[mass55th]

"ut Richard Pershing, grandson of the general and one of the few Yalies killed in Vietnam, was said to have been a close friend of Kerry's."

And I heard one guest on Fox News report that it was Pershing's medals Kerry threw over the wall.

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Interesting articles here and here. Kerry did have real questions about the war in 1966, but went because he couldn't get a draft deferment. Today, it's a safe bet to assume that one wouldn't enlist in wartime if one didn't support the war, but in those days, exile or prison or flunking the physical would have been the other options (it took a while for "alternative service" for non-religious conscientious objectors to be accepted). So it's possible that Kerry did want to "prove some sort of theory." But one would have to know more about his college days to know for sure. Taking one of the other options might have doomed the political career that Kerry wanted, though. That and the draft would have been reason enough to go.

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You might also check out this discussion, and the Weekly Standard article it refers to. Perhaps the draft board story doesn't measure up. Apparently a lot of Ivy leaguers had no trouble getting deferments, and if they did, one could still have avoided going to Vietnam.