(HUMAN EVENTS) In popular wisdom, one-time presidential runner-up Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) is likely to be nominated by President Barack Obama for Secretary of Defense or Secretary of State. But if Kerry does get the nod, a group credited with helping to thwart his presidential bid could re-organize to take him down once again.
The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, a group formed of military veterans who served alongside Kerry, worked to bring attention to the senator’s anti-war activities following his military service and to raise doubts about the truth of Kerry’s own accounts of his conduct during the war and his overall portrayal of events in Vietnam.
Dozens of vets who, like Kerry, served aboard swift boats in Vietnam, prodded the then-presidential candidate to release his complete military records. And they castigated him for giving testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 about American war crimes in Vietnam–“glorification of body counts,” destruction of villages, and numerous atrocities–all of which, the veterans said, were exaggerated or falsified.
