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John Kerry

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John Kerry
U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA)

John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is a United States Senator from Massachusetts, and the leading contender for the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination.

Early Life

Kerry was born in a military hospital in Denver, Colorado, where his father, Richard Kerry, a pilot in the Army Air Corps (predecessor to the USAF) was undergoing treatment for tuberculosis. His family returned to their native state of Massachusetts shortly after John's birth.

His father later joined the United States Foreign Service and worked for the United States Department of State. His mother Rosemary Forbes Kerry was apparently a homemaker. Kerry's paternal grandfather, Frederick A. Kerry (born Kohn), grew up in Mödling (a small town near Vienna in Austria) and emigrated to the United States in 1905. His maternal grandfather James Grant Forbes, was an international lawyer and banker who was born in Shanghai, China. Kerry is descended from James Bowdoin, former Governor of Maine and through his maternal grandmother, Margaret Tyndal Winthrop, from John Winthrop, first Governor of the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Kerry was raised as a Roman Catholic (his Austrian grandparents were Jewish but concealed their background upon immigrating to the United States and raised Kerry's father as a Catholic), graduated from St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire in 1962, and entered Yale University, where he was inducted to Skull and Bones in 1965. Kerry entered law school at Boston College, after serving in Vietnam, and graduated in 1976.

Military Service

After graduating from Yale in 1966, Kerry joined the United States Navy and served in the Vietnam War. While in Vietnam, Kerry commanded a Swift Boat Patrol Craft Fast-94 during several operations, including Operation Sea Lords (raids on the Viet Cong-controlled Cua Long River in the Mekong Delta near the Cà Mau province).

Kerry's arm was wounded during his first combat experience (on December 2, 1968) and was awarded a Purple Heart. On February 20, 1969, Kerry earned a second Purple Heart when his left thigh was hit with shrapnel. Eight days later, on February 28, 1969, Kerry's boat, in enemy territory, was hit by a B-40 rocket. After beaching his boat, Kerry chased down a fleeing wounded Viet Cong (who had been shot by another machine gunner) and delivered the "coup de grâce." Kerry came back to the boat with the rocket and launcher. He was awarded the Silver Star medal for his actions.

On March 13, 1969, Kerry's boat detonated a mine (as his position took heavy fire) and his arm was wounded. For his injury and rescuing U.S. Army Green Beret James Rassmann on the same occasion, Kerry was awarded a third Purple Heart and the Bronze Star with Combat V.

Kerry ended his tour in Vietnam in 1969 after 11 months in-country.[1] After the third injury, he requested a transfer (Naval regulations at the time allowed this for someone with three Purple Hearts) but he remained on active duty for two more years with the Military Sea Transportation Service, Atlantic based in Brooklyn, New York. All told, he was on active duty from four years, from 1968 until 1972.

After returning to America, he became an outspoken opponent of the war. He joined the newly-formed organization Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), and became a prominent spokesman for the cause, leading numerous protests, marches and rallies including "a limited incursion into the country of Congress" on April 18, 1971 that was known as Dewey Canyon III In one famous gesture, he discarded his service ribbons, and the medals of vets who volunteered them, on the steps of the United States Capitol building. (He did not toss away "fake" replacement medals as has been reported, and the tossing place was the Capitol steps, not the Potomac River.)

In April 23, 1971 he testified before the United States Senate, speaking out against a war he described as a "mistake" and testified about VVAW hearings in which other veterans confessed to having "raped...and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam." In 1978 he cofounded Vietnam Veterans of America.

During this VVAW period, Kerry continued to serve in the United States Naval Reserve (from 1972 to 1978), for a total of 10 years of military service. He maintains a lifetime membership in the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) organization.

Political Experience

He was the district attorney of Middlesex County, Massachusetts from 1977 to 1982, and served as Massachusetts lieutenant governor from 1982 to 1984, when he was elected to the United States Senate as a Democrat. He has served in the Senate, as the junior Senator from Massachusetts (replacing Paul Tsongas) since 1985.

In the Senate, Kerry serves on the Committee on Foreign Relations, Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation and Committee on Finance. He was the chairman of the Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship from 2001 to 2003 and remains the ranking Democrat.

Kerry is also the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Oceans, Fisheries and the Environment and the Subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs. He also serves on the Subcommittee on Communications, Subcommittee on Transportation (both part of Commerce, Science and Transportation); the Subcommittee on Health Care, Subcommittee on International Trade and the Subcommittee on Social Security and Family Policy (Finance subcommittees); and on the Subcommittee on European Affairs and Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps & Narcotics Affairs (Foreign Relations sub-committees).

Kerry was the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from 1987 to 1989, and was reelected to the Senate in 1990, 1996 (despite the candidacy of popular Republican ex-Governor William Weld), and 2002. His current term will end on January 3 2009.

2004 Presidential Campaign

According to delegate counts and major polls, John Kerry is currently the frontrunner for the Democratic nomination in the U.S. presidential election, 2004. He would face Republican incumbent, President George W. Bush in November 2004 if he won the nomination.

Primary Election Results

In 2003, Kerry declared his candidacy for the Democratic nomination for the 2004 Presidential Election. Initially the front-runner, he lost the lead and momentum to upstart former Vermont Governor Howard Dean. However, as the actual primary season grew closer, Kerry regained his momentum while Dean's strategic errors and bombastic demeanor diminished the potency of his campaign.

John Kerry won the Democratic caucus in Iowa over Senator John Edwards on January 19, by a narrow margin, and then won the primary in New Hampshire by a wide margin on January 27.

On February 3, five states held primaries and two held caucuses. Kerry won both caucuses and three of the primaries, with a margin of victory of no less than 16% in any of those five states. Kerry came in second to Edwards by 15% in South Carolina. Kerry came in third in Oklahoma with 27% while Edwards and General Wesley Clark each recieved 30% of the votes.

On February 7, Kerry continued his winning streak with victories in caucuses in Michigan (52% of the vote, ahead of Dean with 17%) and Washington (48% ahead of Dean with 30%). On February 8 Kerry won the Maine caucuses with about half of the vote, leading Howard Dean who had about a quarter of the vote.

On February 10, he also won primaries in Virginia (by a 25-point margin over Edwards) and Tennessee (by a 15-point margin over Edwards), leaving him with 12 wins out of 14 state primary or caucus contests.

Views of Kerry

The official Kerry for President website declares:

"John has a bold, new vision for America. An America safe from foreign threats and greedy special interests. John has the experience and plans to lead America to better jobs, quality health care, energy that is clean, renewable, and independent, and greater opportunities for our children."

The Kansas City Star endorsed Kerry before the Missouri primary and wrote of him:

"Kerry has the right combination of intelligence, experience and thoughtful, progressive views for the job. His military record—he received both a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for acts of bravery in Vietnam—as well as his defense and foreign policy expertise clearly make him the best qualified Democrat to lead the nation in the continuing fight against our adversaries abroad...Kerry has decades of public service that are available for scrutiny and review. It is an excellent record, one that contains abundant evidence of the senator's commitment to the country and its better impulses."

The Chattanooga Times Free Press endorsed Kerry before the Tennessee Democratic primary and editorialized:

"If Mr. Kerry is, by contrast [to Mr. Bush], a 'liberal,' at least his policies make sense and would benefit all Americans. He has supported the sort of responsible domestic policies that boost education, support job creation and improve health care for all. With his personal war experience and deep background in foreign policy, he would exercise sound diplomacy in foreign affairs."

Critics of Kerry cite Associated Press reports that Kerry made efforts to keep loopholes for special interests. One loophole allowed American International Group to profit from liability insurance coverage it provided for the "Big Dig" project in Boston. AIG later provided the funds for Kerry's trip to Vermont and donated $30,000 (or more) to a group used to set up Kerry's presidential campaign (Company executives also donated $18,000 to his campaigns). Charles Lewis, head of the Center for Public Integrity, stated that "the idea that Kerry has not helped or benefited from a specific special interest, which he has said, is utterly absurd."[2]

Coupled with this, Republican opponents and conservative foes describe Kerry as liberal and out-of-touch with their perception of the mainstream of American society. Commentator Pat Buchanan wrote:

"...[Kerry is] a Massachusetts liberal who voted against the Defense of Marriage Act, backs civil unions for homosexuals, voted to defend the infanticide known as partial-birth abortion and wants to raise the federal income taxes that George Bush lowered." [3]

Issue Stances

Some of Kerry's positions, ideas and experiences with national issues are as follows:

National economy

Kerry supports increasing the minimum wage and indexing it to inflation. Kerry believes in "equal pay for equal work." Kerry has also proposed a "College Opportunity Tax Credit." Kerry supported NAFTA and the Gramm-Rudman-Hollings Act.

Military and Foreign Policy

Kerry voted in support the Senate resolution authorizing the President to use force against Saddam Hussein if he failed to surrender his weapons of mass destruction and related tools for constructing and distributing them.[4] After the President launched the U.S. expedition against the allegedly terrorist-harboring Hussein-Baathist regime in search of WMD, Kerry reconsidered his position and declared the Administration's Iraq policy reckless at best and baseless at worst. He has since been outspoken against the war itself and the Bush Administration's stewardship of occupied Iraq, but supports remaining Iraq until the task of reconstruction and reconciliation is complete.[5]

Kerry advocates involving NATO, troops from other countries and the United Nations in U.S. civilian-government led efforts to achieve the goals of stable and democratic world, through both military and diplomatic means. According to the Harvard Crimson, in 1970 Kerry said that the United Nations should have control over most of our foreign military operations. "I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." Kerry wants "to almost eliminate CIA activity. The CIA is fighting its own war in Laos and nobody seems to care." [6]

Kerry sponsored the Code of Conduct of Arms Transfers Act, which would prohibit U.S. military assistance and arms transfers to undemocratic nations, human rights violators or armed aggressors.

Kerry cosponsored an amendment to the Department of Defense Authorization Bill that allows the military to transport families of soldiers wounded while on active duty.

Iraq

Kerry has proposed plans for "winning the peace" in the Post-Saddam Iraq. Kerry is commmited to trying the former Iraqi leader. Kerry wants to keep and extend the coalition that is supporting the United States operations in Iraq.

Kerry, in October 2002, declared Iraq was "capable of quickly producing weaponizing" biological components that could be delivered against "the United States". This was in contrast to the skepticism of the National Intelligence Estimate of Iraq's capability, which Kerry had access to. [7]

Kerry has been criticized by some in the primary race (especially Howard Dean) for his position on the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Kerry voted for the resolution in the Senate that authorized President George W. Bush to go to war; however, he has since become a fierce critic of the war effort, attacking what he calls poor planning and poor diplomacy on Bush's part.

National security

Kerry detailed proposals for homeland security efforts includes:

  1. Enlisting the national guard and Americorps.
  2. Creating a community defense service.
  3. Ensuring first defenders are equipped and ready.
  4. Improving information technology.
  5. Reforming domestic intelligence.
  6. Implementing public health initiatives.
  7. Improving infrastructure security.

Immigration

Kerry supports cutting the Bureau for Citizenship and Immigration Services' application pending backlog and reducing the lag for the naturalization process. Kerry endorses benefits to legal immigrants. Kerry supports the Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors (DREAM) Act for illegal immigrates.

Kerry supports the proposal of legalizing the status of undocumented immigrants, pending a certain amount of working time in the US and passing a background check. Kerry has proposed border enforcement reformation and increases of border enforcement funding.

Justice

Kerry, personally, has prosecuted armed robbers, rapists, and mob bosses. He is in favor of putting resources in the community, backing the Community Oriented Policing System Act (COPS), and creating laws that lead to criminals being arrested and convicted. Kerry has advocated expanding the COPS program to place 100,000 police officers in community policing assignments. Kerry supports the Police Corps program.

In the Senate, Kerry has advocated for laws against drug dealers and money laundering.

Drug policy

Kerry's proposals to deal with illegal drugs include focusing on keeping drugs out of the country as well as reducing demand for illegal drugs. Kerry supports aggressively targeting traffickers and dealers.

Kerry supports funding drug prevention and treatment programs.

Gun Control

Kerry is a gun owner and hunter. Kerry believes that law-abiding American adults have the right to own guns, though he is in favor of certain restrictions.

Social Security

Kerry is against budget cuts that cause cutbacks in Social Security benefits.

Gay rights

Since 1995, Human Rights Campaign has given Kerry a 100% rating.

Kerry is in favor of civil rights for gay and lesbian Americans. John Kerry is an original cosponsor of the Hate Crimes Prevention bill and supports passage of the Employment Non-Discrimination Act. Kerry cosponsored the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Act (CARE) and also sponsored the Vaccines for the New Millennium Act.

Kerry believes that homosexual couples should be granted rights, supporting same-sex civil unions (though not same-sex marriage). Kerry supported legislation to provide domestic partners of federal employees the benefits available to spouses of federal employees. Kerry voted against the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the Senate in 1996.

Kerry opposes the "Don’t Ask Don’t Tell" policy and is in favor lifting the ban on gays in the Military.

Abortion

Kerry is against the criminalization of a woman's right to choose. Kerry voted "no" on maintaining a ban on Military Base Abortions, "no" on banning partial birth abortions, and "no" on disallowing overseas military abortions.

Environment

Kerry advocates removal of toxins from communities, bolstering the Superfund cleanup program, and reducing sprawl and traffic congestion.

Proposals for "Green and Clean Communities" include a Toxics Task Force at the EPA, fighting air pollution, water pollution and fighting other environmental hazards. Kerry has proposed a "Conservation Covenant." As part of the covenant, Kerry will extend the Endangered Species Act for the benefits of wildlife and habitat protection to public and private lands and reinvest public-land royalties back into land protection.

Kerry wants to participate in the development of an international climate change strategy to address global warming.

In 1998, the League of Conservation Voters gave Kerry an award for having one of the best environmental voting records in the Senate over the previous five years.

Personal Information

John Kerry is 6-feet 4-inches (1.94 meters) tall and has been called the "Lanky Yankee." He speaks fluent French, having spent time in Switzerland and France with his diplomat father in his youth. He enjoys surfing and hunting.

Family

Kerry has a younger brother, Cameron Kerry, who is a litigator in Boston, and two sisters, Diane and Peggy.

John Kerry was married to Julie Thorne in 1970, and had two children with her: Alexandra Kerry (b. 1973), currently a film school student in the Los Angeles area, and Vanessa Kerry (b. 1976), currently a student at Harvard Medical School. Kerry and Thorne were separated in 1982 and divorced in 1988. The marriage was formally annulled by the Roman Catholic Church in 1997. Kerry and Teresa Simões-Ferreira Heinz, the widow of Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III, met at the Earth Summit at Rio de Janiero in 1992. In 1995, they married and today their combined net worth is reported to be between $199 million and $839 million [8], making Kerry the wealthiest U.S. senator. Kerry also has three stepsons, John Heinz Jr., André Heinz and Christopher Heinz (b. ~1973).

Official

Profiles

Information

Opposition

Further Reading

  • Kerry, John, New Soldier: John Kerry and Vietnam Veterans Against the War, MacMillan Publishing Company, 1971. ASIN 002073610X
  • Kerry, John, The New War: The Web of Crime That Threatens America's Security, Simon & Schuster, 1997. ISBN 0684818159
  • Kerry, John, A Call to Service: My Vision for a Better America, Viking Press, 2003. ISBN 0670032603
  • Brinkley, Douglas, Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, William Morrow & Company, 2004. ISBN 0060565233
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