john kerrys communist & fellow traveller connections

8/8/2019 John Kerrys Communist & Fellow Traveller Connections

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John Kerrys Communist Connections:

John Kerrys Fellow Travellers*A 5-part series exposing John Kerrys Communist connections.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1198744/posts

Part 1: John Kerrys Red Roots: Richard Kerrys Left-Wing Legacy

By Fedora

*NOTE: The term fellow traveller as used in this article series refers to someone who

is not a member of the Communist Party (CP) but regularly engages in actions whichadvance the Partys program. Some apparent fellow travellers may actually be

concealed party members: members of the CP who conceal their membership. Whichof these classifications is applicable to the Kerrys is a question this series leavesunresolved. This series does not argue for any direct evidence of Richard or John Kerryor other members of the Kerry family belonging to the CP. What this series does arguefor is a consistent pattern of the Kerry family working with Communists and Communistfellow travellers in a way that advances the Communist program.

Introduction

Previous articles have drawn attention to the liberal foreign policy orientation of JohnKerrys father Richard Kerry. This article digs deeper into Richard Kerrys background,exploring how his foreign policy views were influenced by Communist fellow travellersfrom Harvard Law School and the State Department, and how this influence was in turnpassed on from Richard Kerry to his children.

Foreground: Richard Kerrys Career in Brief

Summary of Richard Kerrys Career

Notes:

1915 Born

c.1930-1940

Educated at Andover, Yale, and HarvardLaw School

Embraced legal teachings ofOliver Wendell Holmes andLouis Brandeis

c.1941-c.1943

Served in Army Air Corps

1944-1945

Taught at Groton School
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and later with the Kennedy administration. In 1962 he retired from diplomatic servicebecause he felt that no one was listening to his views, and he became a disgruntledcritic of US foreign policy. From 1965 on he opposed American involvement in Vietnam.In 1990, he wrote a book which attacked the premises of US foreign policy during theCold War, particularly during the Eisenhower and Reagan administrations. EchoingKennedy-Johnson administration advisor McGeorge Bundy, he characterized Dullesideological opposition to the Soviet Union as an oversimplified either/or dualism, and

advocated instead what in his eyes was a more sophisticated relativism. As he put it,Casting issues in the form of polar choices (for example: isolationism vs.interventionism) readily leads to the conclusion that if one is wrong, the other must beright. In a more relative view of the issue, both are likely to be wrong.1

Background Part 1: Richard Kerrys Alma Mater: Harvard Law School

The Brandeis-Frankfurter Apparatus (some select members)

LouisBrandeis

Supreme CourtJustice 1916-1939

Covertly engaged inactivism from the bench viaFrankfurter

Influenced RichardKerrys legalphilosophy

FelixFrankfurter

Harvard LawSchool professor1914-1939;Supreme CourtJustice 1939-1962

Staffed Judicial Branch andFranklin Rooseveltadministration withBrandeis agents

Taught at HarvardLaw School whileRichard Kerry was astudent

Jerome Frank

General Counselto Agricultural

AdjustmentAdministration(AAA), 1933-1935

Hired Brandeis andFrankfurtersrecommendations toRoosevelt administration

Alger Hiss,Lee

Pressman,Nathan Witt,and others

Hired to AAAstarting in 1933,went on to othergovernmentagencies

Recommended byFrankfurter and hired byFrank to AAA

In 1945 Hisscofounded whatwould become theState DepartmentsBureau of UN Affairs,where Richard Kerrybegan working in1951

Benjamin

Cohen andThomas

Corcoran

Key Roosevelt

administrationadvisors, 1933-1941

Hosted nightly meetings ofFrankfurters associates to

promote pro-Communistlegislation, pushed forFrankfurters appointmentto the Supreme Court

Joseph Rauh,Edward

Prichard, andPhilip Graham

Worked withOffice ofEmergencyManagement,1941-1942

Former law clerks forFrankfurter, spied onRoosevelt administration forFrankfurter


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Niels Bohr

Physicist;consultant toManhattanProject, 1943-1945

Traded classifiedinformation on theManhattan Project withFrankfurter, joinedFrankfurter in trying topersuade the Allies to shareatomic secrets with the

Soviets

To set Richard Kerrys career in context, it is informative to begin with his law schoolcareer and his enthusiasm for the teachings of former Harvard Law School professorLouis Brandeis. Prior to Kerrys entrance into law school, Brandeis and his associateFelix Frankfurter were two of the most prominent Communist fellow travellers in theUnited States, and had used Harvard Law School as a base to place political allies in theUS government.

Brandeis had been a political activist before President Wilson appointed him to the

Supreme Court in 1916. After his appointment he continued his political activity bycovertly using Frankfurter as his chief agent, setting up what may be called theBrandeis-Frankfurter apparatus. Among other functions Frankfurter performed forBrandeis apparatus, a key one was recommending Harvard Law graduates to work forBrandeis, his fellow Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, and the ExecutiveBranch of the federal government. Frankfurter continued to perform this and otherfunctions on Brandeis behalf until 1937, after which he branched off to form his ownapparatus in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations and the Supreme Court. 2

The Brandeis-Frankfurter apparatus engaged in various covert activities supportive ofdomestic subversives and Soviet agents. These included advising the Wilson

administration to aid the Bolshevik government,3 using Harvard Law Review to opposeanti-espionage laws, organizing Harvard Law professors to petition clemency forconvicted subversives, ,4 and recommending Harvard Law graduates who were laterexposed as Soviet agents for government jobs in the Roosevelt administration. Amongthe Harvard Law graduates recommended to the Roosevelt administration byFrankfurter and hired by his agent Jerome Frank were Soviet spies Alger Hiss, LeePressman, and Nathan Witt. Hiss went on to become prominent in the StateDepartment, cofounding the State Departments UN branch before he was exposed as aspy in 1948.5

Through agents such as Hiss, the Brandeis-Frankfurter apparatus branched out into alldepartments of the Roosevelt administration. In 1934 Congressman Frederick Brittenobserved that a group of 10 to 18 Frankfurter associates met nightly in the home ofBenjamin Cohen and Thomas Corcoran to "promote Communistic legislation".6 DuringWorld War II, Frankfurter used his former law clerks Joseph Rauh, Edward Prichard,and Philip Graham to coordinate spying on various agencies of the Rooseveltadministration through what Rauh and Prichard called the Goon Squad: a group of 15to 20 second-line bureaucrats which included White House aide Laughlin Currie, aSoviet spy.7 Meanwhile Frankfurter and physicist Niels Bohr conspired in trading top-secret information with each other about the Manhattan Project, as part of an effort totry to persuade the Allies to share the secrets of the atomic bomb with the Soviet


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Union. Some top-secret Manhattan Project papers that passed between Frankfurter andthe military supervisor of the Manhattan Project, General Leslie Groves, were laterfound in the private papers of Manhattan Project consultant Robert Oppenheimer,whose security clearance was later revoked after he was charged with being a securityrisk.8

US intelligence regarded Brandeis and Frankfurters political activity as suspicious.

Several Army intelligence informants and analysts identified Brandeis and Frankfurter askey leaders of US Communism. 1920 Army intelligence reports described Brandeis andFrankfurter as Soviet propagandists, noting that Brandeis had been in contact withSoviet agent Santeri Nuorteva.9 In 1921 future FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover notedFrankfurters links to the radical labor group Amalgamated Clothing Workers anddescribed Frankfurter as engaging in "communistic propaganda activities".10A 1945 FBIwiretap investigation of leaks from the Soviet ambassador to journalist Drew Pearsonrevealed that Frankfurter was colluding with Pearson. Follow-up wiretaps on Pearsonand Brandeis-Frankfurter apparatus member Thomas Corcoran revealed that Corcoranand Rauh-Prichard-Graham Goon Squad member Laughlin Currie had conspired toprotect State Department official John Stewart Service from being prosecuted in

connection with the leaking of classified government documents to the pro-Communistpublication Amerasia.11

Richard Kerry entered Harvard Law School in 1937, two years before Frankfurter leftHarvard Law for the Supreme Court. When Kerry arrived at Harvard he was enamoredof the legal teachings of Oliver Wendell Holmes and Louis Brandeis12, who had lookedto Frankfurter to recommend Harvard Law School graduates to be their law clerks.13

After Kerry graduated from Harvard Law, he went on to the State Department, wherehe worked under one of Frankfurters most prominent political allies.

Background Part 2: Kerry and the Frankfurter Apparatus in the StateDepartment

Frankfurters Apparatus in the Truman State Department and the Eisenhower andKennedy Eras (select members)

DeanAcheson

State Department,1941-1953; Secretaryof State, 1949-1953;

Democratic Party seniorstatesman on foreignpolicy issues, 1953-1971

Recommended byFrankfurter to Rooseveltadministration; defendedFrankfurter from charges ofCommunism duringSupreme Court confirmationhearings; advisedFrankfurter of dailydevelopments in Trumanadministration;recommended appointmentsto Kennedy cabinet andadvised Kennedyadministration

Secretary of Statewhen Richard Kerry

joined State

Department in 1951;influenced Kerrysviews on NATO andEuropean unification

Paul NitzeDirector of AchesonState Departments

Joined Acheson in formingDemocratic government-in-

Influenced RichardKerrys foreign policy


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Policy Planning Staff,1950-1953; Achesonschief political ally,1953-1960;recommended by

Acheson to KennedyState Department for

possible promotion toSecretary of State

exile during Eisenhoweradministration anddeveloping foreign policyplatform for Kennedyadministration

views

John

McCloy

High Commissioner forOccupied Germany,1949-1952; Chairmanof Council on ForeignRelations, 1953-1970

Acheson and Nitzes favoredalternative to EisenhowersSecretary of State JohnFoster Dulles

Recommended nextHigh Commisionerfor OccupiedGermany to beJames Conant, forwhom Richard Kerrywould work

WilliamBundy

Achesons son-in-law;law partner at

Achesons law firm,Covington & Burling,c.1947-1951; CIAagent, 1951-1960

Career promoted byFrankfurter and Acheson;contributed to Alger Hissdefense fund

Influenced Richard

Kerrys foreign policyviews; uncle of JohnKerrys collegeroommate;influenced JohnKerrys decision toenlist in officer corps

McGeorge

Bundy

William Bundysbrother; recommendedby Frankfurter for job

at Harvard University;Dean of Faculty of Arts& Sciences at HarvardUniversity, 1953-1960

Career promoted by

Frankfurter

Influenced RichardKerrys foreign policy

views; uncle of JohnKerrys collegeroommate

By the time Richard Kerry began his career at the State Department in 1951,Frankfurters apparatus in the Executive Branch had become centered around Dean

Acheson, who was then the Truman administrations Secretary of State. Achesonsrelationship to the Brandeis-Frankfurter apparatus dated back to 1920, whenFrankfurter had sent Acheson from Harvard to clerk for Brandeis in Washington.14

Acheson originally entered government service in 1933 as part of the same pool ofFrankfurter recommendations as Jerome Frank, the Brandeis-Frankfurter agent whohired Alger Hiss to the Roosevelt administration.15After a temporary return to a civilianlegal career, he made a favorable impression on President Roosevelt by helpingFrankfurter defend himself during his Supreme Court confirmation hearings fromquestions about his Communist associations, and he was recruited back to governmentservice.16 Joining Roosevelt's State Department in 1941, Acheson was assigned projectswhere he worked closely with Soviet spy Harold Glasser, who was the TreasuryDepartment's representative to the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation

Administration (UNRRA),17 and Soviet spy Harry Dexter White, who was the AssistantSecretary of the Treasury.18After Roosevelt's death in 1945, he was promoted to serve


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as Undersecretary of State under Trumans new Secretary of State James Byrnes,19

another of Frankfurter's associates. 20 While serving under Byrnes and his successorGeorge Marshall, and later while serving as Secretary of State himself, Achesonmaintained an intimate relationship with Frankfurter, strolling with him on a daily basisto discuss developments in the Executive Branch.21

Acheson's promotion to Undersecretary of State had been part of a reorganization of

the State Department which removed an anti-Communist faction led by Adolf Berle andJoseph Grew and installed a new hierarchy under Byrnes. This new hierarchy includedAlger Hiss and others who were later accused of Soviet espionage, which later raisedsuspicions of Acheson.22Acheson initially shared the Roosevelt administration'soptimistic attitude towards US-Soviet cooperation. He was described as "friendly to theSoviet Union" in a 1945 endorsement for his appointment as Under Secretary of Statewritten by pro-Communist journalist I.F. Stone,23 who was recently accused of havingbeen an undercover KGB agent. 24 From late 1945 through early 1946, Acheson andanother Brandeis-Frankfurter apparatus member, David Lilienthal,25 drafted a proposalfor sharing nuclear technology with the Soviet Union, working with input from Stimson,Frankfurters associate John McCloy,26 and Soviet spy Robert Oppenheimer.27 During

this period, in May 1946, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover warned President Truman thatAcheson, Achesons assistant Herbert Marks, and McCloy were members of a Sovietatomic spy ring.28

Acheson seems to have gradually and reluctantly changed his optimistic attitudetowards US-Soviet cooperation over the course of November 1945 to August 1946, asStalin's imperialistic intentions became increasingly evident even to most of his formersupporters.29 However, Acheson joined the growing opposition to the Soviet Union withthe qualification that he was endorsing limited intervention against Stalin in certainstrategic areas, not global containment of the Soviets and not an ideological war

against Communism.

30

Ideologically he remained a committed liberal and politicalpartisan, and he took a leading role in the defense of accused spies Alger Hiss,31

Laughlin Currie, 32 John Stewart Service,33 and John Carter Vincent. 34 His defense ofHiss prompted Senator Joseph McCarthy to scrutinize his background.35 When McCarthyfell out of favor he was preparing an investigation of Achesons son-in-law WilliamBundy for Bundys contribution to Alger Hiss defense.36

The victory of Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 Presidential election repudiated Achesonsforeign policy, and Acheson resigned in disgrace from his position as Secretary of State,to be replaced by a man he despised, John Foster Dulles. Out of power, Acheson andhis former assistant Paul Nitze sought to regain influence by forming a Democratic

government-in-exile aligned with Dulles critics. Dulles critics spent much of theEisenhower administration trying to get Dulles replaced by John McCloy and otherwiseattempting to influence Eisenhower through McCloy and the Council on ForeignRelations, an influential foreign policy think tank which McCloy then chaired. Achesonscritique of Dulles included an argument against Dulles emphasis on nuclear deterrenceand in favor of strengthening NATOs conventional capability as a non-nucleardeterrent. Acheson and Nitzes foreign policy ideas were adopted into Adlai Stevensons1956 Presidential campaign and John Kennedys 1960 Presidential campaign. WithKennedys election Acheson regained his former influence for the course of the Kennedyand Johnson administrations. He recommended several of Kennedys cabinet


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appointments, and attempted unsuccessfully to convince Kennedy to appoint NitzeUndersecretary of State to groom him for eventual promotion to Secretary of State.37

Richard Kerry joined the State Department in 1951 while Acheson was still Secretary ofState. He began his State Department career as attorney for the Bureau of UnitedNations Affairs, an area of the State Department where Acheson and Hiss hadpreviously worked.38 The foreign policy views he developed while working in the State

Department, as expressed in his later book, reflect the influence of Acheson and suchassociates of Acheson as Paul Nitze, William Bundy, and Williams brother McGeorgeBundy.39 William and McGeorges nephew Harvey H. Bundy III later became JohnKerrys roommate. Harvey introduced John to William, who discussed the Vietnam Warwith John and influenced his decision to enlist in the officer corps.40 In 2004 Harveysson Hollister Bundy, who is Kerrys godson, helped raise funds for Kerrys campaign byemailing out an endorsement titled Uncle Johnny Kerry for President.41

Background Part 3: Kerry, Conant, and Monnets Atlantic Partnership

RichardKerrys

Atlanticpartners

JamesConant

Chemist; President of HarvardUniversity, 1933-1953;consultant to Manhattan Projectand Atomic Energy Commission,1942-1953; High Commissionerfor Occupied Germany, 1953-1955; US Ambassador to WestGermany, 1955-1957

Political ally ofFrankfurter, Acheson,Harvey Bundy, andRobert Oppenheimer;recommended by McCloyto be High Commissionerfor Occupied Germany

Served byRichard Kerryas legal counsel

JeanMonnet

Businessman representingFrench interests in US; financialadvisor to Allies on warmobilization, 1940-1945;promoted European unificationafter 1945 through means suchas the European Coal and SteelCommunity, European DefenseCommunity, and BilderbergGroup

Worked with Frankfurter,McCloy, and Achesonduring World War II;

joined Acheson andGeorge Ball in promoting

Atlantic Partnershipmodel of US-Europeanrelations after war

Met RichardKerry andinfluenced hisforeign policyviews on NATOand Europeanunification

After the State Department transferred Kerry to Europe, he went on to work with otherassociates of Frankfurter and Acheson there. In 1954 the State Department sentRichard Kerry to Germany to serve as legal advisor to German High CommissionerJames Conant. Conant, a former chemist, had previously served as Dean of Harvard,where he had developed a relationship with Felix Frankfurter and close Frankfurterassociates such as Dean Acheson and Harvey Bundy (father of William andMcGeorge).42 While at Harvard he had also served as a consultant to the ManhattanProject and later, at Achesons invitation,43 to the nascent Atomic Energy Commission,where he worked with Robert Oppenheimer to encourage sharing of US nuclear


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technology with the Soviet Union.44 Conant was later recommended to Acheson for thepost of German High Commissioner by his predecessor in that position, John McCloy.45

When Conant left Harvard for Germany to replace McCloy, McGeorge Bundy becameDean of Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Harvard.46

Conants activity at Harvard had come under FBI surveillance for his protection ofCommunist professors, leading J. Edgar Hoover to complain that Conant had more or

less condoned the employment of professors who might have communistbackgrounds.47 The FBI also monitored Conants relationship with RobertOppenheimer, whom Conant had approved for the Manhattan Project even after beingwarned that Oppenheimer was a security risk due to his Communist background. InFebruary 1947 an FBI wiretap picked up a call where Oppenheimer urged Conant toinfluence Congress in the Atomic Energy Commission nomination of David Lilienthal,48,a Frankfurter apparatus member.49 Several of Conants scientific colleagues informedthe FBI that they viewed Conant as a political ally of a pro-Oppenheimer clique at Los

Alamos which opposed US atomic weapons programs such as the H-bomb program.50

Conants appointment as German High Commissioner in February 1953 was opposed byconservative politicians, including Joseph McCarthy.51 During 1953 McCarthys

investigations led the State Department to request the resignation of five members ofConants staff, which Conant resisted, appealing for help to McCloy.52 Then from Marchthrough June 1954, Conant became involved in the defense of Oppenheimer whenOppenheimers security clearance was under review for revocation.53

It was shortly after this in late 1954 that Richard Kerry became Conants legal counsel.Conant proved unsupportive of CIA operations in Germany and uncooperative withGerman Chancellor Konrad Adenauer. Adenauer and the CIA came to distrust him, andJohn Foster Dulles eventually had him replaced in 1957.54 Meanwhile in 1956, Kerry wastransferred to a new post as special assistant to President Eisenhowers special

ambassador to NATO, Walter F. George, a conservative Southern Democrat, who soondied in August 1957.55

While working for Conant, Kerrys interest in NATO diplomacy and European unificationissues led him to develop a relationship with French politician Jean Monnet, a Europeanassociate of Frankfurter, Acheson, and McCloy. Monnet had become friends with McCloywhile working on Wall Street with him in the 1930s.56 He became friends withFrankfurter while taking refuge in the United States after France fell in 1940, andFrankfurter introduced him to Washington political circles.57 Monnet relied onFrankfurter and McCloy to rally US support for Charles de Gaulles French Resistancemovement,58 and he joined Frankfurter, Acheson, and McCloy in promoting the Lend-

Lease program.59After the war Monnet and Acheson promoted an Atlantic Partnershippolicy of US-European relations centered around NATO and a unified Europe, andopposed to the nationalistic vision of postwar Europe promoted by de Gaulle.60

Richard Kerry shared Monnet and Achesons enthusiasm for NATO and Europeanunification. While attending conferences on European unification issues Kerry metMonnet, and he later introduced his son John to Monnet. In his book he developed aview of US-European relations echoing Monnet and Achesons view, and he chidedfellow diplomat George Ball for not learning from his relationship with Monnet, writing,

It is particularly difficult to account for Balls delusion in the perspective of his


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accomplishments and his exposure to French politics from his years of collaborationwith Jean Monnet . . .61

Center Stage: Richard Kerrys Legacy: Peggy and John

The Kerryfamilys foreign

policy views

Richard Kerry

Advocated UN global government;regarded NATO and Europeanunification as higher priorities thancontaining Communism

OpposedVietnam War1965+

Opposed aidto Contras in1980s

Peggy Kerry Worked at UNOpposed

Vietnam War1967+

John KerryDescribed Western colonialism as biggerthreat to Third World than Communism

OpposedVietnam War

1965+

Opposed aidto Contras

1984+

Through his echoing of Acheson and Monnets foreign policy views, Richard Kerryrepresented the legacy of the Acheson State Department within the Eisenhoweradministration.. Kerry in turn passed this legacy on to his children. His daughter Peggyas well as his son John adopted his liberal foreign policy views, including his oppositionto the Vietnam War.

Peggy was Johns older sister and political mentor. In 1952 when she was in fifth gradeand John was in third grade, she joined a club at school supporting DemocraticPresidential candidate Adlai Stevenson, and John helped her sell Stevenson campaign

buttons. Later in 1968, after graduating from Smith College and moving to GreenwichVillage, she joined the Village Independent Democrats (VID),62 an activist group whichhad been formed by Stevensons supporters following his unsuccessful 1956 Presidentialcampaign and came to be known as the most liberal Democratic club in the state.63

While working with VID, Peggy became involved in the antiwar movement, which ledantiwar feminist Bella Abzug to introduce her to Sheldon Ramsdell of the Vietnam

Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in order to recruit her help in organizing 1969antiwar rallies for the Vietnam Moratorium Committee (VMC). Peggy in turn recruitedher brother John to help fly antiwar speaker Adam Walinsky to VMC rallies, introducingJohn to the antiwar movement.64 Peggy went on to work for the ACLU, the New York

Civil Liberties Union, Planned Parenthood, and the State Departments UN mission. Shecurrently works as the nongovernmental organization (NGO) liaison at the StateDepartments UN mission, as meanwhile she works for her brothers campaign.65

Like Peggy, John also adopted Richards foreign policy views and opposition to theVietnam War. During the 1950s John argued during a debate that the United Statesshould open relations with Communist China,66 a foreign policy position Acheson hadoriginally introduced to the State Department in 1949 following the advice of JohnStewart Service and John Carter Vincent.67, two political allies of Soviet spy LaughlinCurrie.68 In 1965, John echoed his fathers opposition to John Foster Dulles anti-


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Communism by arguing, It is the specter of Western Imperialism that causes more fearamong Africans and Asians than communism, and thus it is self-defeating. In 1966John gave a speech opposing the Vietnam War in words which echoed his fatherscriticism of the polar choices of isolationism vs. interventionism, saying, What wasan excess of isolationism has become an excess of interventionism. After Johnreturned from Vietnam in 1969, his father challenged him to become more outspoken inhis opposition to the war.69 Richard would also advise John during his Senate career as

he opposed the Reagan administrations support of the Contras.70

Conclusion

The influence of Felix Frankfurters apparatus in the Acheson State Department wasreflected in Richard Kerrys enthusiasm for the UN, his relationship with Jean Monnet,his advocacy of European unification, and his opposition to John Foster Dulles Cold Warpolicies, which underlaid his opposition to the Vietnam War and the Contras. Fromthese roots sprang John Kerrys foreign policy views, which would lead him to fake hisway out of Vietnam and join Communist front groups in opposing the Vietnam War.

Next: Part 2: Forging a Paper Hero: The Mystery of Kerrys Medals

Notes

1Richard J. Kerry, Star-Spangled Mirror: A Fathers Legacy Shapes John KerrysWorldview, with foreword by Franklin Foer, Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & LittlefieldPublishers, Inc. 2004 (1990); In Memoriam: 1940-1949: Richard J. Kerry 40, HarvardLaw School,http://www.law.harvard.edu/alumni/bulletin/2001/spring/memoriam_main.html;Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, New York: WilliamMorrow, 2004, 19-30; Elizabeth Shelburne, The Thoughtful Soldier: Douglas Brinkley,the author ofTour of Duty, on John Kerrys conflicted but heroic service in Vietnam,

Atlantic Unbound, http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/interviews/int2004-03-10.htm,March 10, 2004; Franklin Foer, Kerrys World: Father Knows Best, CBS News,http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/03/02/opinion/main603542.shtml, March 2,2004; Don Eriksson, John Kerrys roots come close to homeGroton, Pepperell FreePress, http://www.pepperellfreepress.com/Stories/0,1413,109~5521~2162728,00.html,May 21, 2004.

2For details on Brandeis and Frankfurters relationship, see Bruce Allen Murphy, TheBrandeis/Frankfurter Connection: The Secret Political Activities of Two Supreme Court

Justices, Oxford University Press, 1982; Garden City: Anchor Books, 1983.

3Murphy, 50-51.

4 Murphy, 54; James Chace,Acheson: The Secretary of State Who Created theAmerican World, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998, 45, 48-49; Kai Bird, TheChairman: John J. McCloy and the Making of the American Establishment, New York:Simon & Schuster, 1992, 53; Athan Theoharis and John Stuart Cox, The Boss: J. EdgarHoover and the Great American Inquisition, Temple University, 1988; New York:Bantam Books, 1990, 72.
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5On the role of Brandeis, Frankfurter, and Frank in the appointments of Hiss, Pressman,and Witt, see Murphy, 33, 113-116 (cf. Roosevelt and Frankfurter: TheirCorrespondence, 1928-1945, annotator Max Freedman, Little, Brown and Company,1967, 7-9); John Chabot Smith,Alger Hiss: The True Story, New York: Holt, Rinehartand Winston, 1976, 10-12; Joseph P. Lash, Dealers and Dreamers: A New Look at theNew Deal, New York: Doubleday, 1985, 111, 217-218; Kenneth S. Davis, FDR: The NewDeal Years, 1933-1937, A History,, New York: Random House, 1986, 275-281.

6 Lash, 7.

7Murphy, 204-245, esp. 224. On Curries espionage activity, see John Earl Haynes andHarvey Klehr,Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage, New Haven: Yale University Press,1999; New Haven: Yale Nota Bene, 2000, 145-150.

8 Murphy, 296-302; James G. Hershberg, James B. Conant: Harvard to Hiroshima andthe Making of the Nuclear Age, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1993, 195-200, 812n16;Haynes and Klehr, 327-330; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, The Venona Secrets:Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors, Washington: Regnery Publishing,

Inc., 2000, 203, 264-277. Cf. Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword andthe Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB, New York: BasicBooks, 1999, 116-118; Bird, The Chairman, 417, 422-426; Chace, 125. Cf. SPYCASESUNITED STATES: Atomic Bomb Spies: Pavel Sudoplatov, The Literature ofIntelligence: A Bibliography of Materials, with Essays, Reviews, and Comments,http://intellit.muskingum.edu/spycases_folder/bomb_folder/bombsudoplatov.html(cached athttp://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:6FwW_NohBFIJ:intellit.muskingum.edu/spycases_folder/bomb_folder/bombsudoplatov.html+niels+bohr+spy&hl=en) (August 23,2004).

9B-1, Report 5, November 25, 27, 1918, U.S. National Archives, College Park, MD(hereafter NACP), RG 165, Military Intelligence Division (hereafter MID) 10110-920; B-1, Report 11, December 17, 1918, NACP, RG 165, MID 10110-920; Captain John B.Trevor to MID Director, February 19, 1919, NACP, RG 165, MID 10110-920, 245-18 (6);

Judaism and the Present World MovementA Study, September 29, 1919, NACP, RG165, MID 10110-920, 245-15 (1), 6, 15-16; Captain W.L. Moffat to MID Director, March8, 1920, NACP, RG 165, MID 10565-115; August 19, 1919, NACP, RG 165, MID 10110-1194 (157-159); Captain W.L. Moffat to Captain Robert Snow, March 1920, NACP, RG165, MID 10565-115; Major H.A Strauss, September 13, 1919, NACP, RG 165, MID 245-18 (3-8); Captain Henry Frothingham to MID Director, February 19, 1920, NACP, RG

165, MID 10110-1727; Bolshevik Activities, February 5, 1920, U.S. NACP, RG 165,MID 10110-1194 (300).

10L. Lanier Winslow to William L. Hurley, March 7, 1921 and Hurley to J. Edgar Hoover,March 15, 1921, NACP, RG 59, 000-1612; Department of Justice, General IntelligenceBulletin 44, April 2, 1921, 6, NACP, RG 165, MID 10110-4283; Colonel Gordon Johnstonto MID Director, April 17, 1920, MID 10110-1534; J. Edgar Hoover to William L. Hurley,June 10, 1920, NACP, RG 59, 800.11-97; J. Edgar Hoover to Marlborough Churchill,June 15, 1922 and Colonel Sherman Miles to military attach London, June 22, 1922,NACP, RG 165, MID 245-26 (1-2); J. Edgar Hoover to General Dennis E. Nolan,
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November 18, 1920, NACP, RG 165, MID 245-18; Theoharis and Cox, 76n-77n (cf.166n).

11Theoharis and Cox, 258-269, esp. 266; John Earl Haynes, Red Scare or Red Menace?American Communism and Anticommunism in the Cold War Era, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee,1996, 52-55; Romerstein and Breindel, 168.

12

Brinkley, Tour of Duty, 21.13Murphy, 186.

14 Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World TheyMade, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1986, 87-90, 125-126; Chace, 38-52, 59-61.

15Chace, 61-62; Murphy, 111-112, 115-117.

16Chace, 74-76; Isaacson and Thomas, 137-139.

17

Report, USS Internal Security Subcommittee, April 14, 1953, cited in Archibald E.Roberts, Major,Victory Denied, 1966,http://www.republicusa.org/research/unfiles/communist_godfathers.html#reffive (July21, 2001). Cf. Chace, 94-97. On UNRAA and Glasser, cf. Haynes and Klehr, 118, 125-128, 203-205.

18 Chace, 97-102. On White, cf. Haynes and Klehr, 138-145.

19Chace, 108-109.

20Murphy, 240-241 245, 254-255, 276, 320-321.

21 Chace, 197, 200-201, 227, 357-358.

22 Chace, 130-131; Robert P. Newman, Owen Lattimore and the "Loss" of China,Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, 139-140; William F. Buckley, Jr. and L.Brent Bozell, McCarthy and His Enemies: The Record and Its Meaning, Washington,D.C.: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 1995 (1954), 9-17; Arthur Herman, Joseph McCarthy:Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator, New York: The FreePress, 2000, 94.

23

Isaacson and Thomas, 322.24Romerstein and Breindel, 432-439.

25On Frankfurter and Lilienthal, see Murphy, 117; Davis, 93-94.

26On Frankfurter and McCloy, see Bird, The Chairman, 47-50, 53-56, 121, 125, 130-131,170, 425, 482-483.
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27 Chace, 117-129; Bird, The Chairman, 237-238, 260-264, 275-282; Isaacson andThomas, 314-346, 350-351, 356-362; Hershberg, 258-278.

28J. Edgar Hoover to George E. Allen (to be passed to HST), May 29, 1946, PresidentsSecretary FilesSubject File, Box 167, Subject FileFBIAtomic Bomb folder, HarryS. Truman Library, Independence, Mo.; Hershberg, 394, 856n10; Bird, The Chairman,280-281, 412; Peter Grose, Operation Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron

Curtain, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, 82.29 Chace, 135-136, 151-155, 180, 439-440; Isaacson and Thomas, 321-323, 338-340,350-351, 362-369.

30 Chace, 168-169; Isaacson and Thomas, 364-365.

31 Chace, 193-196, 225-229, 237-240.

32Acheson represented Currie when he was accused of beng a Communist in 1948:Newman, 74. On Currie's espionage activity, see Haynes and Klehr, 145-150.

33 Chace, 238; Newman, 362.

34Chace, 359-360; Isaacson and Thomas, 557; Bird, The Chairman, 392.

35 Chace, 226-229, 237-240, 311-312.

36 Herman, 228; Kai Bird, The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy:Brothers in Arms: A Biography, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998, 106-107, 155-157,163-169; Bird, The Chairman, 413. On Frankfurter and the Bundy family, see Murphy,201-202; Bird, The Color of Truth, 30-32, 66, 73, 99-101, 104, 188. Cf. GodfreyHodgson, The Colonel: The Life and Wars of Henry Stimson, 1867-1950, New York:

Alfred A. Knopf, 1990, 246-247; Bird, The Chairman, 121, 182.

37On Acheson political activity during the Eisenhower and Kennedy administrations andits relation to Nitze and McCloys activity, see Douglas Brinkley, Dean Acheson: TheCold War Years, 1953-1971, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992, 6-202; Isaacsonand Thomas, 563-564, 570-572, 580-583; 589-641; Paul H. Nitze, Tension BetweenOpposites: Reflections on the Practice and Theory of Politics, New York: CharlesScribners Sons, 1993, 144-148; Strobe Talbott, The Master of the Game: Paul Nitzeand the Nuclear Peace, New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1988, 59-88; Bird, The Chairman,

389-544, esp. 386-388, 446-447, 450, 473-475.38See Note 17; Sam Tanenhaus, Whittaker Chambers: A Biography, New York: RandomHouse, 1997, 225-226; Herman, 110; Romerstein and Breindel, 48-50.

39Cf. Kerry, 17-19, 25, 46-48, 52, 55n, 125, 161, and esp. Kerrys critique of US badmanners towards Europe on 73-85 (cf. Achesons similar critique of Dulles recorded inBrinkley, Dean Acheson, 23, 31-32, 45-46, 67).

40Brinkley, Tour of Duty, , 40-42, 57-58.


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41Email from Hollister Bundy, From Hollister: Uncle Johnny Kerry for President,January 30, 2004, forwarded by Alexander Wood to NY4Kerry New Yorkers for JohnKerry, http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NY4Kerry/message/840, January 30, 2004(August 18, 2004).

42On Conant and Frankfurter, see Hershberg, 72-73, 78, 87-88, 90, 99, 107, 196-198.On Conant and Acheson, see Hershberg, 264. On Conant and the Bundy family, see

Hershberg, 127-128, 294-304.43Hershberg, 263; cf. Isaacson and Thomas, 357.

44Hershberg, 165-168, 194-207, 306, 308, 313-319, 322-348, 357-358, 470-478, 487-490, 599, 601-605, 676-682.

45Hershberg, 642-647.

46Bird, The Color of Truth, 117-153.

47Personal Letter, J. Edgar Hoover to Francis Walter, February 16, 1959, FBI 61-7582-4053; Theoharis and Cox, 356-357; Hershberg, 392, 416, 623, 625.

48J. Robert Oppenheimer to James B. Conant telephone conversation, February 17,1947, FBI JRO File Serial 100-17828-148; Hershberg, 313-319.

49 Murphy, 117; Davis, 93-94; cf. Hershberg 308, 473, 477-478.

50Hershberg, 487-490, 596-597; cf. 599.




54Hershberg, 653, 660-667, 668-673, 688-689, 692, 695.

55See George, Walter Franklin, 1878-1957, Biographical Directory of the United StatesCongress, http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=G000131 (June 9,2004).

56Bird, The Chairman, 97. Cf. 104-106, 183, 336-337, 344, 405.

57Murphy, 212-215, 227-233.

58 Bird, The Chairman, 182-183.

59Murphy, 214-215; Brinkley, Dean Acheson, 1-2; Bird, The Chairman, 120-125;Isaacson and Thomas, 195. Cf. Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception: British CovertOperations in the United States, 1939-1944, Washington: Brasseys, 1998, 166 onFrankfurter and Achesons role in the Destroyer Deal.
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60Brinkley, Dean Acheson, 102-103, 131, 186-196.

61Kerry, x, xii, 83.

62Ed Gold, Kerrys big sister lending a hand in her own way, The Villager,http://www.thevillager.com/villager_42/kerrysbigsister.html, Volume 73, Number 42,February 18-24, 2004 (June 18, 2004); Kerrys Elder Sister is New York Delegate,

http://www.usatoday.com/news/politicselections/nation/president/2004-07-28-peggy-kerry_x.htm?POE=NEWISVA, July 28, 2004 (August 22, 2004).

63Village Independent Democrats, http://www.villagedemocrats.com/vid_story.htm(August 22, 2004).

64Gerald Nicosia, Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans Movement, NewYork: Crown Publishers, 2001, 49; Brinkley, 337; Gold; Kerrys Elder Sister is New YorkDelegate.

65Gold; Kerrys Elder Sister is New York Delegate.

66Brinkley, Tour of Duty, 34; Foer; Kerry, xii.

67Herman, 121-128, 168; Chace, 168, 210-224.

68Cf. Theoharis and Cox, 258-269; John Earl Haynes, Red Scare or Red Menace?American Communism and Anticommunism in the Cold War Era, Chicago: Ivan R. Dee,1996, 52-55; Romerstein and Breindel, 168; Newman, 89-90.

69 Brinkley, Tour of Duty, 61-62; Jacob Leibenluft, Kerry '66: 'He was going to bepresident': In JFK's shadow, a headstrong Kerry makes his run for the White House,

YaleDailyNews.com, http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=21803, February14, 2003 (June 18, 2004); Foer; Kerry, xii-xiii.

70Kerry, xi, xiii; cf. 109-112, 117n22, 155-159.
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John Kerrys Fellow TravellersA 5-part series exposing John Kerrys Communist connections.

Part 2: Forging a Paper Hero: The Mystery of Kerrys

MedalsBy Fedora

*NOTE: The term fellow traveller as used in this article series refers to someone whois not a member of the Communist Party (CP) but regularly engages in actions whichadvance the Partys program. Some apparent fellow travellers may actually be

concealed party members: members of the CP who conceal their membership. Whichof these classifications is applicable to the Kerrys is a question this series leavesunresolved. This series does not argue for any direct evidence of Richard or John Kerry

or other members of the Kerry family belonging to the CP. What this series does arguefor is a consistent pattern of the Kerry family working with Communists and Communistfellow travellers in a way that advances the Communist program.

Introduction

Part 1 of this series, "John Kerrys Red Roots", described how Kerry and his fathersforeign policy views were influenced by a faction of the State Department led by Dean

Acheson, protg of the Communist fellow traveller Felix Frankfurter. This articlecontinues Kerrys story, highlighting the contradictions in Kerrys account of his militaryservice and exposing how he managed to conceal his left-wing background by cloaking

himself in the guise of a war hero.

A Reluctant Warrior

Hawk or Dove? Kerrys Changing Story

1965 speechat Yale

It is the specter of Western Imperialism that causes more fearamong Africans and Asians than communism, and thus it is self-defeating.

1970interview with

Harvard

Crimson

When he approached his draft board for permission to study for ayear in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in

the Navy.

1996interview withBoston Globe

"I had a sense of duty and obligation. I could have gone to lawschool, like. . .many of my friends did. I chose not to. . .I think thoseof us who were lucky enough to go to a place like Harvard or Yaleowed something to our country. A sharing of the risks, if you will."

2004interview with

ABC News

Despite that, Kerry said he never considered not serving, as didmany members of his generation. First of all, it was 1965, Kerry said.

The Tonkin Gulf, supposedly, had just taken place. . .It wasn't untiltwo years later, in 1967, when the first draft card was burned it
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wasn't until then that the march on the Pentagon took place, and Iwas in uniform. . .So I think there was a transition that took place inour generation and in America, from the time that I raised my handand was sworn in and made the decision until the time in 1968 when I was a much less committed soldier. But I was nevertheless asoldier with a sense of duty and responsibility."

Contrary to the impression left by Kerrys current posture as someone who defendedthis country as a young man, he actually tried to avoid going to Vietnam, and whenthis failed, he tried to enlist for what he thought would be non-combat duty.

Biographies following Kerrys account trace Kerrys decision to enlist to the influence ofa discussion between Kerry and his roommates uncle, William Bundy, during the winterof Kerrys junior year (1964-1965). Bundy, an old political ally of Felix Frankfurter andDean Acheson then working in the State Department,1 was the uncle of Harvey HollisterBundy III, John Kerrys roommate at Yale from 1962-1966. Bundy visited his nephew inthe winter of 1964-1965 to encourage him and his suitemates to serve in Vietnam, and

reportedly this visit persuaded Kerry to enlist in the officer corps.

2

Kerry says hedecided to enlist out of a sense of duty and obligation [that] those of us who werelucky enough to go to a place like Harvard or Yale owed something to our country [a]sharing of the risks, if you will, and he never considered not serving, he claims.3

But if Bundys appeal to Kerrys patriotic duty had persuaded him to go to Vietnam bythe winter of 1964-1965, his subsequent words and actions seem self-contradictory.Kerry publicly expressed opposition to the war in speeches at Yale in 1965 and 1966.4

He tried unsuccessfully to persuade the draft board to let him study abroad in Francebefore he finally enlisted in February 1966, according to a version of the story he gavein 1970 after he had joined the antiwar movement.5 However thirty years later when

Kerry was touting his record as a war hero, he boasted, I could have gone to lawschool, like. . .many of my friends did. I chose not to.6

After Kerry had failed to avoid military service, he followed Bundys advice and enlistedto be an officer. He initially considered joining the Air Force like his father, but rejectedthis option when his father warned him that combat flying might taint his enjoyment ofrecreational flying.7 Instead in February 1966 he enlisted in the US Naval Reserve (notthe Navy, as incorrectly stated in several Kerry biographies).8 Soon after hisappointment as a Reserve Officer that winter, he expressed a preference forassignment to a Patrol Craft Fast (PCF), or Swift Boat.9At this time Swift Boats wereused primarily for a coastal interdiction mission called Operation Market Time,10 whichinvolved relatively less risk of combat action than other assignments, so Kerry assumedhis requested assignment would not involve combat. As he put it in a 1986 book, Ididnt really want to get involved in the war. . .When I signed up for the swift boats,they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling andthats what I thought I was going to be doing.11

But unknown to Kerry, by the time he arrived in Vietnam, Swift Boat duty had becomemore hazardous. In October 1968, under newly-appointed commander of Navaloperations in Vietnam Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, Jr. and his assistant Captain Roy LatchHoffmann, Operation Market Times relatively less hazardous coastal patrol mission had


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been subordinated to a new, more comprehensive Mekong Delta interdiction missioncalled Operation SEALORDS, which involved using Swift Boats for more hazardousduties. By the time Kerry arrived on November 17, Swift Boats were being used in thefirst phase of the operation.12

Kerrys Mysterious Medals

Purple Heart #1: December 2, 1968

Documentary Record Oral Record

No after-action reportreleased by Kerry campaign;medical report shown toselect reporters but notreleased.

Kerry: I never saw where the piece of shrapnelhad come from.

Witness William Schacte: Kerry nicked himselfwith aM-79.

Physician Louis Letson: The story he told was differentfrom what his crewmen had to say about that night.

According to Kerry, they had been engaged in a firefight.

. .Some of his crew confided that they did not receiveany fire from shore, but that Kerry had fired a mortarround at close range to some rocks on shore. Thecrewman thought that the injury was caused by afragment ricocheting from that mortar roundwhen it struck the rocks. That seemed to fit theinjury which I treated. What I saw was a small pieceof metal sticking very superficially in the skin of Kerry'sarm. The metal fragment measured about 1 cm. inlength and was about 2 or 3 mm in diameter. . .I simplyremoved the piece of metal by lifting it out of the skinwith forceps. I doubt that it penetrated more than 3 or 4mm. It did not require probing to find it, did notrequire any anesthesia to remove it, and did not

require any sutures to close the wound. Thewound was covered with a band-aid.

Kerry was initially stationed with Coastal Division 14 at Cam Ranh Bay, a port baseconsidered the safest assignment in Vietnam. There on December 2, two weeks afterarriving, during an incident where no after-action report of enemy fire has beenreleased, Kerry suffered a minor shrapnel injury to his arm, for which he was awarded

his first Purple Heart. Kerry told his biographer Douglas Brinkley that I never sawwhere the piece of shrapnel had come from. According to witness Lieutenant WilliamSchachte (later a Rear Admiral), Kerry nicked himself with a M-79 grenade launcherby improperly firing it. After being treated for his injury by Dr. Louis Letsonwho recallsbeing surprised that Kerry bothered coming in for medical attention, since the thorn-sized piece of shrapnel was barely hanging in Kerrys arm and was easily removed witha tweezersKerry applied for a Purple Heart. His request was initially denied by hissuperior Grant Hibbard, per Purple Heart eligibility requirements that the wound forwhich the award is made must have required treatment by a medical officer and PurpleHearts are not to be awarded for accidents. . .not related to or caused by enemy


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action or for self-inflicted wounds. . .involving gross negligence. Hibbard lateracquiesced to the award after receiving some correspondencefrom whom he does notrecall. After controversy had arisen over the circumstances of the award, Kerryreportedly showed Boston Globe reporters a 1-page document describing the treatmentof the injury in the following terms: Shrapnel in left arm above elbow. Shrapnelremoved and apply Bacitracin dressing. Ret to duty. The Kerry campaign failed toanswer the Boston Globe reporters questions about whether or not Kerry remembered

receiving enemy fire or having the Purple Heart application questioned by a superiorofficer, but Kerry in a USA Today interview later remembered someone raising aquestion. Later, after Schachte, Letson, and Hibbards accounts of Kerrys wound werepublicized, readers of Brinkleys biography discovered a passage quoting an entry fromKerrys war diary written after December 11 where Kerry recorded that we hadnt beenshot at yet. After this was pointed out, Kerrys campaign acknowledged that Kerryswound may have been self-inflicted.13

Four days after the December 2 incident, Kerry was transferred to a more dangerousunit, Costal Division 11 at An Thoi, an isolated base on an island near an enemyposition. Brinkleys biography records that Kerry was opposed to this reassignment.

Witnesses Tedd Peck and William Franke report that Kerry began to complain he hadnot volunteered for this type of risky assignment and to demand that he be transferredback to safer coastal patrol duty. According to Peck and Franke, Kerrys superiorsdecided that the easiest way to deal with Kerry was to get rid of him. After a week withCoastal Division 11, Kerry was transferred on December 13 to Coastal Division 13 in CatLo, which had wider, less dangerous rivers. There he joined a unit which providedsupport to Zumwalts Operation SEALORDS.14

Within a few weeks Kerry was reassigned back to An Thoi, where his crewman SteveGardner states that he filed a false after-action report to cover up a January incident

involving the accidental shooting of a child. Kerrys fellow officer George Bates similarlystates that Kerry habitually overreacted to threatening situations by using excessiveforce, including on one occasion burning down a random village where there was nosign of enemy presence.15 During the month of January, Kerry was chosen to be one ofa group of officers to be personally introduced to Admiral Zumwalt and GeneralCreighton Abrams on the 22nd.16 Zumwalts Pentagon colleague W. Scott Thompsonlater recalled the Admiral complaining that young Kerry had created great problems forhim and the other top brass, by killing so many non-combatant civilians and going afterother non-military targets. We had virtually to straitjacket him to keep him undercontrol, the admiral said. Bud Zumwalt got it right when he assessed Kerry as havinglarge ambitionsbut promised that his career in Vietnam would haunt him if he were

ever on the national stage.17 Then-Captain Hoffmann (later a Rear Admiral) similarlyrecalls that in March, to deal with Kerrys habitual failure to obey orders, he made aspecial trip to Kerrys unit to deliver a warning that anyone who failed to obey orders inthe future would be shipped to Saigon without further notice.18


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Purple Heart #2: February 20, 1969


After-action and casualty reports: KERRYSUFFERED SHRAPNEL WOUNDS IN HIS LEFTTHIGH, WHEN PCF 94 CAME UNDERINTENSE A/W AND ROCKET FIRE.

Kerrys account to Douglas Brinkley:PCF 94 had taken a rocket-propelled grenade off the port side. ..Kerry felt a piece of hot shrapnel boreinto his left leg.

Witness Robert Hildreth: No rocket orrifle fire.

Coastal Division 11 Swift Boat gunnerVan Odell: Kerrys crew mentioned self-inflicted M-79 wound.

A month after his meeting with Zumwalt, on February 20, Kerry suffered another minorshrapnel injury, for which he was awarded a second Purple Heart. The after-action and

casualty reports for the incident stated that KERRY SUFFERED SHRAPNEL WOUNDS INHIS LEFT THIGH, WHEN PCF 94 CAME UNDER INTENSE A/W [automatic weapons] ANDROCKET FIRE. However the officer of the boat accompanying Kerrys, Robert RockyHildreth, states that Kerry filed a false after-action report describing enemy fire whichdid not occur. A sailor on another Swift Boat in Kerrys division, Van Odell, recalls thatwhen Kerrys crew came back that day, he heard them say Kerry had faked a PurpleHeart with a self-inflicted wound from an M-79 grenade launcher.19

Silver Star: February 28, 1969


Three versions of citation, firstincluding and last two omittingmention of Kerry shooting man

behind hootch, third versionbearing signature ofJohn Lehmanwho denies signing it.

Kerry to New Yorker in 1996: It was eithergoing to be him or it was going to be us. . . Hestood up out of a hole, and none of us saw himuntil he was standing in front of us, aiming arocket right at us, and, for whatever reason, hedidn't pull the triggerhe turned and ran.Kerry to Boston Globe in 1996: "I was never outof sight of Tom Bellodeau [Belodeau] or MikeMedeiros. . .I went straight out from the boat tothe path so I had a line of fire. I never went

behind the hootch. . ."

Witness Tom Bellodeau to Boston Globe in 1996prior to Kerrys statement: "You know, I shotthat guy. . .I expected the guy [on Kerry's boat]with the twin 50s to blast him but he couldn'tdepress the guns far enough. . .When I hit himhe went down and got up again. WhenKerry hit him, he stayed down."


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Witness Mike Medeiros as reported byAlamedaTimes-Star in 2004: Kerry's boat happened tohit the shore right in front of an enemy soldierholding a grenade launcher. The soldierstarted running, maybe to get enough distanceto be able to fire his weapon at the boat,Medeiros said. Kerry's forward gunner

managed to hit the guerrilla, who appearedto be a teenager, according to reports on theincident. Although he was hit in the leg, theguerrilla kept running with his weapon. ..Medeiros remembers Kerry jumping off the boatto give chase.I saw him running down thistrail after this guy, and I followed him,"Medeiros said. Just as I rounded a cornerbehind him, (Kerry) shot the guy.

Accompanying Swift Boat officer William Rood:Kerry, who had tactical command of thatparticular operation, had talked to Droz and mebeforehand about not responding the way theboats usually did to an ambush. We agreedthat if we were not crippled by the initial

volley and had a clear fix on the location ofthe ambush, we would turn directly into it,focusing the boats' twin .50-calibermachine guns on the attackers andbeaching the boats. We told our crews about

the plan. . .As we headed for the riverbank, Iremember seeing a loaded B-40 launcher pointedat the boats. It wasn't fired as two men jumpedup from their spider holes. We called Droz's boatup to assist us, and Kerry, followed by onemember of his crew, jumped ashore andchased a VC behind a hooch. . .Some whowere there that day recall the man beingwounded as he ran. Neither I nor Jerry Leeds,our boat's leading petty officer with whom I'vechecked my recollection of all these events,

recalls that, which is no surprise. Recollections ofthose who go through experiences like thatfrequently differ.

A week later, on February 28, Kerry was involved in an incident where he violatedstandard operating procedure by leaving his boat to chase an enemy on the shore, forwhich he was awarded a Silver Star. According to the after-action report, this incidentinvolved PCF-94 under Kerrys command, PCF-23 under Lieutenant William Rood, andPCF-43 under Lieutenant Donald Droz.


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Rood and Kerrys crewman Michael Medeiros have stated that Kerry and the officers ofthe boats with him had agreed beforehand that if they were fired upon they wouldbeach their boats. Another Swift Boat veteran, Larry Lee, reported the same and alsorecalled a prior discussion of probable medals for those participating. One of thegunners on Kerrys boat, Tom Belodeau, mentioned in an interview in 1996 that he hadalready shot the man before the man fled and Kerry pursued him: You know, I shotthat guy. . .When I hit him he went down and got up again. When Kerry hit him, he

stayed down. Later while appearing at a press conference with Kerry, Belodeau said hehad been misquoted in the interview in that he did not imply the man was lying on theground (apparently this is how Belodeau interpreted the quote that When I hit him hewent down and got up again), but while retracting this part of the article Mr.Belodeau did concede that he may have wounded the Viet Cong soldier with a burstfrom his own gun. Belodeaus account was consistent with accounts Medeiros gave in2004 in terms of the man being wounded and fleeing when Kerry shot him.

According to Kerrys account as reported by biographers Gerald Nicosia and DouglasBrinkley, paperwork was submitted requesting that Kerry be awarded a Navy Cross (avery rare award only given to 120 Naval personnel during the entire Vietnam War)20,

but Admiral Zumwalt intercepted the paperwork and changed the request to a SilverStar in order that he could authorize the request himself and bypass the lengthyprocess of Congressional approval, for the sake of boosting the morale of CoastalDivision 11, allegedly. But the paperwork for Kerrys Silver Star contains puzzlingdiscrepancies. According to the original Silver Star citation bearing Admiral Zumwaltssignature, Lieutenant (junior grade) KERRY leaped ashore, pursued the man behind ahootch and killed him. The original citation was later revised twice, and the tworevisions omit any mention of Kerry shooting the man behind the hootch. The thirdversion of the citation bears the signature of Reagan administration Secretary of theNavy John Lehman, who states, It is a total mystery to me. I never saw it. I never

signed it. I never approved it. And the additional language it contains was not writtenby me.21

Purple Heart #3 and Bronze Star: March 13, 1969


After-action report and casualty report:TWO TONS GRAIN AND RICEDESTROYED; MINE DETONATEDUNDER PCF-3 LIFTING BOAT ABOUT 2-3FT OUT OF THE WATER. . .OBSERVED AT

SAME TIME BOATS RCVD HEAVY A/WAND S/A FROM BOTH BANKS.FIRECONTINUED. . .ABOUT 5000 METERS.TWO OTHER MINE EXPLOSIONS OVCRVED. . .ATTEMPTED ASSIST PCF 3. PCF94 PICKED UP MSF ADVISOR WHO

WENT OVERBOARD. 94 TOWED PCF 3AS BUCKET BRIGADE CONTROLLEDFLOODING.; PCF-94 HULL REG NR50NS6678 BATTLE DAMAGE. . .TWO

Kerrys war journal:I got a piece ofsmall grenade in my ass from one ofthe rice bin explosions.

Rassman to Boston GlobeAugust 6, 2004:

Rassmann. . .said there were twoseparate events: One was earlier inthe day, when he and Kerry blew upa rice cache, and the explosion

caused some of the rice to hit Kerry,and perhaps some weapon fragmentsas well. The second involved a mineexplosion as Kerry and Rassmann were onpatrol. The explosion, Rassmann said,knocked him overboard and threw Kerry


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STBD AND ONE PORT MAIN CABINWINDOWS BLOWN OUT. VRC-46 RADIO

AND ALL REMOTE UNITS PILOT HOUSEINOP. AC WIRING SHORTED OUT. ONANGENERATOR INOP. STEERAGE CONTROL

AFTER HELM INOP. STBD BILGE PUMPBROKEN. SCREWS CURLED AND CHIPPED.

RADAR GEAR BOX FROZEN. MAIN ENGINESEXPERIENCED DROP; LTJG. JOHN F.KERRY. . .SHRAPNEL WOUND LEFTBUTTOCKAND CONTUSION RT.FOREARM (MINOR); KERRY SUFFEREDSHRAPNEL WOUNDS IN HIS LEFTBUTTOCKS AND CONTUSIONS ON HISRIGHT FOREARM WHEN A MINEDETONATED CLOSE ABOARD PCF-94;

Bronze Star citations substitutebleeding for contusions.

against the pilot house, injuring his arm.Rassmann said that he has alwaysbelieved that Kerry got the thirdPurple Heart solely for the injury tohis arm as a result of the explosion inthe water. 'If he got fragments in thebuttocks due to the mine, that is new

information to me,' Rassmann said. 'Iwould say there is confusion. Maybethey did lump it together. It was my

understanding he got it for thewound being thrown across the pilothouse.'"

PCF-51 skipper Larry Thurlow to New YorkPost: "'We decided to clear the area, andthat's when John decided to throw agrenade into a sampan,' Larry Thurlow, aSwift boat commander and member of theveterans group, told The Post. . .'He's notvery careful, and he ends up getting somerice in his backside.' But Thurlow, whosaid he heard the explosion, conceded toThe Post that he didn't see whathappenedhe was busy carrying the deadNung's bodyand was only told about itlater. 'I was taking this guy's body to theboat. I asked somebody nearby and they

said, 'John blew up a sampan with somerice.' "

Kerry at 1997 eulogy for Tom Belodeau:There was the time we were carryingSpecial Forces up a river and a mineexploded under our boat sending it 2feet into the air. We were receivingincoming rocket and small arms fire andTommy was returning fire with his M-60machine gun when it literally broke apart

in his hands. He was left holding thepieces unable to fire back while one of theGreen Berets walked along the edge of theboat to get Tommy another M-60. As hewas doing so, the boat made a highspeed turn to starboard and theGreen Beret kept goingstraight intothe river.

Kerry campaign press release, January 17,


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2004: On March 13, 1969, Rassmann, aGreen Beret, was traveling down theBay Hap river in a boat behindKerrys when both were ambushed byexploding land mines and enemy firecoming from the shore. Kerry was hit inthe arm, while a mine blew

Rassmanns boat out of the water.With enemy fire coming from both sidesof the river and swift boats evacuatingfrom the area, Kerrys crew chose to turntheir boat toward the ambush to saveRassmann. We were still under fire, andhe was wounded at the time, recalledRassmann. And with his boats gunnersproviding suppressing fire, Kerry extendedhis wounded arm into the water and thetwo lieutenants locked arms.

Rassmann at July 2004 DemocraticNational Convention, as reported by TheOregonian: Rassmann gave a detailedretelling to the Oregon delegates. Theformer Green Beret rememberedsitting on the deck of the pilothouseof Kerry's boat, eating a chocolate chipcookie, when an explosion under anearby boat blew him into the Bay

Hap River and caused Kerry to smashhis arm. Rassmann said he swam to thebottom of the river to avoid being run overby the escaping Swift boats. But everytime he came up for air, the enemyshot at him.

Kerrys PCF-94 crewmates David Alston,Eugene Thorson, and Michael Medeirosrecall hostile fire, while their fellowcrewmate Del Sandusky remembered

hostile fire but expressed uncertainty toNewsweekabout whether fire was stilloccurring when Rassmann was rescued:

Del Sandusky. . .says his boat wasjarred by an explosion, probably from arocket, knocking the soldier, JimRassmann, off the boat. Kerry was thrownagainst the bulkhead, injuring his arm.Sandusky says he could see muzzle


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flashes from the jungle and bulletsskimming across the water. Sandusky sayshe can't remember if anyone was stillshooting when Kerry pulled Rassmannfrom the river. . .

PCF-43 gunner Wayne Langhofer recalls

There was a lot of firing going on, and itcame from both sides of the river.

PCF-51 crewman Robert Lambert recalls amine exploding under PCF-3 and gunfireafterwords: When they blew the 3-boat,everyone opened up on the banks witheverything they had. . .That was thenormal procedure.

PCF-3 skipper Dick Pees, PCF-51 skipper

Larry Thurlow, PCF-23 skipper JackChernoweth, PCF-23 gunner Van Odell:Recall only one mine going off under PCF-3, recall no hostile fire.

Van Odell, PCF-23 gunner: As the 3 boatpassed the weir on the narrowest part ofthe river it was hit by a mine, which liftedit completely out of the water. Iimmediately began firing my twin

50s towards river left to suppressany fire. I fired a couple of hundredrounds and realized we were notreceiving any return fire from either bank.The other boats quit firing and wecommenced rescue operations for thePCF-3 crew and boat. WE DID NOTRECEIVE ANY FIRE FROM EITHER BANK.Our boat picked up members of thedisabled PCF-3.

Odell and Chernoweth to New York Post:"Rice and shrapnel were taken out ofKerry's backside, and his right forearmarm was X-rayed, medical recordssay. The arm was bruised but notbroken.A doctor wrapped it with an Acebandage. Just how badly the arm wasinjured remains a point of contention.Kerry said the arm was bleeding atone point, but Odell said, 'There was


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no blood on his uniform. He hadsomething wrapped around his arm.'Chenoweth talked with Kerry about theinjuries on the way back. 'He said he hada shrapnel wound to the hip and apossible broken armhis arm waswrapped in a white cloth.'"

Two weeks later, on March 13, 1969, Kerry received another pair of minor injuriesduring a set of incidents which resulted in him being awarded a third Purple Heart anda Bronze Star. According to the after-action report, five boats were involved in theevents: PCF-94, under Kerrys command; PCF-3, under Lieutenant Dick Pees; PCF-51;under Lieutenant Larry Thurlow; PCF-23, under Lieutenant Jack Chernoweth; and PCF-43, under Lieutenant Donald Droz.

The documentary record on these incidents is internally inconsistent. The after-actionreport mentions a mine going off UNDER PCF-3 and CLOSE ABOARD PCF-94.

However, the boat damage report lists no damage to PCF-3 but severe damage to PCF-94, which is described as having its wiring, generator, steering, and bilge pump ininoperable condition. Yet despite describing PCF-94 as being in this condition, thereport states that 94 TOWED PCF 3 AS BUCKET BRIGADE CONTROLLED FLOODING.The after-action report describes mine explosion injuries to several crew members ofPCF-3, but Kerry is the only one on PCF-94 listed with mine explosion injuries. Thereare no descriptions of bullet damage to any craft or crew. The after-action report andcasualty report state that KERRY SUFFERED SHRAPNEL WOUNDS IN HIS LEFTBUTTOCKS AND CONTUSIONS ON HIS RIGHT FOREARM WHEN A MINE DETONATEDCLOSE ABOARD PCF-94. The after-action report characterizes Kerrys right forearminjury as MINOR. The recommendation for Kerrys Bronze Star, submitted by Kerrys

commanding officer Lieutenant Commander George Elliott and citing as an eyewitnessKerrys second-in-command Del Sandusky, elaborates that a mine detonated closeaboard PCF-94, knocking 1st LT RASSMAN [James Rassmann] into the water andwounding LTJG KERRY in the right arm. . .LTJG KERRY. . .managed to pull LTRASSMAN aboard despite the painful wound in his right arm. Kerrys Bronze Starcitation, originally written by Admiral Zumwalt and later revised under SecretaryLehmans signature, substitutes for the above-mentioned contusions the detail thatKerrys arm was bleeding.

These self-contradictory documentary accounts are in further conflict with eyewitnessaccounts. Where the reports state that Kerrys buttocks injury occurred when the mineexploded, Brinkleys biography records the account of Kerrys war journal that theshrapnel in Kerrys buttocks came from throwing a grenade into a rice cacheas Kerrywrote, I got a piece of small grenade in my ass from one of the rice bin explosions.Rassmann recalls the rice explosion incident occurring prior to the incident where Kerrypulled him out of the water. Kerrys fellow officer Larry Thurlow reports that Kerrysbuttocks injury was a self-inflicted wound caused by Kerry setting off a grenade tooclose to a stock of rice he was trying to destroy. The after-action report mentions TWOTONS GRAIN AND RICE DESTROYED.


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Eyewitnesses are also in conflict with the documentary record and with each other overKerrys account of Rassmanns rescue. For instance, in a eulogy for Tom Belodeau in1997, Kerry recalled that it was a mine exploding under his own boat which knocked aGreen Beret overboard; but more recently Brinkleys biography recorded Kerrysrecollection that when Rassmann fell overboard he was sitting on another boat acrossthe river, PCF-3; while a Kerry campaign press release from January 17, 2004introduced Rassmann as traveling down the Bay Hap river in a boat behind Kerrys

when both were ambushed by exploding land mines and enemy fire coming from theshore. However when Rassman spoke to the Democratic National Convention in July2004 he described his memory of eating a cookie on Kerrys boat when a mine knockedhim in the water. Four witnesses from other boats, including the skipper of PCF-3,Lieutenant Dick Pees, only recall a mine going off under PCF-3, not under Kerrys boat.The after-action report states, MINE DETONATED UNDER PCF-3. . .TWO OTHER MINEEXPLOSIONS.

The same four witnesses who only recall a mine going off under PCF-3 also recall nohostile gunfire or rocket fire. In contrast, Kerrys crewmates and two members of otherboats recall what they interpreted as hostile fire. The after-action report says that

hostile fire continued for ABOUT 5000 METERS, but describes no bullet damage toany boat or bullet wounds to any crew members.

Finally, two witnesses to Kerrys arm injury, Van Odell and Jack Chernoweth, contendthat Kerrys arm was not bleeding, contrary to what Kerrys Bronze Star citation states.The after-action report concurs with this, describing Kerrys injury as CONTUSION RT.FOREARM (MINOR).22

In an attempt to explain the above discrepancies, some members of Kerrys patrol haverecalled that Kerry often volunteered to fill out the after-action reports. Larry Thurlow

relates, Back then, John would actually volunteer to write them up. . .Nobody wantedto write these things. . .You're already drained from hours out on whatever thesituation was. You wanted to clean up, get something to eat and get some sleep. J ohnwould say, 'I'll write this up.' [We'd say], 'Go for it, John.' Kerrys defenders havedismissed this as an unsubstantiated accusation, but in fact Kerry stands accused by hisown words. During his 1971 Senate testimony when Kerry was asked the question, "doyou think it is possible for the President or Congress to get accurate and undistortedinformation through official military channels?", he replied, "I had direct experience withthat. . .I can recall often sending in the spot reports which we made after each mission,and including the GDA, gunfire damage assessments, in which we would say, maybe 15sampans sunk or whatever it was. And I often read about my own missions in the Stars

and Stripes and the very mission we had been on had been doubled in figures andtripled in figures."23

According to Swift Boat commander Thomas Wright, following the above incidents,several of Kerrys Swift Boat comrades conferred about the fact that Kerry had beenwounded three times and was now eligible to be transferred from combat duty. Wrightthen approached Kerry and suggested it would be in everyones best interests if he tookthe opportunity to leave. Kerry was subsequently transferred to duty at a deskassignment in New York. Wright later recalled, When John Kerry got his Third PurpleHeart, we told him to leave. We knew how the system worked and we didnt want him


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in CosDiv11. Kerry didnt decide to manipulate the system to go home after fourmonths; we asked him to go home.24

Kerrys Medals Come Home to Haunt Him

Admiral Zumwalt had predicted that if Kerry ever became a national figure, his career inVietnam would come home to haunt him. Zumwalts prediction would come to prove

ironically accurate as the very medals Kerry had built his career upon became a sourceof scandal in his 2004 Presidential campaign.

After Kerry left Vietnam and joined the antiwar movement, he participated in an antiwarrally where he threw what he then claimed were his medals away (he has sincechanged his story). During this rally he also accused Admiral Zumwalt and his fellowservicemen of war crimes. Subsequently Zumwalt and his sons developed a strongdislike for Kerry.25

Despite this, surprisingly, Zumwalt temporarily became one of Kerrys politicalsupporters. After Zumwalts son Elmo III developed cancer symptoms which Zumwalt

believed had been caused by exposure to Agent Orange, Zumwalt began to supportlobbying efforts to compensate alleged victims of Agent Orange, a cause Kerry alsosupported as Senator. Subsequently in 1996, Kerry asked Zumwalt to attend a pressconference to defend him against a Boston Globe column by David Warsh suggestingthat Kerry had committed a war crime during the incident leading to his Silver Staraward, which Zumwalt had signed. Zumwalt agreed to bury the hatchet and, joined byothers formerly under his command, spoke in support of Kerrys award and Senatorialcampaign. Those who defended Kerry at that time have stated that their motivationwas to defend Kerry against what they perceived as unfair charges of him being a warcriminal, which reminded them how they had felt when Kerry had levelled unfaircharges against them in 1971. They have also stated that they were unaware of thediscrepancies in Kerrys account of how he got his awards, since Kerrys military recordshad not been released at that time and his biography had not been published.26

But after Zumwalt had passed on in 2000, his surviving son James grew angry whenKerrys old war crime accusations against the military were repeated in Brinkleysbiography during Kerrys 2004 campaign. James joined Roy Hoffmann and many ofKerrys other commanders and crew in supporting Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, whichopposes Kerrys Presidential candidacy on the grounds that he is unfit for command.27

Conclusion

The contradictions in Kerrys account of his decision to enlist, his recollections of howhe got his medals, and his flip-flopping from war protestor to war hero and back againreveal a consistent pattern of self-promoting deception, calculated to hide his left-wingpolitical views behind the mask of a paper hero. But Kerrys paper mask falls apartwhen his military record is scrutinized, and when his patriotic words are contrasted withhis actions after he came home from the war.

Next: Part 3: Hanoi John: Kerry and the Antiwar Movements Communist Connections


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Notes

1On the Bundy familys background and relationship to Frankfurter and Acheson, seeKai Bird, The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms: ABiography, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1998, 23-41, 65-66, 99-101, 106-107, 110-116, 161-170, 185-375; Bruce Allen Murphy, The Brandeis/Frankfurter Connection: TheSecret Political Activities of Two Supreme Court Justices, Oxford University Press, 1982;

Garden City: Anchor Books, 1983, 201-202; H.R. McMaster, Dereliction of Duty: LyndonJohnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Lies That Led to Vietnam,New York: HarperCollins, 1997, 117-118, 140-142, 160, 167, 180-189; Walter Isaacsonand Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made, New York:Simon & Schuster, 1986, 650-657, 698-699, 711-712; Douglas Brinkley, Dean Acheson:The Cold War Years, 1953-1971, New Haven: Yale University Press, 1992, 241, 257.

2Bird, 65-66, 396-397; Douglas Brinkley, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the VietnamWar, New York: William Morrow, 2004, 40-46, 57-58; Jacob Leibenluft, Kerry '66: 'Hewas going to be president': In JFK's shadow, a headstrong Kerry makes his run for theWhite House,YaleDailyNews.com,

http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=21803, February 14, 2003 (June 18,2004); Finlay Lewis, Kerrys political ambitions date back to his youth,SignOnSanDiego.com: The San Diego Union-Tribunehttp://www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/federal/20040719-9999-1n19youth.html, July 19, 2004 (August 5, 2004).

3Charles Sennott, The Making of the Candidates: John Forbes Kerry, The BostonGlobe, .October 6, 1996; Different Forever: John Kerry Says Killing in WarPermanently Changes Soldiers,

ABCNEWS.comhttp://abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Vote2004/kerry_vietnam_DNC_

040729-1.html, July 29, 2004 (August 27, 2004).4Brinkley, Tour of Duty, 61-62; Leibenluft; Gerald Nicosia, Home to War: A History ofthe Vietnam Veterans Movement, New York: Crown Publishers, 2001, 70.

5Samuel Z. Goldhaber, John Kerry: A Navy Dove Runs for Congress, The HarvardCrimson, February 18, 1970, reprinted at The Harvard Crimson Online,http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=352185 (June 18, 2004); CharlesLaurence, Revealed: how war hero Kerry tried to put off Vietnam military duty,telegraph.co.uk,http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wkerr07.xml&sSh

eet=/news/2004/03/07/ixnewstop.htm l, June 18, 2004 (June 18, 2004).

6Sennott.

7 Michael Kranish, Heroism, and growing concern about war, June 16, 2003, Part 2 ofJohn F. Kerry: Candidate in the Making, The Boston Globe,http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml, June 15-21, 2003(August 5, 2004).
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=21803%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/federal/20040719-9999-1n19youth.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/federal/20040719-9999-1n19youth.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Vote2004/kerry_vietnam_DNC_040729-1.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Vote2004/kerry_vietnam_DNC_040729-1.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=352185%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wkerr07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/07/ixnewstop.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wkerr07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/07/ixnewstop.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wkerr07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/07/ixnewstop.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wkerr07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/07/ixnewstop.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=352185%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Vote2004/kerry_vietnam_DNC_040729-1.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/abcnews.go.com/sections/Politics/Vote2004/kerry_vietnam_DNC_040729-1.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/federal/20040719-9999-1n19youth.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.signonsandiego.com/news/politics/federal/20040719-9999-1n19youth.html%E2%80%9Dhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203448/%E2%80%9Dhttp:/www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=21803%E2%80%9D


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8John Forbes Kerry, Contract for Officer Candidate, February 18, 1966,JohnKerry.com,http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Officer_Candidate_Agreement.pdf(August18, 2004); John E. ONeill and Jerome R. Corsi, Unfit for Command: Swift Boat VeteransSpeak Out Against John Kerry, Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2004, 23. Cf.Brinkley, Tour of Duty, 65.

9

John Forbes Kerry, Duty Recommendation Form, December 16, 1966,JohnKerry.com, http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Duty_Recommendation.pdf(August 18, 2004).

10See Edward J. Marolda, By Sea, Air, and Land: An Illustrated History of the U.S. Navyand the War in Southeast Asia, Washington, DC: Navy Historical Center,, Department ofthe Navy, 1994, Chapter 3, online at Department of the Navy: Naval Historical Center,http://www.history.navy.mil/seairland/index.html (August 15, 2004).

11Kranish, Heroism, and growing concern about war, citing Stephen Weiss, ClarkDougan, David Fulghum, and Denis Kennedy, The Vietnam Experience: A War

Remembered, Boston: Boston Publishing Company, 1986. Cf. Nicosia, 70.

12L.E. Pentz, Second Endorsement on BUPERS HSG 212217 Jun 68 (BUPERS Order Nr1300398), November 17, 1968, JohnKerry.com,http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Change_of_Duty.pdf, 3, (August 28, 2004);Nicosia, 70; Brinkley, Tour of Duty, 104-106, 109; Marolda, Chapter 4; Elmo R.Zumwalt, Jr., On Watch: A Memoir, New York: Quadrangle/The New York Times BookCo., 1976, 36-38; Elmo Zumwalt, Jr. and Elmo Zumwalt III, My Father, My Son, withJohn Pekkanen, New York: Macmillan Publishing Company, 1986, 45-47; Roy LatchHoffmann, Disinfopedia, (August 4, 2004).

13Grant W. Hibbard, Report on the Fitness of Officers, December 17, 1968,JohnKerry.com, http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Fitness_Reports.pdf, 18-19,(August 28, 2004); Donald A. Still, Commander U.S. Naval Support Activity, Saigon toLTJG John F. Kerry, USN, Purple Heart Award; presentation of, February 28, 1969,JohnKerry.com,http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Purple_Heart_1_Citation.pdf(August 28,200

john kerrys communist & fellow traveller connections

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