A tale of two Kerrys

On Feb. 27, 1992, Kerry , defending then candidate Clinton's position during the Vietnam war stated:

"I am saddened by the fact that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign, and that it has been inserted in what I feel to be the worst possible way… What saddens me most is that Democrats, above all those who shared the agonies of that generation, should now be re-fighting the many conflicts of Vietnam in order to win the current political conflict of a presidential primary.”


October 1992
In a television interview, President Bush questioned Clinton’s involvement in anti-war protests while a Rhodes scholar at Oxford and a trip by Clinton to Moscow as a post-graduate student in 1969.

Kerry deafened then Governor Clinton by stating:

“Why do you choose yourself {Pres Bush}to bring back the memory that only four years ago you said sundered this nation? Is your desire to hold office really so great that you would betray your own sense of decency and fairness? Is your desperation now really so great that you would adopt a conscious strategy of reopening and pouring salt on some of the most painful wounds that our nation has ever expected?"

He went on to say:

“You and I know that if service or non-service in the war is to become a test of qualification for high office, you would not have a vice president, nor would you have a secretary of defense, and our nation would never recover from the divisions created by that war.”

For the previous quotes see the Hill News


John Kerry NOW:(from his Web site)

1. excerpts:
"Next week, when he formally announces his presidential campaign in Charleston, S.C., Mr. Kerry will stand in front of a World War II aircraft carrier that was used in Vietnam and beside crew members from his tour of duty as a patrol boat officer in the Mekong Delta, where he won the Silver Star, the Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts."


"Wherever Senator Kerry goes these days, he talks about his war record. In doing so, Mr. Kerry is identifying his campaign with his service in Vietnam more closely than others who have run, like Senator John McCain and former Vice President Al Gore. So far, he has skirted the controversies that surrounded that war, which he fought in and then marched against, as he uses it to present himself as a battle-hardened Democrat who can handle the national security challenges that each party believes will be central to next year's election. He is also seeking to show that he can withstand the kinds of attacks that Republicans have successfully made on Democrats in past elections over issues of national security."

Far from merely immunizing himself to attack, Mr. Kerry appears to be using his own record to highlight the shortcomings of his opponents in the Democratic primary, none of whom saw combat.

2. Kerry campaigns, reunites with Vietnam crewman


3.
Next month the historian Douglas Brinkley will publish the first full-scale, intimate account of Kerry's Navy career. {Tour of Duty}

Lesson: when it is politically expedient, John Kerry will go back on his previous positions to gain a political advantage.