to the Senate -- was more or less an empty void, that's not the truth.

When Kerry returned home from Vietnam, his sister recruited him to fly protester (and advisor to Ted Kennedy) Adam Walinsky around to give speeches against the war. Kerry requested an early out from the Navy in order to run for Congress on an anti-war platform, and was transferred to the Naval Reserve six months early. An article in the Harvard Crimson at the time stated that he was against the war even before he went to Vietnam. "At Yale, Kerry was chairman of the Political Union and later, as Commencement speaker, urged the United States to withdraw from Vietnam and to scale down foreign military operations. And this was way back in 1966." Kerry was quoted as saying that the United Nations should have control over most of America's foreign military operations. "I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations," he said. He was also quoted saying that he wanted "to almost eliminate CIA activity."

He didn't get the 1970 Democratic nomination for Congress. Instead, Kerry got more deeply involved in the anti-war movement. Kerry joined the VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against the War) in June 1970, and quickly rose to become the group's national spokesman. He attended protest rallies all over the country, including the infamous Valley Forge rally (at which Jane Fonda spoke) and a staged "occupation" of Washington DC in April 1971, during which Kerry threw his medals, or his ribbons, or possibly someone else's medals or ribbons over the Capitol Building fence. (Even now, no one has been able to get a straight answer out of Kerry.) The VVAW marched through towns, passing out flyers saying:

A U.S. INFANTRY COMPANY JUST CAME THROUGH HERE!

If you had been Vietnamese---

We might have burned your house
We might have shot your dog
We might have shot you...
We might have raped your wife and daughter
We might have turned you over to your government for torture
We might have taken souvenirs from your property
We might have shot things up a bit...
We might have done all these things to you and your whole TOWN!

If it doesn’t bother you that American soldiers do these things every day to the Vietnamese simply because they are "Gooks," then picture YOURSELF as one of the silent VICTIMS.

Help us end the war before they turn your son into a butcher or a corpse.

Although Vietnam veterans and anyone who supports and honors our troops may feel slighted and even angered by Kerry's characterisation of them, his First Amendment rights protected all of this. He had the right to say anything he wanted to, lies or not. But this was not all that Kerry did.

Kerry and Jane Fonda were both in Detroit in January 1971 at the "Winter Soldier Investigation," financed by Fonda. They recorded testimony from supposed disgruntled Vietnam veterans about atrocities and war crimes... testimony that turns out to have been largely false. According to Mackubin Thomas Owens, Vietnam veteran and professor at the Naval War College, the Naval Investigative Service "discovered that some of the most grisly testimony was given by fake witnesses who had appropriated the names of real Vietnam veterans." Among others, Al Hubbard, Kerry's partner in the VVAW, was in fact lying about his rank and service in Vietnam. When John Kerry testified before the US Senate in April 1971, he was acting in his capacity as spokesman for the VVAW. Kerry accused all American soldiers of war crimes, and the United States government of full knowledge of them. Kerry claimed that atrocities were "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." Tapes of Kerry's speech were played over and over for American prisoners of war in Hanoi, as they were tortured to make them confess to war crimes they never committed -- the atrocities Kerry accused them of committing.

That's giving aid and comfort to the enemy, defined as treason in the Constitution (Article III, Section 3). The penalty for treason is defined in the United States Code of Law (Title 18, Part I, Chapter 115, Section 2381). "Whoever, owing allegiance to the United States, levies war against them or adheres to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort within the United States or elsewhere, is guilty of treason and shall suffer death, or shall be imprisoned not less than five years and fined under this title but not less than $10,000; and shall be incapable of holding any office under the United States."

Kerry also admitted to committing atrocities himself. On Meet The Press in April 1971, Kerry attempted to absolve himself of the responsibility for what he had done, accusing the government of the United States of forcing him to commit war crimes. Kerry did not mention whether he was alone when he performed the acts he confessed to:

I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free-fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50-caliber machine guns which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search-and-destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare. All of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down.

It sounds as though the only person Kerry can be certain was razing villages "in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan" was Kerry himself. Despite his confession on national television, Kerry was never brought before a court-martial. Note that a "free-fire zone" is not an order to "shoot anything that moves," but the discretion to fire first if a threat is perceived.