"It hasn't been carried on the networks, but I've talked to children of our friends," O'Neill told ABC radio host Sean Hannity on Monday, in one of his first post-election interviews. "People were cheering in Iraq and Afghanistan - our kids were - when the election results were announced."

O'Neill said one of the chief motivations for the Swiftvets' crusade was a concern for the well-being of GIs on the frontlines. "We were convinced that [Kerry] would be a disaster for our kids in Iraq and Afghanistan," he said.

But O'Neill made clear the motivation for him and his fellow Swiftvets had nothing to do with politics, telling Hannity: "The truth is, we didn't do this to hurt or help anybody [politically]. We did it because it was just the truth."

For his generation of Vietnam veterans, O'Neill said he was proud that the Swiftvets helped "recapture history for ourselves and for our friends who died there."

"There will never be another American presidential candidate who takes the position that our kids in the field generally are criminals," he told Hannity. "And I don't think there will ever be another campaign that's ever run on the basis that our involvement in Vietnam was anything but a noble - if lost - cause."

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