Abstract

Kerry's Army

The author discusses U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry's efforts to win the votes of fellow Vietnam War veterans. Written off only a few weeks ago as heir to Gore's Herman Munster stiffness, Kerry has--at least in two states--aroused a hidden constituency of people who see him as a loyal comrade who honors with stubborn memory the horrors they lived, in Southeast Asia and back home. Far more than Clark, Kerry---despite his elite family background--reflects the psychic rip still felt by many vets: the bonds forged by military service combined with a still-unhealed sense of betrayal by bad leadership in a bad cause. He is both the decorated battle veteran and the leader of veterans who threw their decorations back on the steps of the Capitol. Kerry seems singularly committed to portraying himself not as a solitary hero but as part of a cohort. Everywhere he goes his advance party includes a phalanx of Vietnam vets. Vietnam-era veterans are, in theory, a formidable voting bloc of 8.4 million, not to mention their families. Counting on them, though, is a high-risk strategy. For many, the war in Vietnam remains a source of grief and alienation. And the war in Iraq---initiated amid Tonkin-scale disinformation, celebrated by a President who dodged Vietnam combat service, now requiring thousands of troops to fight an endless counterinsurgency--rouses many of those emotions anew.