John Kerry’s peculiar attacks on his opponents, from 1970′s Mendel Rivers to today’s Dick Cheney: “I fought, you didn’t. So shut up.”
Background
From Mendel Rivers in 1970 to George Bush, to Dick Cheney last night, this has been John Kerry’s message to his opponents for almost 35 years. See how similar to today are the comments over a third of a century old, from Kerry’s interview in the Harvard Crimson in 1970:
In America, “everybody who’s against the war is suddenly considered anti-American,” Kerry said. “But I don’t think they can turn to me and say I don’t know what’s going on or I’m a draft dodger.” Referring to the House Armed Services Committee, chaired by L. Mendel Rivers (D-S.C.), Kerry said, “I want to go down to Washington and confront Mendel Rivers, who never fought in a war.
The Peculiarity of the Attack on Mendel Rivers
Mendel Rivers was born in 1905, making him 18 in 1923, well into the post-WWI return to normalcy; he was 36 and a Democratic congressman from South Carolina serving on the Naval Affairs Committee when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor. There was no opportunity for him to have “fought in a war.”
Moreover, Rivers was known as the “GI’s friend” in congress. He served continuously on military affairs committtes for almost 30 years until his death in December 1970, and at that time he had been chairman of the Armed Services committee for about six years. The nuclear submarine USS L. Mendel Rivers (SSN – 686) served from 1975-2000.
The Peculiarity of the Attack on Dick Cheney
The military draft was in constant use in the United States from November 1940 through February 1973. Of over 15 million men of draft age (18-25.9) in the nine year Vietnam portion of the draft, 1.9 million were drafted, quite a small percentage. Throughout the Vietnam war, married men were not drafted. Graduate school deferments were routine until 1968 when the policy was announced March 6, 1967 by the Johnson administration was implemented.
Born in 1941, Dick Cheney was married in 1964 and in graduate school through and beyond his 26th birthday. There is no way he would have been drafted.
The Peculiarity of John Kerry’s Contradictory Statements
Those would be, of course, John Kerry’s statements about himself.
Mike Kranish, in his Globe profile of John Kerry, tells a moving story about Kerry’s volunteering for Vietnam as part of a group of four Bonesmen, David Thorne (future brother-in-law), Fred Smith (who founded FedEx), and the leader, Kerry’s best friend from age 13, dashing Dick Pershing (the grandson of the general). “When a war comes along, you go,” Pershing is quoted as saying in the Kranish piece. Sadly, Pershing died in combat on 2/17/68, and this devastated Kerry (see his letter to his parents attached to the Globe piece). From the Globe profile, you get the feeling that Kerry felt part of a young, elite group up for some derring-do, until his friend’s death shattered that fantasy world.
From the 1970 Harvard Crimson interview, you get quite a different impression, that of a reluctant Kerry, only joining the Navy because his deferment was denied. As with all matters Kerry, which (if either) is the true version?
Kerry’s two versions have this in common: whether he started out gung-ho or reluctantly joined the Navy, by 1970 he was totally anti-US-military, wanting to see US “troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations.”
Conclusion
There was no rational basis for Kerry’s criticism of Mendel Rivers, who was already a 36 year old congressman when WWII broke out, but who devoted thirty years of his life to being the “GI’s friend” in Congress. Similarly, there is no rational basis for Kerry’s criticism of Dick Cheney, who was not eligible to be drafted for at least two reasons (a third: could he have passed the physical?), but who served as SecDef and VP during three of the most successful military operations in US history.
Rivers and Cheney have this in common: being strongly pro-military. Could this be what really irks John Kerry?