Posted on 10/15/2004 9:48:12 PM PDT by freespirited
It was December 1968, and the United States was in turmoil. The number of U.S. troops in Vietnam had reached a peak of half a million. Antiwar protests were paralyzing American campuses after the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.
In Vietnam, a gangly U.S. Navy lieutenant named John F. Kerry steered his Swift boat up a river in the Mekong Delta, deep into enemy territory, witnessing firsthand a war he would soon conclude was no longer winnable. More than 8,000 miles away, in Valdosta, Ga., another son of privilege, George W. Bush, took off in a Cessna T-41 trainer, choosing to fulfill his wartime obligations stateside in the Texas Air National Guard.
Choices the two men made more than 3 1/2 decades ago have cast a long shadow over the current presidential campaign, helping to define the candidates to voters but also exposing them to harsh personal attacks. Bush has faced charges that he used family connections to dodge combat duty in Vietnam, while Kerry has been accused of betrayal for leading antiwar demonstrations after returning to the United States.
For both, the turbulent year of 1968 was the starting point for personal journeys that have been shrouded in myth and controversy. An examination of the way they grappled with the central foreign policy issue confronting their generation, based on their memories and interviews with people who knew them, provides insights into their political philosophies and preparation for the role of commander in chief.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
These reporters seem blissfully unaware of that fact.
Hi, freespirited:
I've been calling The Washington Post 'Pravda On The Potomac' for more than 20 years now.
It's nice to see that it's finally catching on!
I'm guessing that Kerry had used up all of his Dodge-The-Bullet Deferrments and was shipped to the USS Gridley as an Ensign.
Jack.
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