Anti-Kerry vets criticize Democrat, others defend him
By Associated Press, 9/12/2004 17:19

WASHINGTON (AP) Chanting ''Kerry lied,'' hundreds of Vietnam veterans on Sunday rallied against fellow veteran and Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry.

Comrades died because of people like Kerry and Jane Fonda, asserted Larry Bailey, a U.S. Navy veteran and president of Vietnam Vets for the Truth.

With the U.S. Capitol as a backdrop, Bailey accused Kerry of lying three decades ago when he returned from Vietnam and gave testimony before the U.S. Senate in 1971 alleging widespread atrocities by American troops.

''We can tell him (Kerry) and spit in his eye while we're doing it, 'we served honorably and compassionately,''' Bailey said to cheers from the crowd of approximately 1,000.

Bailey's speech was interrupted when a shouting match broke out between a lone Kerry supporter in a wheelchair, Vietnam veteran Bobby Mueller, and a number of the anti-Kerry vets.

Before the rally, a group of supporters held a news conference nearby to defend Kerry and call for an end to the TV ads attacking the military record of the Massachusetts senator.

''What we ought to be talking about is what's happening today and that includes the best person to lead us out of the mess we've got ourselves in Iraq,'' Retired Gen. Merrill ''Tony'' McPeak, a former chief of staff of the Air Force, told reporters.

McPeak, who is advising the Kerry campaign and is a Vietnam veteran, said those who have questioned the five medals Kerry was awarded for Vietnam either weren't directly serving with him or their accounts have been directly contradicted by other vets who were side-by-side with Kerry.