The Vietnam Vet, Leaving No One Behind

[papau]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A22247-2004Jul28.html

The Vietnam Vet, Leaving No One Behind


By Laura Blumenfeld
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 29, 2004; Page C01


<snip>"He said, 'Look at that wall, everybody on that wall died after we knew that war was a mistake.' And he was angry, quietly angry, seething angry, and we left. It was a visit to the promise of Lincoln, and to the tragedy of that wall. Like a procession around a church, like if you're a Catholic and do the Stations of the Cross on Holy Week. Think of reverence, deep, deep, deep held feelings."

Much has been said, good and bad, about Kerry and his experience in Vietnam -- that it demonstrates his fitness to be president, or explains a lifelong distrust of government pronouncements about war or illustrates a calculation that has defined his career. While some, or none, of those things may be true, Vietnam also changed Kerry in a quieter, yet crucial way.

Kerry went to Vietnam for many reasons, but a key, and often overlooked motivation was curiosity. From the time he was a boy, he read military histories and World War I poetry. On the debate team at Yale and in the dorms, he loved to argue about America's use of force. Although critical of the country's role in Vietnam in a 1970 article in the New York Times, Kerry said he joined the Navy and went to Vietnam "because he wanted to study that policy firsthand." When he got there, of course, he realized it was no class trip. He discovered the difference between reading a Wilfred Owen poem and getting trapped between its bloody stanzas. Kerry went to Vietnam to learn something, but he ended up feeling something. And of all the things he felt, one of the most enduring was abandonment.

The sense that his own government had abandoned him has shaped Kerry's behavior, in politics, in friendships, and with family. Kerry is often described as a mystery, but this, perhaps, is his secret button. To a remarkable and to a sometimes self-endangering degree, Kerry doesn't leave people behind. He sticks with them, even if political advisers urge otherwise. Depending on one's outlook, one might call it Kerry's soft spot, or his most hard-core conviction.

When Kerry first ran for the Senate, Chris Gregory, a friend from his Vietnam days, tried to enlist his help to win benefits for veterans suffering from Agent Orange exposure. The government had not accepted that Agent Orange caused any illness.

"John's a skeptical person," said Gregory. "He said, 'Well, I'm not sure about this Agent Orange.' " Gregory asked him for a one-hour audience: "I knew what to do." He brought Vietnam veterans to Kerry's office -- one on crutches, one who couldn't feel his hands or feet, a widow, and the brother of a veteran who had died of cancer, leaving three young children. They talked about their mental and physical problems, and about their inability to support their families.

"At the end, Kerry looks up at me and said, 'What do I do?' He looked around, he looked at me, he looked out the door. He readjusted himself in his chair. He put his head in his hands briefly, heaved a big sigh, and said: 'Your government has left you in a place you should never be. You've been left alone.' " When Kerry got to the Senate, he worked on legislation for Agent Orange victims. Gregory wasn't surprised, judging by Kerry's reaction in their meeting.<snip>