Thorson didn't take sides, and he still doesn't. He remains quiet and politely refuses to answer if he agreed or disagreed with Kerry's antiwar actions after Vietnam.
He said people didn't draw distinctions between supporting the troops and supporting the war 30 years ago. They were either one or the other, and Thorson doesn't renounce his involvement in Vietnam.
"I was a hawk back then, and I still am," Thorson said. "People will disagree with Vietnam, and I'll listen to what they say. However, I'll defend what we did there."
While Thorson remained neutral about Kerry's postwar activities, he would join him in similar antiwar activities three decades later.
But during those three decades, the two maintained nearly no contact. Thorson continued as a cement mason while Kerry built a political career, beginning as a lawyer, a lieutenant governor, then a U.S. senator for Massachusetts.
Their dissimilar lives were brought back together in 1996 by the same thing that brought them together in 1968: political turmoil.
At the time, Kerry was running his re-election campaign in the Senate against favored Massachusetts Gov. William Weld. Weld challenged Kerry's service record in Vietnam.
As a political trump card, Kerry called in Thorson and his other Vietnam comrades to campaign for him. The plan worked; Kerry was re-elected to a third term.
Having his former crew members proved so successful, Kerry decided to call them again when he explored a presidential run in 2002.
As Kerry stumped in Iowa last fall, he was joined by Thorson -- who defended Kerry with political rhetoric instead of a 50-caliber machine gun. Part of Thorson's job was talking to veterans about Iraq, telling them President Bush was leading America down a dead-end road with a war that started the same way as Vietnam.
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Thorson didn't take sides, and he still doesn't. (WHAT A LIE!) Just Google on his name.
Their dissimilar lives were brought back together in 1996 by the same thing that brought them together in 1968: political turmoil.
At the time, Kerry was running his re-election campaign in the Senate against favored Massachusetts Gov. William Weld. Weld challenged Kerry's service record in Vietnam.
As a political trump card, Kerry called in Thorson and his other Vietnam comrades to campaign for him. The plan worked; Kerry was re-elected to a third term.
Having his former crew members proved so successful, Kerry decided to call them again when he explored a presidential run in 2002.
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Detecting a pattern here....