Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry challenged President Bush on Saturday to a debate over Vietnam, a move that may force the Bush campaign to respond by focusing on the Massachusetts Democrat's anti-war alliance with "Hanoi" Jane Fonda.
In a letter to the White House, Kerry blamed Bush and his supporters for interjecting Vietnam into the campaign – including, Kerry said, "my decision to speak out to end that war."
"I will not sit back and allow my patriotism to be challenged," the leading Democrat complained. "If you want to debate the Vietnam era, and the impact of our experiences on our approaches to presidential leadership, I am prepared to do so."
Despite Sen. Kerry's complaint over alleged GOP attacks on his anti-war record – a record that includes Kerry's depiction of U.S. soldiers serving honorably in Vietnam as "war criminals" – the GOP, has, in fact, expressly avoided the issue.
Just last week Republican National Committee chairman Ed Gillespie declined to talk about Kerry's anti-war past when confronted during a TV interview with a photo of Kerry and Fonda attending a September 1970 anti-war protest.
"I've not done that," Gillespie told NBC's "Meet the Press." "Senator Kerry is entitled to his opinion and to express that opinion when he came back from the war. He's also entitled, by the way, to credit which we fully give him for his honorable service in the military."
Likewise, no one linked to the White House has challenged Kerry's false claim on Thursday, delivered to CNN's Judy Woodruff, that he never accused Vietnam veterans of committing war crimes.
Rather than let the issue fade, however, White House silence has only emboldened the likely Democratic nominee, who has lately adopted a belligerent tone on the issue.
"I don't know what it is that all these Republicans who didn't serve in Vietnam or fight in a war have against those of us who did," he told ABC's George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.
Editor's note:
Hey: Browse NewsMax’s Online Classifieds for Great Offers Click Here Now!
Read more on this subject in related Hot Topics:
2004 Elections
Sen. John Kerry
George W. Bush
Print Page 
Forward Page 
