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John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. In 2004, he ran an unsuccessful bid for the presidency as the Democratic Party's nominee, losing to incumbent president George W. Bush.
Early life and education
Kerry was born at the Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, Colorado outside Denver. His father, Richard Kerry, a World War II Army Air Corps test pilot, had been undergoing treatment there for tuberculosis.
Kerry's family returned to their home state of Massachusetts shortly after his birth. His family was Roman Catholic, and as a child John served as an altar boy.
Family background Kerry's paternal grandfather, Frederick A. Kerry (born Fritz Kohn), was born on May 10, 1873 in the town of Horni Benesov, Austria-Hungary (in what is now the Moravian-Silesian Region of the Czech Republic), and grew up in Mödling, Austria (a small town near Vienna). His wife Ida (née Loewe) was born in Budapest, Hungary. They were both German-speaking Jews. But in 1901, Fritz Kohn converted from Judaism to Catholicism and changed his name to Frederick Kerry. His wife Ida also converted at the same time. They then immigrated to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island in 1905. They raised their three children, including John's father, as Catholics. A Czech historian believes that Ida was a descendant of Sinai Loew, one of three older brothers of Rabbi Judah Loew (1525-August 22, 1609), a famous Kabbalist, philosopher and talmudist known as the Maharal of Prague. Two of Ida's siblings, Otto Loewe and Jenni Loewe, died in the Nazi extermination camps (Theresienstadt and Treblinka, respectively), after being deported from Vienna in 1942. Frederick A. Kerry himself committed suicide in a Boston hotel on November 23, 1921.
Richard John Kerry, John's father, was born on July 28, 1915 in Massachusetts. After a stint in the U.S. Army Air Corps, he worked for the Foreign Service and served as an attorney for the Bureau of United Nations Affairs in the U.S. Department of State. In 1937, he met Rosemary Forbes, a member of the wealthy Forbes family. One of eleven children, she studied to be a nurse, and served in the Red Cross in Paris during World War II (she also was a Girl Scout leader for 50 years). The couple married in Montgomery, Alabama in January 1941.
John Kerry's maternal grandfather, James Grant Forbes, was born in Shanghai, China, where the Forbes family of China and Boston accumulated a fortune in the opium and China trade. Forbes married Margaret Tyndal Winthrop, who came from a family with deep roots in New England history. Through her, John Kerry is related to four Presidents, including, ironically, George W. Bush (ninth cousin, twice removed). [1] (http://www.familyforest.com/Kerry_Bush_Cousins.html) [2] (http://msn.ancestry.com/landing/strange/bush4/tree.htm)
A common misconception among many Americans is that John Forbes Kerry is related to billionaire publisher Malcolm Forbes and his son Steve Forbes, the latter of whom twice sought the Republican Presidential nomination. In fact, the two Forbes clans are not related.
Another common misconception regarding Kerry's upbringing is that his immediate family was wealthy. In truth, the Forbes family enjoyed a great fortune, but John's parents themselves were upper-middle class. Although John attended elite schools throughout Europe and New England, the tuition was paid by a wealthy great-aunt, as Richard Kerry's salary could not accommodate the schools attended by the Kerry children. However, John did mix and mingle with the upper class. Summers were spent at the Forbes family estate in France, and John enjoyed much greater extravagance there than he had come to know back in Massachusetts.
Childhood years Kerry says his first memory is from three, of holding his crying mother's hand while they walked through the broken glass and rubble of her childhood home in Saint-Briac, France. The memorable visit came shortly after the United States had liberated Saint-Briac from the Nazis on August 14, 1944. The family estate, known as Les Essarts, had been occupied and used as a Nazi headquarters during the war. When the Germans fled, they bombed Les Essarts and burnt it down.
The sprawling estate was rebuilt in 1954. Kerry and his parents would often spend the summer holidays there. Kerry occupied his time there racing his cousins on bicycles and challenging relatives to games of kick the can. During these summers, he became good friends with his first cousin Brice Lalonde, a future Socialist and Green Party leader in France who ran for president of France in 1981.
Because Kerry's family moved often, he attended several schools as a child. Many years later, he said that "to my chagrin, and everlasting damnation, I was always moving on and saying goodbye. It kind of had an effect on you. It steeled you. There wasn't a lot of permanence and roots. For kids, [that's] not the greatest thing." At an early age he attended St. Albans School in Washington D.C. He then went to a Swiss boarding school at age 11 while his family lived in Berlin. When he visited home, he biked around the city, exploring the ruins of the former Nazi capital, and even sneaking into the Soviet Sector, until his father found out and grounded him. As a boy, Kerry often spent time alone. He biked through France, took a ferry from Norway to England, one time camping alone in Sherwood Forest. While attending the boarding school, Kerry saw the film Scaramouche, which became his favorite movie. He later named his powerboat after the title character.
Boarding school (1957-1962) John Kerry (right) in the St. Paul's yearbook, 1962, along with fellow members of the debate team While his father was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, Kerry was sent to Massachusetts to attend boarding school. In 1957, he attended the Fessenden School in West Newton, a village in Newton, Massachusetts. There he met and became friends with Richard Pershing, grandson of the famed U.S. Gen. John Joseph Pershing.
The following year, he enrolled at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and graduated from there in 1962. His father's Foreign Service salary was not enough to pay the school's tuition; Kerry's childless great-aunt, Clara Winthrop, then very much advanced in age, voluntarily covered the costs. At St. Paul's, Kerry felt like an outsider because he was a Catholic and liberal while most of his fellow students were Republican Episcopalians.
Despite having difficulty fitting in, he made friends and developed his interests. He learned skills in public speaking and he became deeply interested in politics. In his free time, he enjoyed ice hockey and lacrosse, which he played on teams captained by classmate Robert S. Mueller III, the current director of the FBI. Kerry also played electric bass for the prep school's band The Electras, which produced an album in 1961. Only 500 copies were made. In 2004, one of the copies was auctioned on eBay for $2,551.
In 1959 Kerry founded the John Winant Society at St. Paul's to debate the issues of the day; the Society still exists there. In November of 1960, Kerry gave his first political speech, in favor of John F. Kennedy's election to the White House.
While living in the U.S., Kerry spent several summers at the Forbes family's estates on Naushon Island off Cape Cod.
Encounters with President Kennedy (1962) In 1962, Kerry volunteered for Edward Kennedy's first Senatorial campaign. That summer, he began dating Janet Jennings Auchincloss (now deceased), Jacqueline Kennedy's half-sister. Auchincloss invited Kerry to visit her family's estate, Hammersmith Farm in Rhode Island. It was there that Kerry met President Kennedy for the first time.
When Kerry told Kennedy that he was about to enter Yale University, Kennedy grimaced because he had gone to rival school Harvard University. Kerry later recalled, "He smiled at me, laughed and said, 'Oh, don't worry about it. You know I'm a Yale man too now.'" According to Kerry, "The President uttered that famous comment about how he had the best of two worlds now: a Harvard education and Yale degree," in reference to the honorary degree he had received from Yale a few months earlier. Later that day, a White House photographer snapped a photo of Kerry sailing with Kennedy and his family in Narragansett Bay. They met again a few weeks later at the America's Cup race off the coast of Rhode Island.
Yale University (1962-1966) Kerry (top, middle) also played on the hockey team. In 1962, Kerry entered Yale University. There he majored in political science and graduated with a B.A. in 1966. He also played on the soccer, hockey, lacrosse, and fencing teams; in addition, he took flying lessons. To earn extra money during the summers, he loaded trucks in a grocery warehouse and sold encyclopedias door to door.
In his sophomore year Kerry became president of the Yale Political Union. His involvement with the Political Union gave him an opportunity to be involved with important issues of the day, such as the civil rights movement and Kennedy's New Frontier program. He was also inducted into the Skull and Bones Society.
Under the guidance of the speaking coach and history professor Rollin Osterweis, Kerry won dozens of debate contests against other college students from across the nation. In March 1965, as the Vietnam War escalated, he won the Ten Eyck prize as the best orator in the junior class for a speech that was critical of U.S. foreign policy. In the speech he said, "It is the specter of Western imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism, and thus it is self-defeating." [3] (http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=21803)
Because of his public speaking skills, he was chosen to give the class oration at graduation. At the last moment, he rewrote his speech from the version that had already been published. The speech he delivered was a broad criticism of American foreign policy, including the war.
Military service (1966-1970) Kerry served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War, during the period from 1966 to 1970. His last tour in Vietnam was four months as officer in charge of a Swift boat in 1969. Kerry received several combat medals during this tour, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and Purple Heart. Kerry's military record received considerable attention during his political career, especially during his unsuccessful 2004 bid for the presidency.
Commission, training, and tour of duty on the USS Gridley Historian Douglas Brinkley wrote Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War. On February 18, 1966, Kerry enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve. [4] (http://www.johnkerry.com/pdf/jkmilservice/Request_For_History_of_Service.pdf) He began his active duty military service on August 19. After completing sixteen weeks of Officer Candidate School at the U.S. Naval Training Center in Newport, Rhode Island, he received his commission on December 16.
On January 3, 1967 Kerry began a ten-week Officer Damage Control Course at the Naval Schools Command on Treasure Island, California. On March 22, he reported to the U.S. Fleet Anti-Air Warfare Training Center for training as a Combat Information Center Watch Officer.
Kerry's first tour of duty was as an ensign on the guided missile frigate USS Gridley. On February 9, 1968, the Gridley set sail for a Western Pacific deployment. The next day, Kerry requested duty in Vietnam, listing as his first preference a position as the commander of a Fast Patrol Craft (PCF), also known as a "Swift boat." These 50-foot boats have aluminum hulls and have little or no armor, but are heavily armed and rely on speed. (Kerry's second choice was to be an officer in a river patrol boat, or "PBR", squadron.) "I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing." [5] (http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml)
The Gridley traveled to several places, including Wellington in New Zealand, Subic Bay in the Philippines, and the Gulf of Tonkin off North Vietnam. The executive officer of the Gridley has described the deployment: "We deployed from San Diego to the Vietnam theatre in early 1968 after only a six-month turnaround and spent most of a four month deployment on rescue station in the Gulf of Tonkin, standing by to pick up downed aviators. It was a fairly grueling tour of duty. Our helicopter was shot up trying to rescue a downed pilot and the door gunner was killed. The crew performed well and John Kerry’s performance in all aspects of his duty was outstanding." [6] (http://home.nycap.rr.com/pwcarter/the%20kerry%20page.html) The ship departed for the U.S. on May 27 and returned to port at Long Beach, California on June 6. Ten days after returning, on June 16, Kerry was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant, junior grade. On June 20, he left the Gridley for special Swift boat training at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado.
Kerry's tour of duty as commander of a Swift boat This is an excerpt from the letter Kerry sent to his commanding officer on February 10, 1968. The first line reads, "I request duty in Vietnam." On November 17, 1968, Kerry reported for duty at Coastal Squadron 1 in Cam Ranh Bay in South Vietnam. Kerry took part in Operation Sea Lords, the brainchild of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt. The goal was to project a U.S. military presence more aggressively into an area that had long been a Viet Cong stronghold. As part of that plan, the Swift boats were assigned to patrol the narrow waterways — inlets, canals, and coves — of the Mekong River delta, to monitor enemy movements, interdict enemy river-based supply lines, invite attack and otherwise draw out hostile forces.
During his tour of duty as an Officer in Charge of Swift boats, Kerry led five-man crews on patrols into enemy-controlled areas. His first command was Swift boat PCF-44, from December 6, 1968 to January 21, 1969, when the crew was disbanded. They were based at Coastal Division 13 at Cat Lo from December 13 to January 6. Otherwise, they were stationed at Coastal Division 11 at An Thoi. On January 30, Kerry took charge of PCF-94 and its crew, which he led until he departed An Thoi on March 26 and the crew was disbanded. [7] (http://homepage.mac.com/chinesemac/kerry_medals/#vietnam_service)
First Purple Heart During the night of December 2, 1968 and early morning of December 3, Kerry was in charge of a small boat operating in and around a peninsula north of Cam Ranh Bay together with a Swift boat (PCF-60). Kerry's boat surprised a group of men unloading sampans at a river crossing, who began to run. When the men refused to obey an order to stop running, Kerry and his crew of two enlisted men opened fire, destroyed the sampans, and took off. During this encounter, Kerry suffered a shrapnel wound in the left arm above the elbow. The shrapnel was removed and the wound was treated with bacitracin antibiotic and bandaged. Kerry returned to duty the next day on a regular Swift boat patrol. Kerry was awarded his first Purple Heart for this injury.
Meeting with Zumwalt and Abrams At the time, the U.S. military command in Vietnam had an established policy of "free-fire zones" — areas in which soldiers were to shoot anyone moving around after curfew, without first making sure that they were hostile. Such encounters could result in the deaths of innocent civilians. Kerry has stated that he never thought he or his crew were at fault: "There wasn't anybody in that area that didn't know you don't move at night, that you don't go out in a sampan on the rivers, and there's a curfew." Nevertheless, he soon concluded that the policy should be changed.
On January 22, 1969, Kerry and several other officers had an unusual meeting in Saigon with Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, the commander of U.S. Naval forces in Vietnam, and U.S. Army General Creighton Abrams, the overall commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam. Kerry and the other officers reported that the "free-fire" policy was alienating the Vietnamese and that the Swift boats' actions were not accomplishing their ostensible goal of interdicting Viet Cong supply lines. According to some who retell the story, Kerry and the other visiting officers' concerns were dismissed with what amounted to a pep talk. One of the other officers who participated later recalled, "We all looked at each other and thought, 'What is this crap?'" Kerry later said that the Saigon meeting left him "more depressed than when I came."
Second Purple Heart Kerry received his second Purple Heart for action on the Bo De river on February 20, 1969. The plan had been for the Swift boats to be accompanied by support helicopters. On the way up the Bo De, however, the helicopters were attacked. They returned to their base to refuel and were unable to return to the mission for several hours. Kerry recorded the situation in his notebook: "We therefore had a choice: to wait for what was not a confirmed return by the helos [and] give any snipers more time to set up an ambush for our exit or we could take a chance and exit immediately without any cover. We chose the latter."
As the Swift boats reached the Cua Lon river, Kerry's boat was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade round, and a piece of hot shrapnel hit Kerry's left leg. Thereafter, they had no more trouble, and reached the Gulf of Thailand safely. Kerry still has shrapnel in his left thigh because the doctors tending to him decided to remove the damaged tissue and close the wound with sutures rather than make a wide opening to remove the shrapnel. Kerry received his second Purple Heart for this injury, but he did not take any time off from duty.
Silver Star Kerry with his crew after the medal ceremony, March 6, 1969. Top, from left: Del Sandusky, John Kerry, Gene Thorson, Thomas Belodeau. Bottom, from left: Mike Medeiros and Fred Short. Only eight days later, on February 28, came the incident for which Kerry was awarded the Silver Star. On this occasion, Kerry was in tactical command of his Swift boat and two others. Their mission included bringing a demolition team and dozens of South Vietnamese soldiers to destroy enemy sampans, structures and bunkers. Along the Bay Hap river, they ran into an ambush. Kerry directed the boats "to turn to the beach and charge the Viet Cong positions" and he "expertly directed" his boat's fire and coordinated the deployment of the South Vietnamese troops, according to Admiral Zumwalt's original medal citation.
After the South Vietnamese troops and a team of three U.S. Army advisors that were with them had disembarked at the ambush site, Kerry's boat and another headed up river to look for the fleeing enemy. The two boats came under fire from a Viet Cong B-40 rocket-propelled grenade, shattering the crew cabin windows of PCF-94. Kerry ordered the boats to turn and charge the second ambush site. As they reached the shore, a Viet Cong soldier jumped out of the brush, carrying a loaded B-40 launcher. With the enemy soldier only a short distance away from the boat and crew, forward gunner Tommy Belodeau shot him in the leg with the boat's 7.62x51 caliber M-60 machine gun. "Tommy in the pit tank winged him in the side of the legs as he was coming across," Fred Short said. "But the guy didn't miss a stride. I mean, he did not break stride." Belodeau's machine gun jammed after he fired, and while fellow crewmate Michael Medeiros attempted to fire, he was unable to do so. Kerry leaped ashore and, followed by Medeiros, pursued the man and killed him. The medal citation notes that Kerry "then led an assault party and conducted a sweep of the area" until the enemy had "been completely routed." The mission was judged highly successful for having destroyed numerous targets and confiscated substantial combat supplies while sustaining no casualties.
Kerry's commanding officer, Lieutenant George Elliott, joked that he didn't know whether to court-martial him for beaching the boat without orders or give him a medal for saving the crew. Elliott recommended Kerry for the Silver Star, and Zumwalt flew into An Thoi to personally award medals to Kerry and the rest of the sailors involved in the mission. The Navy's account of Kerry's actions is presented in the original medal citation signed by Zumwalt. In addition, the after-action reports for this mission are available, along with the original press release written on March 1, a historical summary dated March 17, and more. [8] (http://homepage.mac.com/chinesemac/kerry_medals/#silver_star)
Sources close to Kerry say the incident had a profound effect on him: "It's the reason he gets so angry when his patriotism is challenged. It was a traumatic experience that's still with him, and he went through it for his country." It affects the way Kerry lives his life every day, the source said, since "he knows he very well would not be alive today had he not taken the life of another man [he] never ever met." [9] (http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Nightline/Politics/kerry_medal_040624-1.html)
Bronze Star and third Purple Heart Kerry (far right) with four of the five members of his crew in March 1969. The others are (from left) gunner Gene Thorson, David Alston, Thomas Belodeau, and Del Sandusky, Kerry's second-in-command. The fifth crewman, Michael Medeiros, took the photograph. On March 13, five Swift boats were returning to base together on the Bay Hap river from their missions that day. A mine detonated directly beneath one of the boats (PCF-3), lifting it into the air. Shortly thereafter, another mine exploded near Kerry's boat (PCF-94). James Rassmann, a Green Beret advisor who was sitting on the deck of the pilothouse eating a chocolate chip cookie, was knocked overboard. Just afterwards, the boat came under attack from both sides of the bank. Rassmann dived to the bottom of the river. Coming back up for air, the enemy repeatedly fired at him. Rassmann was heading to the north bank, expecting to be taken prisoner, when Kerry realized he was gone and came back for him.
The Navy's account of Kerry's actions is presented in his medal citation:
- Lt. Kerry directed his gunners to provide suppressing fire, while from an exposed position on the bow, his arm bleeding and in pain, with disregard for his personal safety, he pulled the man aboard. Lt. Kerry then directed his boat to return and assist the other damaged craft and towed the boat to safety. Lt. Kerry's calmness, professionalism and great personal courage under fire were in keeping with the highest traditions of the US Naval Service. (Wikisource)
PCF-94 received special recognition from Captain Roy Hoffmann, the commander of Task Force 115 (which included Coastal Division 11), on March 14 in his weekly report to his men: - Special recognition is due to the following unit this week, for exceptional performance: To PCF 94 for providing extraordinary assistance to PCF 3 which was seriously damaged by a mine explosion while proceeding down the Bay Hap [river]. PCF 94 picked up the MSF advisor out of the water and towed PCF 3 out of the danger area. PCF 43, 51, and 23 all assisted in suppression of automatic weapons and small arms fire, evacuation of wounded in action, and damage control effort on PCF 3. [10] (http://homepage.mac.com/chinesemac/kerry_medals/#bronze_star)
After the dazed and injured crew of PCF-3 had been rescued, PCFs 43 and 23 left the scene to evacuate the four most seriously wounded sailors. PCFs 51 and 94 remained behind and helped salvage the stricken boat together with a damage-control party that had been immediately dispatched to the scene.
Kerry was wounded twice that day, and he would receive his third Purple Heart. His injuries included shrapnel wounds in his left upper buttock, which were treated with antiseptic lotion and bandaged. He also suffered contusions on his right forearm from hitting the bulkhead when the mine exploded near his boat, which was treated with warm soaking.
Return from Vietnam On March 17, 1969, shortly after Kerry's third wound, Commodore Charles Horne, the commander of Coastal Squadron 1, filed a request for Kerry's reassignment to the U.S. He was entitled to this early departure from Vietnam (subject to approval by the Bureau of Naval Personnel), because those who had been wounded three times, "regardless of the nature of the wound or treatment required ... will not be ordered to serve in Vietnam and contiguous waters or to duty with ships or units which have been alerted for movement to that area." According to the Navy regulation that governed this (BUPERS Instruction 1300.39), the request for the "thrice-wounded reassignment" was required no matter what. If Kerry wanted to stay, he was required to file a second, written request to waive the reassignment. [11] (http://www.campaigndesk.org/archives/000451.asp)
On March 26, after a final patrol at night on March 25, Kerry was transferred to Cam Ranh Bay to await his orders. He was there for five or six days and left Vietnam in early April. On April 11, he reported to the Brooklyn-based Atlantic Military Sea Transportation Service, where he would remain on active duty for the following year as a personal aide to an officer, Rear Admiral Walter Schlech. On January 1, 1970 Kerry was promoted to full Lieutenant; on January 3, he requested discharge. He was released from active duty on March 1.
All told, John Kerry was on active duty in the U.S. Navy for three years and eight months, from August 1966 until March 1970. He lost five friends in the war, including Yale classmate Richard Pershing, who was killed in action on February 17, 1968.
Criticism of military service and awards Many Americans and critics have questioned several aspects of Kerry's military service. As the presidential campaign of 2004 developed, around 200 Vietnam-era veterans formed the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. SBVT held press conferences, ran ads, and endorsed a book questioning Kerry's service record and his military awards. Several SBVT members were in the same unit with Kerry, but only one, Stephen Gardner, served on the same boat. Other SBVT members included two of Kerry's former commanding officers, Grant Hibbard and George Elliott. Hibbard and Elliott have alleged, respectively, that Kerry's first Purple Heart and Silver Star were undeserved. In addition, members of SBVT have questioned his other medals and his truthfulness in testimony about the war. Defenders of John Kerry's war record have charged that organizers of SBVT had close ties to the Bush presidential campaign and that the accusations were false and politically motivated. However, these charges have never been officially proved. For more detail on this, see John Kerry military service controversy.
Anti-Vietnam War activism (1970-1971)
Joining the Vietnam Veterans Against the War Once back in the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Numbering about 20,000 [12] (http://www.vvaw.org/veteran/article/?id=378), VVAW was considered to be an effective component of the antiwar movement. VVAW's members, including Kerry, could speak with personal knowledge about what they had seen in Vietnam. Beyond such specifics, however, they were seen as having "paid their dues" in Vietnam, and there |
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