John Kerry

John Forbes Kerry

John Forbes Kerry
Junior Senator, Massachusetts
Term of office: January 1985–present
Political party:	Democratic
Preceded by:	Paul Tsongas
Succeeded by:	Incumbent (2009)
Born:	December 11, 1943 Aurora, Colorado
Spouse:	(1) Julia Thorne, divorced; (2) Teresa Heinz Kerry

John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is the junior United States Senator from Massachusetts. As the nominee of the Democratic Party in 2004, he was unsuccessful in his bid to unseat the Presidential incumbent George W. Bush.

Family history and childhood years

John Kerry was born in the west wing of Fitzsimons Army Hospital in Aurora, Colorado outside Denver, where his father, Richard Kerry, also known as Dickmeister, Dicky Boy and Slickydick, a World War II Army Air Corps test pilot, had been undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. Kerry's family returned to their home state of Massachusetts two months after his birth.

Family background

Kerry is the second child of Richard John Kerry and Rosemary Forbes Kerry. He has three siblings: Margery (1941), Diana (1947), and Cameron (1950). His mother was a Protestant, but his immediate family members were reportedly observant Roman Catholics. As a child, Kerry served as an altar boy. His brother, Cameron, converted to Judaism when he married.

Although the extended family enjoyed a great fortune, Kerry's parents themselves were upper-middle class; a wealthy great aunt paid for Kerry to attend elite schools in Europe and New England.

Kerry spent his summers at the Forbes family estate in France, and there, he enjoyed a more opulent lifestyle than he had previously known in Massachusetts. While living in the U.S., Kerry spent several summers at the Forbes family's estates on Naushon Island off Cape Cod.

Kerry's maternal grandfather, James Grant Forbes, was born in Shanghai, China, where the family accumulated a fortune in opium and China trade. Forbes married Margaret Tyndal Winthrop, who came from the Dudley-Winthrop political family. Through her, John Kerry is distantly related to four US Presidents [1] and to various royals in Europe. [2]

Kerry's paternal grandfather, Frederick A. Kerry (born Fritz Kohn), was born on May 10, 1873 in the town of Horní Benešov, Austria-Hungary, and grew up in Mödling, Austria (a small town near Vienna). He and his wife Ida were both German-speaking Ashkenazi Jews. In 1901, Fritz and Ida Kohn converted from Judaism to Catholicism and changed his name to Frederick Kerry. They then immigrated to the United States, arriving at Ellis Island in 1905. They raised their three children, including John's father, as Catholics. Frederick Kerry committed suicide in the Copley Plaza Hotel in Boston on November 23, 1921.

Kerry's father, Richard Kerry, 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, Richard Kerry met Rosemary Forbes, a member of the wealthy Forbes family. One of 11 children, she studied to be a nurse, and served in the Red Cross in Paris during World War II. The couple married in Montgomery, Alabama in January 1941.

Childhood years

Kerry has said that his first memory is from when he was three years old, of holding his crying mother's hand while they walked through the broken glass and rubble of her childhood home in Saint-Briac, France. This 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 abandoned it, they bombed Les Essarts and burned it down.

The sprawling estate was rebuilt in 1954. Kerry and his parents would often spend the summer holidays there. 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.

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. The Fessenden School is the oldest all-boys independent junior boarding school in the country. There he met and became friends with Richard Pershing, grandson of WW1 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. Kerry's elderly great-aunt, Clara Winthrop, covered the costs. According to Kerry, at St. Paul's, he felt out of place because he was Catholic and liberal, while most of his fellow students were Republicans and Episcopalians.

Despite having difficulty fitting in, Kerry made friends and developed his interests. He learned skills in public speaking and began developing interest 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 — one was auctioned on eBay in 2004 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 [3][4]. In November 1960, Kerry gave his first political speech, in favor of John F. Kennedy's election to the White House.

Yale University (1962-1966)

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Kerry (bottom, far right) played on the lacrosse team at Yale University as #14. Kerry also played on the hockey team.

In 1962, Kerry entered Yale University, majoring in political science. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1966. Kerry 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 secretive Skull and Bones Society.

Under the guidance of the speaking coach and history professor Rollin Osterweis, Kerry won many debates 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 spectre of Western imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism, and thus it is self-defeating." [5]

Over four years, Kerry maintained a 76 grade average and received an 81 average in his senior year.[6] Kerry, even then a capable speaker, was chosen to give the class oration at graduation. His speech was a broad criticism of American foreign policy, including the Vietnam War, in which he would soon participate.

In 1962, Kerry was a volunteer for Edward Kennedy's first Senatorial campaign. That summer, he dated Janet Jennings Auchincloss, 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 John Fitzgerald Kennedy for the first time.

According to Kerry, when he told the president he was about to enter Yale University, Kennedy grimaced because he had gone to rival 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.

Military service (1966-1970)

When he approached his draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy.John Kerry, Harvard Crimson Interview Kerry served as a Lieutenant in the United States Navy during the Vietnam War from 1966 to 1970. His 2nd tour of duty in Vietnam was four months as commanding officer of a Swift boat. Kerry was awarded several medals during this tour, including the Silver Star, Bronze Star, and three Purple Hearts. Kerry's military record has received considerable praise and criticism during his political career, especially during his unsuccessful 2004 bid for the presidency.

Commission, training, and tour of duty on the USS Gridley

On February 18, 1966, Kerry enlisted in the U.S. Naval Reserve. [7] 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, Kerry received his officer's commission on December 16. In 2005, Kerry partially released his military and medical records to 3 reporters but has not released a full unredacted copy. [8] [9]

Kerry's first abbreviated 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." [10]

The Gridley sailed 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." [11] 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 Swift boat training at the Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado.

Tour of duty

On November 17, 1968, Kerry reported for duty at Coastal Squadron 1 in Cam Ranh Bay in South Vietnam. In his role as an officer in charge of Swift boats, Kerry led five-man crews on a number of 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. [12]

On January 22, 1969, Kerry and several other officers had a 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 zone" policy was alienating the Vietnamese and that the Swift boats' actions were not accomplishing their ostensible goal of interdicting Viet Cong supply lines. As they saw it, Kerry and the other visiting officers' concerns were dismissed with what amounted to a pep talk.

Military honors

During the night of December 2, 1968 and early morning of December 3, Kerry was in charge of a small boat operating near a peninsula north of Cam Ranh Bay together with a Swift boat (PCF-60). The disputed story is that Kerry's boat surprised a group of men unloading sampans at a river crossing, who began running and failed to obey an order to stop. As the men fled, Kerry and his crew of two sailors opened fire on the sampans and destroyed them, then rapidly left. During this encounter, Kerry suffered a shrapnel wound in the left arm above the elbow. It was for this injury that Kerry received his first Purple Heart.

Kerry received his second Purple Heart for a wound received in 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.

As the Swift boats reached the Cua Lon River, Kerry's boat was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade round, and a piece of shrapnel hit Kerry's left leg, wounding him. 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 lose any time off from duty.

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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.

Eight days later, on February 28, came the events for which Kerry was awarded his 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. The passengers were let off for a firefight. Kerry broke from the fight and sailed a short distance along the Bay Hap river, running into an ambush. An RPG was fired at the boat. 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, which critics have complained was based on Kerry's own self-report. [13]

Again, based on Kerry's reports, 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. [14]

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Kerry is awarded the Bronze Star. For his service during the Vietnam War, Kerry also received the Silver Star and three Purple Hearts.

On March 13, five Swift boats were returning to base together on the Bay Hap river from their missions that day, after a firefight earlier in the day, and debarking some but not all of the passengers at a small village. They approached a fishing weir (a series of poles across the river for hanging nets), so that one group of boats went around left, hugging the shore, and a group with Kerry's 94 boat went around right along the shoreline. A mine was detonated directly beneath the lead boat (PCF-3) as it crossed the weir to the left, lifting PCF-3 completely into the air. It was the only mine to explode.

James Rassmann, a Green Beret advisor who was sitting on the left deck of the pilothouse, or at the rear of PCF-94, was knocked backward overboard as Kerry's boat accelerated away. Rassmann claims that he dove to the bottom of the river, repeatedly surfacing for air. He claimed that the enemy repeatedly fired at him, as the Swift boats were firing at the shore, and remembering that PCF-94 sailed around a bend and out of his view entirely. [15] Rassmann was heading to the north bank, expecting to be taken prisoner, when Kerry realized he was gone and came back for him, cutting off another Swift boat that was slowly going over to pull Rassmann from the water. Kerry's Bronze Star was awarded for recognized bravery in rescuing Rassman while under fire. His third Purple Heart was awarded for the same incident, dependent upon incoming enemy fire. Others dispute this and say that his wound was received when he and Rassman, earlier in the day, blew up a cache of rice in order to deprive the Viet Cong, which was standard procedure. Kerry was wounded in the posterior, for standing too close to the blast, where rice was later removed from the wound.

With still no incoming fire, after the 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.

Return from Vietnam

After Kerry's third qualifying wound, he was entitled per routine Navy regulations, to re-assignment away from combat duties. Navy records show that Kerry's preferred choice for re-assignment was as an aide in Boston, New York or Washington DC. [16]

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 temporarily promoted to full Lieutenant. As a condition for taking the position as an admiral's aide, Kerry agreed to an extension of his active duty obligation through August 1970. On January 3, he requested early discharge. He was discharged from active duty on March 1.

John Kerry was on active duty in the U.S. Navy for three years and eight months, from August 1966 until March 1970. He continued to serve in the Navy Reserves until February 1972. He lost five friends in the war, including Yale classmate Richard Pershing, who was killed in action on February 17, 1968.

Controversy over military service and awards

Main article: John Kerry military service controversy

Critics have questioned several aspects of Kerry's military service. As the presidential campaign of 2004 developed, approximately 200 Vietnam-era veterans formed the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT) and 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 as Kerry, but did not serve at the same time as Kerry's service. Others were listed as serving in the same swift boat, but again not at the same time as Kerry. One of them, Stephen Gardner, served on the same boat with Kerry. Gardner, however, was not present for the events leading up to Kerry's silver star, bronze star or purple hearts. 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, various members of SBVT have questioned Kerry's other medals and his truthfulness in testimony about the war. Defenders of John Kerry's war record, including most of his surviving former crewmates, have asserted that several organizers of SBVT had close ties to the Bush presidential campaign and that certain SBVT accusations were politically motivated and false.

Anti-war activism (1970-1971)

Kerry co-authored the book The New Soldier with the VVAW.

After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Then numbering about 20,000 [17], VVAW was considered by some (including the administration of President Richard Nixon) 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 therefore being entitled to at least a respectful hearing. Americans who opposed the war were grateful for VVAW's work. Many Vietnam veterans saw the organization as giving voice to the views of the common soldier in exposing official deceit. Many other veterans, however, such as those who in 2004 formed Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, deeply resented the VVAW's activities, feeling that their own military service was being attacked or cheapened.

In a Harvard Crimson interview, dated February 18, 1970, John Kerry: A Navy Dove Runs for CongressKerry expounds on his view of how an immediate retreat would impact SE Asia:

Immediate withdrawal from Vietnam, Kerry said, would take about seven months due to complex logistics problems. During that interval he would allow only "self-defense return of fire." "Logistic suport is now what Nixon is talking about leaving there and I don't want to see that. I don't think we should leave support troops there and I don't think we should give Vietnam any more than the foreign aid given any other one country." He does not feel there would be a massive slaughter of American, sympathizers once the United States pulled out.

He would repeat this opinion in Washington DC the following year:

On April 22, 1971, Kerry became the first Vietnam veteran to testify before Congress about the war, when he appeared before a Senate committee hearing on proposals relating to ending the war. Wearing green fatigues and service ribbons, he spoke for nearly two hours with the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in what has been named the Fulbright Hearing, after the Chairman of the proceedings, Senator J.W. Fulbright. Kerry began with a prepared speech, in which he presented the conclusions of the Winter Soldier Investigation, where veterans had described personally committing or witnessing war crimes. Controversially referring to US servicemen in Vietnam as having been sent "to die for the biggest nothing in history," Kerry alleged that the military had "created a monster" in the form of violence-prone American soldiers, and recounted that soldiers had personally recollected stories of having "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads," of Vietnamese citizens and rampaging across Vietnam "[razing] villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan" [18].

Most of Kerry's testimony addressed the larger policy issues. Kerry expressed his view that the war was essentially a civil war and that nothing in Vietnam was a realistic threat to the United States. He argued that the real reason for the continued fighting was political purposes: "Someone has to die so that President Nixon won't be, and these are his words, 'the first President to lose a war.'" That conclusion led him to ask: "[H]ow do you ask a man to be the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"

The day after this testimony, Kerry participated in a demonstration with 800 other veterans in which he and other veterans threw their medals and ribbons over a fence at the front steps of the U.S. Capitol building to dramatize their opposition to the war. Jack Smith, a Marine, read a statement explaining why the veterans were returning their military awards to the government. For more than two hours, angry veterans tossed their medals, ribbons, hats, jackets, and military papers over the fence. Each veteran gave his or her name, hometown, branch of service and a statement. As Kerry threw his decorations over the fence, his statement was: "I'm not doing this for any violent reasons, but for peace and justice, and to try and make this country wake up once and for all." Some have questioned whether he gave up his own medals or just his ribbons during the demonstration at the Capitol. Tom Oliphant has gone on record supporting Kerry's account.[19]

Media appearances

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Kerry's anti-war activities were satirized by Garry Trudeau in his comic strip Doonesbury in October 1971.

Because Kerry was a decorated veteran who took a stand against the government's official position, he was frequently interviewed by broadcast and print media. He was able to use these occasions to bring the themes of his Senate testimony to a wider audience.

For example, Kerry appeared more than once on The Dick Cavett Show on ABC television. On one Cavett program (June 30, 1971), in debating John O'Neill, Kerry argued that some of the policies instituted by the U.S. military leaders in Vietnam, such as free-fire zones and burning noncombatants' houses, were contrary to the laws of war. In the Washington Star newspaper (June 6, 1971), he recounted how he and other Swift boat officers had become disillusioned by the contrast between what the leaders told them and what they saw: "That's when I realized I could never remain silent about the realities of the war in Vietnam."

On NBC's Meet The Press in 1971, Kerry was asked whether he had personally committed atrocities in Vietnam. He responded:

"There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals."

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Kerry with former Beatle John Lennon during a protest rally at New York City's Bryant Park in the summer of 1971.

Operation POW

Kerry's prominence also made him a frequent leader and spokesman at antiwar events around the country in 1971. One of particular note was Operation POW, organized by the VVAW in Massachusetts. The protest got its name from the group's concern that Americans were prisoners of the Vietnam War, as well as to honor American POWs held captive by North Vietnam.

The event sought to tie antiwar activism to patriotic themes. Over the Memorial Day weekend, veterans and other participants marched from Concord to a rally on Boston Common. The plan was to invoke the spirit of the American Revolution and Paul Revere by spending successive nights at the sites of the Battle of Lexington and Concord and the Battle of Bunker Hill, culminating in a Memorial Day rally with a public reading of the Declaration of Independence.

The second night of the march, May 29, was the occasion for Kerry's only arrest, when the participants tried to camp on the village green in Lexington. At 2:30 a.m. on May 30, local and state police awoke and arrested 441 demonstrators, including Kerry, for trespassing. All were given the Miranda Warning and were hauled away on school buses to spend the night at the Lexington Public Works Garage. Kerry and the other protestors later paid a $5 fine and were released. At the time, Kerry's wife kept $100 under her pillow in case she needed to bail her husband out of jail if he was arrested at a protest. The mass arrests caused a community backlash and ended up giving positive coverage to the VVAW.

Despite his role in Operation POW and other VVAW events, Kerry eventually quit the organization over leadership differences. Kerry has been criticized regarding VVAW - see John Kerry VVAW controversy for more details.

Early career (1972-1985)

1972 Campaign for Congress

In February 1972, after Kerry previously passed on an opportunity to run in another district, his wife, Julia bought a house in Worcester. Residence there would have required Kerry to run for Congress against an incumbent Democrat, Harold D. Donohue. Instead however, the couple rented an apartment in Lowell. The incumbent in that district, F. Bradford Morse, was a Republican who was thought to be retiring.

Counting Kerry, the Democratic primary race in 1972 had 10 candidates. One of these was State Representative Anthony R. DiFruscia of Lawrence. Both Kerry's and DiFuscia's campaign HQ's were in the same building. On the eve of the September primary, Kerry's younger brother Cameron and campaign field director Thomas J. Vallely, both then 22 years old, were found by police in the basement of this building, where the telephone lines were located. They were arrested and charged with "breaking and entering with the intent to commit grand larceny", but the case was dismissed about a year later. At the time of the incident, DiFruscia alleged that they were trying to disrupt his get-out-the vote efforts. Vallely and Cameron Kerry maintained that they were only checking their own telephone lines because they had received an anonymous call warning that the Kerry lines would be cut. [20]

Although Kerry's campaign was hurt by the election-day report of the arrest, he still won the primary by a comfortable margin over state Representative Paul J. Sheehy. DiFruscia placed third. Kerry lost in Lawrence and Lowell, his chief opponents' bases, but placed first in 18 of the district's 22 towns.

In the general election, Kerry was initially favored to defeat the Republican candidate, former state Representative Paul W. Cronin, and an independent, Roger P. Durkin. A major obstacle, however, was the district's leading newspaper, the conservative Lowell Sun. The paper editorialized against him. It also ran critical news stories about his out-of-state contributions and his "carpetbagging", because he had moved into the district only in April. The final blow came when, four days before the election, Durkin withdrew in favor of Cronin. Cronin won the election, becoming the only Republican to be elected to Congress that November in a district carried by Democratic Presidential nominee George McGovern.

Law school and early political career (1972-1985)

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John Kerry (center) was among the students who opted against academic regalia at his graduation from Boston College Law School in 1976

After Kerry's 1972 defeat, he and his wife bought a house in Lowell. He spent some time working as a fundraiser for the Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere (CARE), an international humanitarian organization. He decided that the best way for him to continue in public life was to study law. In September 1973, he entered Boston College Law School at Newton, Massachusetts. In July 1974, while attending law school, Kerry was named executive director of Mass Action, a Massachusetts advocacy association.

He received his Juris Doctor (J.D.) degree in 1976. While in law school he had been a student prosecutor in the office of the District Attorney of Middlesex County, John J. Droney. After passing the bar exam and being admitted to the Massachusetts bar in 1976, he went to work in that office as a full-time prosecutor.

In January 1977, Droney promoted him to First Assistant District Attorney. In that position, Kerry had dual roles. First, he tried cases, winning convictions in a high-profile rape case and a murder. Second, he played a role in administering the office of the district attorney by initiating the creation of special white-collar and organized crime units, creating programs to address the problems of rape and other crime victims and of witnesses, and managing trial calendars to reflect case priorities. It was in this role in 1978, that Kerry announced an investigation into possible criminal charges against then Senator Edward Brooke, regarding "misstatements" in his first divorce trial. [21]

In 1979, Kerry resigned from the District Attorney's office to set up a private law firm with another former prosecutor. And, although his private law practice was a success, Kerry was still interested in public office. He re-entered electoral politics by running for Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts and won a narrow victory in the 1982 Democratic primary. The ticket, with Michael Dukakis as the gubernatorial candidate, won the general election without difficulty.

The position of Lieutenant Governor carried few inherent responsibilities. Dukakis, however, delegated additional matters to Kerry. In particular, Kerry's interest in environmental protection led him to become heavily involved in the issue of acid rain. His work contributed to a National Governors Association resolution in 1984 that was a precursor to the 1990 amendments to the federal Clean Air Act.

During his campaign, Kerry had argued that nuclear evacuation planning was "a sham intended to deceive Americans into believing they could survive a nuclear war". Once in office, he drafted an Executive Order condemning such planning, which Dukakis signed despite having lost the presidential election.

Election to the Senate

The junior U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, Paul Tsongas, announced in 1984 that he would be stepping down for health reasons. Kerry decided to run for the seat. As in his 1982 race for Lieutenant Governor, he did not receive the endorsement of the party regulars at the state Democratic convention. Again as in 1982, however, he prevailed in a close primary. In his campaign he promised to mix liberalism with tight budget controls. As the Democratic candidate he was elected to the Senate despite a nationwide landslide for the re-election of Republican president Ronald Reagan, whom Massachusetts voted for by a narrow margin. In his acceptance speech, Kerry asserted that his win meant that the people of Massachusetts "emphatically reject the politics of selfishness and the notion that women must be treated as second-class citizens." Kerry was sworn in as a U.S. Senator in January 1985.

Service in the U.S. Senate (1985-present)

An earlier Senate portrait of Kerry

See also: Legislation sponsored by John Kerry

Iran-Contra hearings

Main article: Kerry Committee report

On April 18, 1985, a few months after taking his Senate seat, Kerry and Senator Tom Harkin of Iowa traveled to Nicaragua and met the country's president, Daniel Ortega. Though Ortega was democratically elected, the trip was criticized because Ortega and his leftist Sandinista government had strong ties to Cuba and the USSR. The Sandinista government was opposed by the right-wing CIA-backed rebels known as the Contras. While in Nicaragua, Kerry and Harkin talked to people on both sides of the conflict. Through the senators, Ortega offered a cease-fire agreement in exchange for the US dropping support of the Contras. The offer was denounced by the Reagan administration as a "propaganda initiative" designed to influence a House vote on a $14 million Contra aid package, but Kerry said "I am willing...to take the risk in the effort to put to test the good faith of the Sandinistas." The House voted down the Contra aid, but Ortega flew to Moscow to accept a $200 million loan the next day, an act which in part prompted the House to pass a larger $27 million aid package six weeks later.

In April 1986, Kerry and Senator Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut, proposed that hearings be conducted by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee regarding charges of Contra involvement in cocaine and marijuana trafficking. Sen. Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the Republican chairman of the committee, agreed to conduct the hearings.

Meanwhile, Kerry's staff began their own investigations, and on October 14 issued a report which exposed illegal activities on the part of Lieutenant Colonel Oliver North, who had set up a private network involving the National Security Council and the CIA to deliver military equipment to right-wing Nicaraguan rebels (Contras). In effect, North and certain members of the President's administration were accused by Kerry's report of illegally funding and supplying armed militants without the authorization of Congress. Kerrys staff investigation, based on a yearlong inquiry and interviews with 50 unnamed sources, is said to raise "serious questions about whether the United States has abided by the law in its handling of the contras over the past three years."

The Kerry Committee report found that "the Contra drug links included...payments to drug traffickers by the U.S. State Department of funds authorized by the Congress for humanitarian assistance to the Contras, in some cases after the traffickers had been indicted by federal law enforcement agencies on drug charges, in others while traffickers were under active investigation by these same agencies." The US State Department paid over $806,000 to known drug traffickers to carry humanitarian assistance to the Contras. Kerry's findings provoked little reaction in the media and official Washington.

The Kerry report was a precursor to the Iran-Contra affair. On May 4, 1989, North was convicted of charges relating to the Iran/Contra controversy, including three felonies. On September 16, 1991, however, North's convictions were overturned on appeal.

Kerry and the George H. W. Bush administration

On November 15, 1988, at a businessmen's breakfast in East Lynn, Massachusetts, Kerry made a joke about President-elect George H.W. Bush and his running mate, saying "if Bush is shot, the Secret Service has orders to shoot Dan Quayle." He apologized the following day.

During their investigation of Noriega, Kerry's staff found reason to believe that the Pakistan-based Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI) had facilitated Noriega's drug trafficking and money laundering. This led to a separate inquiry into BCCI, and as a result, banking regulators shut down BCCI in 1991. In December 1992, Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, a Republican from Colorado, released The BCCI Affair, a report on the BCCI scandal. The report showed that the bank was crooked and was working with terrorists, including Abu Nidal. It blasted the Department of Justice, the Department of the Treasury, the Customs Service, the Federal Reserve Bank, as well as influential lobbyists and the CIA. [22]

Kerry was criticized by some Democrats for having pursued his own party members, including former Secretary of Defense Clark Clifford, although Republicans said he should have pressed against some Democrats even harder. The BCCI scandal was later turned over to the Manhattan District Attorney's office.

Precursors to Presidential Bid

See also: Massachusetts United States Senate election, 1996, United States presidential election, 2000

In 1996, Kerry faced a difficult re-election fight against Governor William Weld, a popular Republican incumbent who had been re-elected in 1994 with 71% of the vote. The race was covered nationwide as one of the most closely-watched Senate races that year. Kerry and Weld held several debates and negotiated a campaign spending cap of $6.9 million at Kerry's Beacon Hill mansion. During the campaign, Kerry spoke briefly at the 1996 Democratic National Convention. Senator Kerry won re-election with 53 percent to Weld's 45 percent. According to Newsweek, during the 2004 presidential election, Weld was interviewed by Karl Rove, Karen Hughes and other senior members of the Bush campaign on debating and running against Kerry.

In the 2000 presidential elections, Kerry again found himself close to being chosen as the vice presidential running mate [23].

A release from the presidential campaign of presumptive Democratic nominee Al Gore listed Kerry on the short list to be selected as the vice-presidential nominee, along with North Carolina Senator John Edwards, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, Missouri Congressman Richard Gephardt, New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen, and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. Gore eventually selected Lieberman as the nominee, but Kerry continued to campaign on behalf of the Gore-Lieberman campaign through Election Day.

Issues and voting record

John Kerry is a member of the Democratic Leadership Council, which advocates centrist and liberal positions. Most analyses place Kerry's voting record on the left within the Senate Democratic caucus.[24] During the 2004 presidential election he was portrayed as a staunch liberal by conservative special interest groups and the Bush campaign, who often noted that in 2003 Kerry was rated the National Journal's top Senate liberal. However, that rating was based only upon voting on legislation within that past year. In fact, in terms of career voting records, the National Journal found that Kerry is the 11th most liberal member of the Senate. Most analyses find that Kerry is at least slightly more liberal than the typical Democratic Senator. For example, Keith T. Poole of the University of Houston found that Kerry was tied for being the 24th most liberal Senator.

Kerry has stated that he opposes privatizing Social Security, supports abortion rights for adult women and minors, supports civil unions for same-sex couples, opposes capital punishment except for terrorists, supports most gun control laws, and is generally a supporter of trade agreements. Kerry supported the North American Free Trade Agreement and Most Favored Nation status for China, but opposed the Central American Free Trade Agreement.

Iraq

In 1991, during the debate before the Gulf War, Kerry initially opposed the immediate use of military force to expel Iraqi soldiers from Kuwait. The United Nations had imposed sanctions on Iraq, and Kerry argued that the sanctions then in place should be given more time to work.

More recently, Kerry said on October 9, 2002; "I will be voting to give the President of the United States the authority to use force--if necessary--to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security." Bush relied on that resolution in ordering the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Kerry also gave a January 23, 2003 speech to Georgetown University saying "Without question, we need to disarm Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal, murderous dictator; leading an oppressive regime he presents a particularly grievous threat because he is so consistently prone to miscalculation. So the threat of Saddam Hussein with weapons of mass destruction is real." Kerry did however warn the administration should exhaust its diplomatic avenues before launching war: "Mr. President, do not rush to war, take the time to build the coalition, because it's not winning the war that's hard, it's winning the peace that's hard." [25]

After the invasion of Iraq, when no Weapons of Mass Destruction were found, Kerry strongly criticized Bush, contending that he had misled the country: "When the president of the United States looks at you and tells you something, there should be some trust." [26]

Vietnam as a campaign theme

Some conservative opponents like Boston Globe technology reporter Hiawatha Bray have claimed that Kerry was "moronic" in using his military service as a campaign theme.[27] Previously, Kerry wrote an article during the 1992 Presidential Election that appeared in The Wall Street Journal. In the article, Kerry called on fellow Democrats and Republican opponents alike to "put it behind us". He further asserted that "we do not need more division. We do not need something as complex and emotional as Vietnam reduced to simple campaign rhetoric". He also stated that he was "saddened that Vietnam has yet again been inserted into the campaign."[28] Yet, some conservative critics like Bray and Swift Boat Veteran John O' Neil claim that Kerry himself made his service in Vietnam "the central issue" of his 2004 presidential campaign.[29]

Other Senate activities

During his Senate career, Kerry has sponsored or cosponsored dozens of bills. Some of his notable bills have addressed small business concerns, education, terrorism, veterans' and POW-MIA issues, marine resource protection and other topics. Of those bills with his sponsorship, as of December 2004, 11 have been signed into law.

Kerry was the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 1987 to 1989. He was reelected to the Senate in 1990, 1996 (after winning re-election against the then-Governor of Massachusetts, Republican William Weld), and 2002. His current term will end on January 3 2009.

As of 2006, Kerry serves on four Senate committees and twelve subcommittees:

• Committee on Finance
  • Subcommittee on Health Care
  • Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy
  • Subcommittee on Long-term Growth and Debt Reduction (Ranking member)
• Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship (Ranking member - Chairman from 2001 to 2003)
• Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation
  • Subcommittee on Fisheries and the Coast Guard
  • Subcommittee on Trade, Tourism and Economic Development
  • Subcommittee on Technology, Innovation and Competitiveness (Ranking member)
  • Subcommittee on Global Climate Change and Impacts
  • Subcommittee on National Ocean Policy Study
• Committee on Foreign Relations
  • Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs(Ranking member)
  • Subcommittee on International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion
  • Subcommittee on International Operations and Terrorism
  • Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps & Narcotics Affair

2004 Presidential election

Main articles: United States presidential election, 2004 and John Kerry presidential campaign, 2004

File:Kerry on the Daily Show.jpg

Kerry, then the Democratic presidential nominee, appearing on The Daily Show to be interviewed by Jon Stewart

In the 2004 Democratic Presidential primaries, John Kerry defeated several Democratic rivals, including Sen. John Edwards (D-North Carolina.), former Vermont Governor Howard Dean and retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark. His victory in the Iowa caucuses is widely believed to be the tipping point where Kerry revived his sagging campaign in New Hampshire and the February 3 primary states like Arizona, South Carolina and New Mexico. Kerry then went on to win landslide victories in Nevada and Wisconsin. Kerry thus won the Democratic nomination to run for President of the United States against incumbent George W. Bush. On July 6 2004, he announced his selection of John Edwards as his running mate.

On November 3, 2004, Kerry conceded the race. Kerry won 59.03 million votes or about 48 percent of the popular vote; Bush won 62.04 million votes, or about 51 percent of the popular vote. Kerry received the second-highest number of votes ever for president of the United States, Bush getting the highest. Kerry carried states with a total of 252 electoral votes. One Kerry elector voted for Kerry's running mate, Edwards, so in the final tally Kerry had 251 electoral votes to Bush's 286. Although, as in the 2000 election, there were disputes about the voting (see 2004 U.S. presidential election controversy and irregularities), no state was as close as Florida had been in 2000.

Speculation about possible 2008 presidential bid

Immediately after the 2004 election, some Democrats mentioned Kerry as a possible contender for the 2008 Democratic nomination. His brother has said such a campaign is "conceivable," and Kerry himself reportedly said at a farewell party for his 2004 campaign staff, "There's always another four years", and has repeatedly responded to the question of running again by saying "I'm keeping all of my options open." Some aides, however, have stated that Kerry told campaign officials he could not envision another run. [30]. Kerry himself says he will make a decision regarding 2008, before the end of 2006. [31]

Kerry's campaign fund still holds some unspent money that he raised in running for the 2004 Democratic nomination, because he was not allowed to spend it in the general election. In mid-October, 2004, this sum was about $45 million. He donated most of that to the Democratic National Committee and to state Democratic parties, but he has at least $15 million left, which could be used directly for another presidential campaign, or indirectly to build his stature within the party by helping other Democratic candidates. Some criticism was leveled at Kerry for not using the remaining funds for Democratic campaigns in 2004. He has also established a separate political action committee, Keeping America's Promise [32], that can raise money and channel contributions to Democratic candidates in state and federal races.[33] Through Keeping America's Promise in 2005, Kerry raised over $5.5 million for other Democrats up and down the ballot. Through his campaign account and his political action committee, Keeping America's Promise, Kerry has donated a total of $700,000 to 80 candidates and $5.3 million for dozens of Democratic candidates, state parties and charitable causes. [34] Kerry has held political events in 22 states since last year's election, including visits to the presidential proving grounds of Iowa and New Hampshire and swing states such as Florida, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. Most events of his are chonicled on his website- Johnkerry.com.[35] He has helped organize 45 fund-raisers for Democratic candidates, and has used his e-mail list of 3 million supporters for lobbying campaigns on major issues in Congress. [36] He also raised over $3.4 million in federal money for his Senate account which can be transferred to another presidential run. [37] Kerry's $15 million war chest is surpassed only by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York -- who has a war chest of about $17 million -- among potential 2008 Democratic contenders. [38]

In some polls during 2005, Kerry remained a leading Democratic candidate for his party's nomination in the presidential election of 2008. In late 2005, several polls showed him beating George W. Bush if the 2004 election were held then. [39] His online community generated 3 million responses of one sort or another last year. [40]

In 2006, Kerry continued to fundraise at an impressive clip. Through Keeping America's Promise, Kerry has raised $1.1 million in the first quarter of 2006 from 11,000 donors nationally earning him the moniker "fundraiser in chief." [41] His supporters are buoyed by polls that have shown him beating Bush by 10% if the 2004 election were held in 2006. [42] [43] Kerry continues to travel in support of other democratic candidates and issues. Despite not campaigning in several states during the 2004 election, Kerry has drawn overflow crowds in states such as Texas and South Carolina. [44] [45]

Personal life

John Kerry

Kerry's oldest friends and family call him "Johnny". Kerry is 6 ft 4in [46], speaks fluent French, enjoys surfing and windsurfing, as well as ice hockey, hunting, and playing bass guitar. According to an interview he gave to Rolling Stone magazine in 2004, Kerry's favorite album is Abbey Road and he is a fan of The Beatles and The Rolling Stones, as well as of Jimi Hendrix and Jimmy Buffett. [47] During his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry used Bruce Springsteen's No Surrender as one of his campaign songs. Later he would adopt U2's "Beautiful Day," as his official campaign song.

Kerry is described by Sports Illustrated, among others, as an "avid cyclist" [48][49], primarily riding on a road bike. Prior to his Presidential bid, Kerry was known to have participated in several long-distance rides (centuries). Even during his many campaigns, he was reported to have visited bicycle stores both in his home state and elsewhere. His staff requested recumbent stationary bikes for his hotel rooms. [50]

In 2003, Kerry was diagnosed with and successfully treated for prostate cancer [51].

Family

Kerry was married to Julia Thorne in 1970, and they had two children together. Alexandra was born on September 5, 1973, days before Kerry began law school. A graduate of Brown University, Alexandra received her M.F.A. in June 2004 from the AFI Conservatory. Vanessa Kerry was born on December 31, 1976. She is a graduate of Phillips Academy (like her grandfather) and Yale University, and is currently a student at Harvard Medical School. Vanessa was active in her father's 2004 Presidential campaign.

In 1982 Thorne, who was suffering from severe depression, asked Kerry for a separation. [52] They were divorced on July 25, 1988. According the Washington Blade: "Kerry and Thorne finalized their divorce in 1988... After Thorne requested an increase in alimony in 1995, Kerry sought an annulment of their marriage from the Catholic Church, a move observers saw as retaliatory. Kerry eventually received the annulment from the Boston diocese despite Thorne’s vehement objections." [53] The marriage was formally annulled by the Roman Catholic Church in 1997. "After 14 years as a political wife, I associated politics only with anger, fear and loneliness" she wrote in A Change of Heart, her book about depression. Thorne later married Richard Charlesworth, an architect, and moved to Bozeman, Montana, where she became active in local environmental groups such as the Greater Yellowstone Coalition. Thorne died of cancer on April 27, 2006.

Kerry and his second wife, Teresa Simões-Ferreira Heinz, the widow of Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III, a Republican, and former United Nations interpreter, as well as a Bonesman legacy, were introduced to each other by John Heinz at an Earth Day rally in 1990. They did not meet again until after John Heinz's death, at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. They married on May 26, 1995, in Nantucket. John Kerry's stepsons – Teresa's three sons from her previous marriage – are H. John Heinz IV, André Heinz, and Christopher Heinz.

The Forbes 400 survey estimated in 2004 that Teresa Heinz Kerry had a net worth of $750 million. However, estimates have frequently varied, ranging from around $165 million to as high as $3.2 billion, according to a study in the Los Angeles Times. Regardless of which figure is given, Kerry is the wealthiest U.S. Senator. Kerry is wealthy in his own name, and is the beneficiary of at least four trusts inherited from Forbes family members, including his mother, who died in 2002. Forbes magazine (a major business magazine named for an unrelated Forbes family) estimated that if elected, Kerry would have been the third-richest U.S. President in history when adjusted for inflation [54]. This assessment was based on the couple's combined assets, but Kerry and Heinz signed a pre-nuptial agreement that keeps their assets separate. [55] Kerry's financial disclosure form for 2002 put his personal assets in the range of $409,000 to $1.8 million, with additional assets held jointly by Kerry and his wife in the range of $300,000 to $600,000. [56]

John Kerry has two sisters, Diana and Peggy, and a brother, Cameron, who is a litigator in Boston.

Religious beliefs and practices

A Roman Catholic, Kerry was said to carry a rosary, a prayer book, and a St. Christopher medal (the patron saint of travelers) when he campaigned. However, he supports policies such as abortion rights, which puts him at odds with the Catholic Church.

"I thought of being a priest," Kerry recalled. "I was very religious while at school in Switzerland. I was an altar boy and prayed all the time. I was very centered around the Mass and the church." What Bible passages moved him most? "The letters of Paul," he said, "taught me not to feel sorry for myself." [57]

According to Christianity Today, Kerry remarks about his faith:

"I'm a Catholic and I practice, but at the same time I have an open-mindedness to many other expressions of spirituality that come through different religions. … I've spent some time reading and thinking about [religion] and trying to study it, and I've arrived at not so much a sense of the differences, but a sense of the similarities in so many ways; the value-system roots and linkages between the Torah, the Qur'an, and the Bible and the fundamental story that runs through all of this, that … really connects all of us." [58]

Trivia

He and former Nebraska Governor and Senator Bob Kerrey have often been confused for each other, despite the different spellings of their last names. Ironically, Bob Kerrey was frequently mentioned as a possible running mate for John Kerry during his 2004 presidential campaign. Before the 2004 election, it was a common urban legend that John Kerry once dated actress Debra Winger, while it was actually Bob Kerrey that dated her.

John Kerry and George W. Bush are distant cousins, variously reported as 16th cousins three times removed , 11th cousins , or ninth cousins twice removed .

Films

• 2004 - Going Upriver: The Long War of John Kerry, a documentary film about Kerry's Vietnam War service and later anti-war activities based on Douglas Brinkley's Tour of Duty.
• 2004 - Winning New Hampshire, a documentary film about Kerry's early presidential campaign in the New Hampshire Primary.
• 2004 - Stolen Honor, a controversial documentary with interviews of Vietnam veterans who criticize Kerry.

See also

• Dudley-Winthrop Family
• Daily Kos, Kerry is an occasional contributor[59] to this political community blog.

External links and references

Official

• JohnKerry.com — John Kerry's political web site
  • Kerry's military records - from JohnKerry.com via the Internet Archive
• John Kerry's Online Office — Official senatorial site
• Keeping America's Promise — PAC led by Kerry

Media

• Gibbs, Nancy and Douglas Waller, "What Kind of President Would Kerry Be?," TIME Magazine, February 9, 2004.
• Klein, Joe, "The Long War of John Kerry: Can a Massachusetts Brahmin become President?," The New Yorker, December 2, 2002.
• Kranish, Michael, "John Kerry: Candidate in the making," Boston Globe, June 15, 2003.
• The 2004 Debates
• "The New Soldier, John Kerry's book." FreeKerryBook.org.
• "Senate Elections, John Kerry (1997-2002)". OpenSecrets.org.
• "Senator John Forbes Kerry". Project Vote Smart. 2002-2004.
• "Profile: John Kerry". BBC News.
• Frontline: the choice 2004 - Thorough two-hour special compares Kerry and Bush.
• John Kerry's complete 1971 statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee from National Review
• Selections from John Kerry's 1971 statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Information

• John Kerry on the issues
• John Kerry Family Tree
• Statement on behalf of Vietnam Veterans Against the War - April 1971.
• Senator John Kerry's voting record
• John Kerry's Senate hearing testimony to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations in 1971. (PDF file)
• Voting history for Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts in the 108th Congress
• The BCCI Affair, A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, by Senator John Kerry and Senator Hank Brown, December 1992
• Political donations made by John Kerry
• Snopes.com: "Service Mettle" - Snopes.com on Kerry's Vietnam service medals
• Tour of Duty - excerpt from Brinkley's book about Kerry's Vietnam service
• Irish Catholic or Czech Jew? - Kerry's long lost Jewish ethnic ancestry
• John Kerry's letter to his parents about Richard Pershing's death - 1968
• Voting record maintained by the Washington Post

Further reading

• Brinkley, Douglas, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, William Morrow & Company, 2004. ISBN 0-06-056523-3
• Kerry, John and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, The New Soldier, MacMillan Publishing Company, 1971. ASIN 002073610X
• Kerry, John, The New War: The Web of Crime That Threatens America's Security, Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0-684-81815-9
• Kerry, John, A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, Viking Press, 2003. ISBN 0-670-03260-3
• Kranish, Michael, Brian C. Mooney, and Nina J. Easton. John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best, PublicAffairs, 2004. ISBN 1-58648-273-4.
• McMahon, Kevin, David Rankin, Donald W. Beachler and John Kenneth White. Winning the White House, 2004, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. ISBN 1-4039-6881-0.
• O'Neill, John E. & Corsi, Jerome R. Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, Regnery Publishing, 2004. ISBN 0-89526-017-4

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