Democrat John Kerry hit back at Dick Cheney on Thursday by raising the Republican’s failure to serve in the Vietnam War and asking voters to weigh his two tours of duty against the vice president’s five deferments.
Kerry, a decorated Vietnam War veteran, bristled at Cheney’s attack on his patriotism during the Republican National Convention in New York and his ability to serve as U.S. commander-in-chief.
“Here’s my answer,” the Massachusetts senator said in excerpts of remarks he will make at a midnight rally in Springfield, Ohio, shortly after President Bush delivers his acceptance speech at the Republican convention.
“I’m not going to have my commitment to defend this country questioned by those who refused to serve when they could have and by those who have misled the nation into Iraq,” he said.
Neither Bush, who served in the Texas Air national Guard, nor Cheney went to Vietnam. The vice president obtained five deferments and has since said he had “other priorities” at the time.
Kerry volunteered for two tours of duty and won three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star while serving on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta.
Kerry’s political campaign has heavily emphasized his Vietnam record, but his critics say he served only four months in the country. They say he hardly discusses his record during 20 years in the U.S. Senate.
Kerry’s decorations — and his subsequent activism against the Vietnam war — have been questioned in television ads by a group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. The Bush campaign has denied any connection with the organization.
Cheney launched a withering attack on Kerry on Wednesday night at the convention, saying he had a “habit of indecision” that would jeopardize national security, that he failed to grasp the dangers of terrorism, refused to support U.S. troops on the battlefield in Iraq and voted outside the mainstream during his 20 years in the Senate.
“John Kerry says he sees two Americas,” Cheney said, playing off the Democrat’s contention that there is one America for the rich and another for everybody else. “It makes the whole thing mutual: America sees two John Kerrys.”
Advisers have been urging Kerry, who has lost ground against Bush in recent polls, to show a more combative side.
“We all saw the anger and distortion of the Republican Convention,” Kerry said. “The vice president even called me unfit for office last night. I guess I’ll leave it up to the voters whether five deferments makes someone more qualified to defend this nation than two tours of duty.”
Kerry and and his vice presidential running mate John Edwards will kick off the final two months before the Nov. 2 election in the critical battleground state of Ohio where recent polls give Bush a narrow lead. No Republican has ever won the White House without a victory in Ohio.
