John Forbes Kerry/Commentary

John Forbes Kerry was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. presidential election, 2004.

Biographical Information
Kerry, former Lt. Governor of Massachusetts, is now a U.S. Senator from Massachusetts. He serves on the Banking, Foreign Relations, and Intelligence committees.

According to his biographical note, he "was born on December 11, 1943 at Fitzsimmons Military Hospital in Denver, Colorado, where his father, Richard, who had volunteered to fly DC-3's in the Army Air Corps in World War II, was recovering from a bout with tuberculosis. Not long after Sen. Kerry's birth, his family returned home to Massachusetts."

Vietnam War
"A graduate of Yale University, John Kerry entered the Navy after graduation, becoming a Swift Boat officer, serving on a gunboat in the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. He received a Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, and three awards of the Purple Heart for his service in combat," it states.

See also John Forbes Kerry's military service

1971 Senate Testimony
"By the time Senator Kerry returned home from Vietnam, he felt compelled to question decisions he believed were being made to protect those in positions of authority in Washington at the expense of the soldiers carrying on the fighting in Vietnam. Kerry was a co-founder of the Vietnam Veterans of America and became a spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War -- Morley Safer would describe him as "a veteran whose articulate call to reason rather than anarchy seemed to bridge the call between the Abbie Hoffmans of the world and Mr. Spiro T. Agnew's so-called 'Silent Majority.'" In April, 1971, in testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he asked the question of his fellow citizens, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?" Sen. Claiborne Pell, (D-R.I.) thanked Kerry, then 27, for testifying before the committee, expressing his hope that Kerry "might one day be a colleague of in this body," it states.

Senator from Massachusetts
"Fourteen years later, John Kerry would have the opportunity to fulfill those hopes - serving side by side with Sen. Pell as a Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But in the intervening years, he found different ways to fight for those things in which he believed. Time and again, Kerry fought to hold the political system accountable and to do what he believed was right. As a top prosecutor in Middlesex County, Kerry took on organized crime and put the Number Two mob boss in New England behind bars. He modernized the District Attorney's office, creating an innovative rape crisis crime unit, and as a lawyer in private practice he worked long and hard to prove the innocence of a man wrongly given a life sentence for a murder he did not commit," it states.

"In 1984, after winning election as Lieutenant Governor in 1982, Kerry ran and was elected to serve in the United States Senate, running and winning a successful PAC-free Senate race and defeating a Republican opponent buoyed by Ronald Reagan's reelection coattails. Like his predecessor, the irreplaceable Paul Tsongas, Kerry came to the Senate with a reputation for independence -- and reinforced it by making tough choices on difficult issues: breaking with many in his own Party to support Gramm-Rudman Deficit Reduction; taking on corporate welfare and government waste; pushing for campaign finance reform; holding Oliver North accountable and exposing the fraud and abuse at the heart of the BCCI scandal; working with John McCain in the search for the truth about Vietnam veterans declared POW/MIA; and insisting on accountability, investment, and excellence in public education," it states. 

Sen. Kerry was re-elected in 1990, and again in 1996, defeating the popular Republican Governor William Weld in the most closely watched Senate race in the country. Now serving his fourth term, Kerry has worked to reform public education, address children's issues, strengthen the economy and encourage the growth of the high tech New Economy, protect the environment, and advance America's foreign policy interests around the globe.

Family
John Kerry is married to Teresa Heinz/Teresa Heinz Kerry. He has two daughters, Alexandra and Vanessa. Teresa Heinz has three sons, John, Andre, and Christopher. Senator Kerry lives in Boston.

Kerry's wife, Teresa Heinz, is the widow of Senator John Henry Heinz III, who grew wealthy from the Heinz companies.

War in Iraq
In a October 9, 2002, speech to the Senate, Kerry accepted Bush's 'evidence' against Iraq and backed going to war. "I will be voting to give the President of the United States [Bush] the authority to use force - if necessary - to disarm Saddam Hussein because I believe that a deadly arsenal of weapons of mass destruction in his hands is a real and grave threat to our security," he said.

"The President laid out a strong, comprehensive, and compelling argument why Iraq&#8217;s weapons of mass destruction programs are a threat to the United States and the international community,&#8221; Kerry said.

Affiliations
Kerry was noted as a member of the Council on Foreign Relations in 2001. He attended Yale University and was a member of Skull and Bones' Class of 1966. See article "What Unites Kerry and Bush?"

2004 Presidential Nominee
See John Forbes Kerry: U.S. Presidential Campaign 2004

SourceWatch Resources

 * "band of brothers"
 * Bush administration smear campaigns
 * Bush-Cheney '04 Inc.
 * Democratic National Committee
 * John Forbes Kerry's military service
 * John Forbes Kerry: U.S. Presidential Campaign 2004.
 * Operation Iraqi Freedom: Military and Political Dissent
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Republican Campaign Ads
 * U.S. presidential election, 2004: Campaign Quotes

Websites

 * John Kerry's Online Office.
 * Headlines and Current News, Kerry Senate website.

Related to the Presidential Election, 2004

 * John Kerry President 2004 web site.
 * John Kerry Campaign Organization Wiki.
 * Senate Seat 1 Election/Voting History.
 * Government Information Awareness: John Forbes Kerry. Campaign contributions, industry support, and information links.
 * OpenSecrets.org: John Forbes Kerry 2002 Election.
 * Project Vote Smart: John Forbes Kerry.
 * The Buying of the President 2004: John Forbes Kerry, Center for Public Integrity web site.

Profiles

 * John Kerry's Online Office: Biography.
 * Profile: John Kerry, BBC.co.uk, June 19, 2003.
 * Wikipedia Timeline for John Forbes Kerry.

Speeches & Statements

 * Kerry's Dbunker blog, "setting the record straight".
 * John Kerry, John Kerry's Statement to Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 23, 1971.
 * John Kerry, John Kerry's Statement on Iraq Before the War, October 9, 2002.
 * "Senator John Kerry's Speech at Brown University," JohnKerry.com, September 19, 2005. Re Hurricane Katrina.

Articles & Commentary

 * Laura Blumenfeld, John Kerry: Hunter, Dreamer, Realist. Complexity Infuses Senator's Ambition, The Washington Post, June 1, 2003.
 * William A. Cook, "Tweedledee and Tweedledum: Bush and Kerry Melt into One", Counterpunch, April 24/25, 2004.
 * "Skull and Bones: Secret Society that unites President Bush and John Kerry," Democracy Now!, January 22, 2004.