Vets' Feelings Mixed Over Kerry's Service
Aug. 15, 2004 -- There are veterans supporting John Kerry at most campaign events. …
"I feel good about the fact that he was a vet; I feel good about his loyalty," says Roland McAlpin, a Army veteran of the Vietnam War.
… And there are others backing attack ads against him on TV, or accusing him of being a fake.
"It wouldn't hurt if he were to come clean, if he were to fess up," says Gordy Evans, a former Marine in Vietnam.
According to recent polls, the nearly 27-million-member-strong veterans constituency is as divided — or slightly in favor of President Bush — as the rest of Americans.
The only thing the vets can agree on during this contentious debate over war records and military service nearly 40 years ago is it's always good to have a president who's also a veteran.
"The presidents that I fought under were much less likely to go to war if they'd been shot at when they were young," says Pete McCloskey, a former eight-term Republican congressman.
Personal Beliefs
Everything else about candidate Kerry's war record has divided Vietnam veterans as deeply as the war itself, mostly according to their own personal politics.
Some are angry about Kerry's very public protests, and testimony before Congress, after the war.
"As a veteran, my issue with Kerry is the fact is that he came back in '71 and lied to Congress," says Tom Callinan, a former Marine and Vietnam veteran. "He represented that all of us were baby-killers and burned down villages. And it was just the opposite."
Evans, a Marine reconnaissance pilot and forward air controller in Vietnam, still believes Kerry's statements about American atrocities and war policy were treasonous.
"His photo hangs in a Hanoi museum in a war crimes room," Evans says, "and he's listed as a foreign hero."
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