Take a look at this for understanding

[Taverner]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_O%27Neill_%28Vietnam_veteran%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry

Take a look at both of them:

O’Neill has stated that he deeply resented Kerry’s 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which, among other things, related controversial testimony about American atrocities given by Vietnam veterans at the earlier Winter Soldier Investigation in Detroit. O'Neill stated that he believed the committee hearings were creating a false impression of popular opinion about Vietnam veterans, and that he contacted the committee, offering to provide additional testimony he believed would contradict Kerry’s, but that his request was denied.

Richard Nixon's former special counsel Charles Colson has stated that he recruited O'Neill to be a "counterfoil" to John Kerry. Kerry had come to prominence as part of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and had become a particular target for the White House since his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

O'Neill was at the center of the new organization, Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, and he became a media figure defending the Vietnam war and criticizing opponents of the war. O'Neill first met Kerry during a debate on the Dick Cavett Show on June 20, 1971. O'Neill strongly defended American incursions in Laos and Cambodia, and opposed anti-war veterans. He was particularly critical of Kerry's claims regarding the commission of war crimes by U.S. military personnel in Vietnam.

And this

After returning to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Then numbering about 20,000, VVAW was considered by some (including the administration of President Richard Nixon) to be an effective, if controversial, component of the antiwar movement.

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. He was still a member of the United States Navy Reserve, holding the rank of Lieutenant Junior Grade. 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, and then went on to address larger policy issues.

The day after this testimony, Kerry participated in a demonstration with thousands of other veterans in which he and other veterans threw their medals and ribbons over a fence erected at the front steps of the United States 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, almost 1000 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." The documentary film Sir! No Sir! includes archival footage of Kerry at the demonstration: he is one of several young men seen throwing things over the fence.


This is why things are the way they are...a microcosm maybe

A micro-macrocosm - maybe....


But there is more relevance to this story than any other story - taking into account today

[arcane1]

1. "Sir! No Sir!" is a very good, but hard to watch documentary

Definitely recommended.