DAN K. THOMASSON Vietnam cuts both ways for John Kerry

WASHINGTON -- It was inevitable that the attacks on Sen. John Kerry's military record would shift to his opposition to the war after he returned from Vietnam. It was, after all, that stance and not his heroism in the Mekong Delta that propelled him to political prominence.
While it probably is impossible to determine who is right and who is wrong about his medal producing performance as a Swift boat commander in the volatile Mekong Delta, there can be no question about how he acted in the months after leaving Vietnam with a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts. Most voters are likely to give him the benefit of a doubt about his gallantry despite challenges.
But there are many fellow veterans, including some who served with him or near him, who aren't about to forgive him for the things he said about them as an anti-war spokesman. To them, he was portraying his own actions as noble and theirs as quite the opposite and their anger about it has been revived.
Campaign's central theme
That simply is what underlies the assault on Kerry's veracity about his Vietnam duty and makes it easier for veterans who did not serve with him to believe he may be shading the truth. By turning his heroics into the central theme of his campaign and ignoring the role that first brought him to public attention, he has risked legitimate charges that he once again is trying to have it both ways.
Kerry's now famous unsubstantiated allegations of daily atrocities committed by American forces; his alleged throwing away of his medals, and his association with groups virulent in their opposition to the war (in fairness he was not a part of any violent activity) have been waiting in the wings to haunt him all these years. Although they did not hinder his political career in ultra liberal Massachusetts, there can be no certainty about how the rest of the nation feels.
Opposition to the Vietnam War itself is no indictment. In fact, most Americans came to think it was a horrible mistake. Tens of thousands of young men went to extreme lengths to avoid service, hiding out in the National Guard, as did George W. Bush, or working overtime to dodge being drafted, as did Bill Clinton. So it was not Kerry's position against the war per se that has so angered any number of his fellow veterans who are now determined to see that he does not reach the White House. It was what he said about them in the process.
Coming home from Vietnam, he was just one among hundreds of decorated servicemen, perhaps a bit more well-connected than most with his Yale education and moderately wealthy, patrician background. It was not enough different to have brought him particular attention or by itself to have been the foundation for a life in politics.
Besides, having been a hero in Vietnam was not considered such a wonderful thing in many quarters. What these veterans faced was a steady barrage of denunciation and condemnation, an atmosphere unlike any that had greeted the nation's returning warriors in its history. Life for a huge number of them was not easy as they dealt with their own demons, including guilt and self-doubt imposed on them by an angry public.
'Baby killers'
Suddenly one of their own, a young Navy lieutenant, appeared before a U.S. Senate committee to verify the public disgust. He accused them of being "baby killers" and murderers of innocent civilians; he said they regularly committed unspeakable atrocities. The things he described he could neither prove nor, in his short tenure, have known first-hand, but as an articulate spokesman for the opposition, he was elevated to national prominence and a political career was born.
Then as his efforts to win the Democratic nomination in a crowded field began to fail, he discovered that it was a good thing more than three decades later to once again be a war hero, particularly in an age of terrorism and global turmoil. It showed that he was no softy when it came to making hard choices in a dangerous world. His swift-boat crew came forward to testify as to his courage, and his fortunes rebounded dramatically. The Democratic convention became an orgy of war stories and hero worship.
Now he is John Kerry war hero, not John Kerry anti-war hero. He actually kept his medals, he said, throwing away someone else's. Is it any wonder that there are those with whom he served who now consider him disingenuous, too ready to use those he disparaged for his own benefit.?
XThomasson is former editor of the Scripps Howard.