http://bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/top/features/documents/02798051.htmKerry, a Navy veteran who earned a Silver Star for his service in Vietnam, is probably best situated among the current crop of Democratic presidential contenders to take on Bush. He’s the only one to have served in Vietnam. After he left the Navy, and as the US’s flawed policy in Vietnam became clearer and clearer, Kerry took a leadership role in criticizing the war, famously asking the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971: " How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? " During that testimony, he also directly challenged the architects of Vietnam: " We’re here to ask where are McNamara,
Rostow, Bundy, Gilpatrick, and so many others? These are the commanders who have deserted their troops. And there is no more serious crime in the laws of war. The Army says they never leave their wounded. The Marines say they never even leave their dead. These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude. They’ve left the real stuff of their reputations bleaching behind them in the sun in this country. "