--Zumwalt's opposition to US involvement in Vietnam was first expressed in 1962: "In 1962 he wrote a report urging the United States not to get involved militarily in Vietnam, but by 1968 he was commander of the Naval forces there, and committed to winning the war. A year later, his son Elmo volunteered for riverboat duty there." (IN MEMORIAM: ELMO ZUMWALT)
--Zumwalt's views on Vietnam were influenced by then-JFK/LBJ advisor Paul Nitze: "By 1964 Zumwalt was senior aide to Secretary of the Navy Paul Nitze and shared his chief's skepticism about the growing U.S. commitment to the war in Southeast Asia. Both viewed the Soviet armaments buildup as more challenging to America's vital interests." (Dewey's first Commanding Officer) Nitze was at one time the boss of William Bundy, uncle of Kerry's college roommate: "Ironically, Harvey [Bundy] had died just as his son Bill was being nominated to be assistant secretary [of Defense], a title Harvey had once held. Bill's boss, Paul Nitze, left that autumn [1963] to become secretary of the navy, and McNamara had immediately recommended Bill's promotion." (Kai Bird, The Color of Truth: McGeorge Bundy and William Bundy: Brothers in Arms: A Biography, 265) Questions about Nitze as a security risk had been raised by Joseph McCarthy and other conservatives, prompted by Nitze's close association with the State Department's Dean Acheson, and in the wake of these suspicions John Foster Dulles had blocked Nitze's advancement in the State Department: "Dulles summoned Paul Nitze to his office the afternoon of Eisenhower's inauguration. He was cordial. . .He was sorry to say, however, that he could not afford to keep on Dean Acheson's chief planner. . .As a consolation prize, Nitze was allowed to work for the new Secretary of Defense, Charles Wilson. . .But then McCarthy moved in, charging that Nitze was a 'Wall Street operator', while Senator Knowland claimed that Nitze was one of 'Acheson's architects of disaster'." (Walter Isaacson and Evan Thomas, The Wise Men: Six Friends and the World They Made, 570). During the Pentagon Papers investigation John Ehrlichman suspected Nitze (for whom Daniel Ellsberg had once worked) of being one of Ellsberg's coconspirators: "'He's a co-conspirator with Gelb and Halperin,' Ehrlichman reported to Nixon on September 10. 'Paul Nitze is?' Nixon responded increduously. 'I'm quite sure. Quite sure that he's the guy,' replied Ehrlichman. . ." (Tom Wells, Wild Man: The Life and Times of Daniel Ellsberg, 461-462) Ellsberg's biographer Wells goes on to speculate that Ehrlichman may have had Nitze confused with Paul Warnke here, but it's clear to me Ehrlichman meant Nitze--cf. David Rudenstine, "The Day the Presses Stopped: A History of the Pentagon Papers Case": "Gelb declared the project completed on January 15, 1969, only five days before Richard Nixon took the presidential oath. . .Shortly thereafter, and after consulting with McNamara, Gelb made a list for the distribution of the report. Although it is not known for certain, Melvin R. Laird, Nixon's defense secretary, likely approved the list. Only fifteen copies of the report were made, and, of that, five copies were placed in Laird's safe at the Pentagon. Of the ten distributed copies, only one went to an official of the Nixon administration--Henry Kissinger, Nixon's national security adviser. The remaining nine went to the Kennedy and Johnson libraries and seven former Johnson officials. McNamara, Clifford, and Paul H. Nitze, former deputy secretary of defense, each received one. A copy was placed with the private papers of Katzenbach and former Assistant Secretary of State William P. Bundy, both of whose papers were stored at the State Department. Warnke claimed a copy, and Gelb and Halperin jointly claimed the last copy. Not surprisingly, no copy of the report was sent to Walt Rostow, Dean:Rusk, or Johnson himself. No announcement describing the study was circulated within the government."
--Zumwalt was involved in the Moorer-Radford spy ring I mentioned: "The White House Tapes name Admiral Zumwalt (the Chief of Naval Operations) as one of the recipients of the stolen documents." (Len Colodny and Tom Shachtman, "The Moorer – Radford Spy Ring 'Seven Days In December'")
--Finally, much later in Zumwalt's career, he became an activist in the Agent Orange controversy: "It would take the intervention of the former commander of the US Navy in Vietnam, Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, for the government finally to admit that it had been aware of the potential dangers of the chemicals used in Vietnam from the start of Ranch Hand. The admiral's involvement stemmed from a deathbed pledge to his son, a patrol boat captain who contracted two forms of cancer that he believed had been caused by his exposure to Agent Orange. Every day during the war, Captain Elmo Zumwalt Jr had swum in a river from which he had also eaten fish, in an area that was regularly sprayed with the herbicide. Two years after his son's death in 1988, Zumwalt used his leverage within the military establishment to compile a classified report, which he presented to the secretary of the department of veterans' affairs and which contained data linking Agent Orange to 28 life-threatening conditions, including bone cancer, skin cancer, brain cancer - in fact, almost every cancer known to man - in addition to chronic skin disorders, birth defects, gastrointestinal diseases and neurological defects." Cathy Scott-Clark and Adrian Levy, "A Chemical Weapon Used By the US in the Vietnam War is Still Damaging New Generations"
I note that none of this proves anything about Zumwalt's relationship with Kerry, but I post it as background to be taken into consideration. It does at least establish that Paul Nitze was a link between the social circles of Zumwalt and those of Kerry's roommate's uncle William Bundy--in other words, if Kerry needed some strings pulled, he at least knew the right people.