Kerry recalls a war that shaped him, as combatant and protester

-- John Kerry choked up as he discussed Vietnam at the LBJ presidential library last night. From Carol Morello in Austin: The Secretary of State had to pause to regain control of his emotions while recalling his 1971 testimony before a Senate committee after returning from the war. “I spoke of the determination of veterans to undertake one last mission,” Kerry said, “so that in 30 years, when our brothers went down the street without a leg or an arm and people asked why, we’d be able to say ‘Vietnam’ and not mean a bitter memory…’” He stopped, seeming to choke back tears before completing the thought.

In an onstage talk with Ken Burns, Kerry said he thinks constantly about the lessons of Vietnam when he is involved in peace negotiations. “I am now in a position of responsibility, to live my beliefs, to live my lessons,” he said.
Kerry rarely discusses his time as an anti-war protester. “His pointed remarks suggested that the poised, silver-haired diplomat who negotiates ceasefires and treaties, is just an evolution from the angry, shaggy-maned protester who posed the rhetorical question of how to ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake,” Morello writes.
“I’ll probably get in trouble for this,” Kerry said at one point, before arguing that veterans should be able to go anywhere, not just to government hospitals, for health care. (Austin American Statesman)