Friday, March 12, 2004 12:37 p.m. EST
N.Y. Sun: Kerry Quit Anti-war Group After Assassination Vote
Sen. John Kerry has repeatedly told reporters that he's proud of the protests he led as head of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
But at least two eyewitnesses now say he was present when the VVAW voted on whether to assassinate pro-war members of Congress – a proposal that led to Kerry's resignation.
"Mr. Kerry denies being present at the November 12-15, 1971, meeting in Kansas City of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and says he quit the group before the meeting," reports the New York Sun in Friday editions.
"But according to the current head of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, Randy Barnes, Mr. Kerry, who was then 27, was at the meeting, voted against the plot, and then orally resigned from the organization."
Another member of the VVAW, Terry DuBose, told the paper he remembered Kerry being present for the vote. And two additional witnesses confirm that the assassination plot was on the table, without confirming whether Kerry was there.
VVAW leader Scott Camil took credit for the death plot, which he said was an alternative to Kerry's plan to toss war decorations onto the Capitol steps during an April 1971 VVAW protest in Washington, D.C.
In a 1992 oral history of the anti-war movement still on file at the University of Florida, Camil explains, "My plan was that, on the last day [of the protest] we would go into the [congressional] offices – we would schedule the most hardcore hawks for last – and we would shoot them all."
"I was serious," Camil insisted. Targets were to include senators John Stennis, Strom Thurmond and John Tower.
While Kerry took steps to distance himself from the some of the VVAW's radicalism, a copy of the presidential candidate's 1971 book, "The New Soldier," obtained by NewsMax reveals quotes from Camil saying he would have shot back at National Guardsman during the May 1970 Kent State protest.
"If I was at Kent State when it happened, and if I would have gotten my hands on a rifle, I would have shot back," wrote Camil. "I would have tried to kill and I'm sure I would have killed. Even though I realize that the National Guard people at Kent State were being used just like I was being used in Vietnam ... I still know I would have tried to kill them."
Kerry had full editorial control over the material that appeared in "The New Soldier," which credits him as author on the cover, along with his brother-in-law David Thorne, now a Kerry campaign aide, as a co-editor.
Camil told the Sun that he plans to accept an offer by the Florida Kerry organization to become active in Kerry's presidential campaign. Campaign aides to Kerry invited Camil to a meeting for the senator in Orlando last week, but they did not meet directly.
In his book "Tour of Duty," Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley reports that Kerry left the VVAW a few days before the assassination plot vote, submitting an official letter of resignation on Nov. 10, 1971.
When the Sun questioned Brinkley on his source for Kerry's alibi, however, he said it was Kerry himself. In his book Brinkley writes in a footnote, "I could not locate Kerry’s November 10 VVAW resignation letter."
N.Y. Sun: Kerry Quit Anti-war Group After Assassination Vote
Sen. John Kerry has repeatedly told reporters that he's proud of the protests he led as head of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
But at least two eyewitnesses now say he was present when the VVAW voted on whether to assassinate pro-war members of Congress – a proposal that led to Kerry's resignation.
"Mr. Kerry denies being present at the November 12-15, 1971, meeting in Kansas City of Vietnam Veterans Against the War and says he quit the group before the meeting," reports the New York Sun in Friday editions.
"But according to the current head of Missouri Veterans for Kerry, Randy Barnes, Mr. Kerry, who was then 27, was at the meeting, voted against the plot, and then orally resigned from the organization."
Another member of the VVAW, Terry DuBose, told the paper he remembered Kerry being present for the vote. And two additional witnesses confirm that the assassination plot was on the table, without confirming whether Kerry was there.
VVAW leader Scott Camil took credit for the death plot, which he said was an alternative to Kerry's plan to toss war decorations onto the Capitol steps during an April 1971 VVAW protest in Washington, D.C.
In a 1992 oral history of the anti-war movement still on file at the University of Florida, Camil explains, "My plan was that, on the last day [of the protest] we would go into the [congressional] offices – we would schedule the most hardcore hawks for last – and we would shoot them all."
"I was serious," Camil insisted. Targets were to include senators John Stennis, Strom Thurmond and John Tower.
While Kerry took steps to distance himself from the some of the VVAW's radicalism, a copy of the presidential candidate's 1971 book, "The New Soldier," obtained by NewsMax reveals quotes from Camil saying he would have shot back at National Guardsman during the May 1970 Kent State protest.
"If I was at Kent State when it happened, and if I would have gotten my hands on a rifle, I would have shot back," wrote Camil. "I would have tried to kill and I'm sure I would have killed. Even though I realize that the National Guard people at Kent State were being used just like I was being used in Vietnam ... I still know I would have tried to kill them."
Kerry had full editorial control over the material that appeared in "The New Soldier," which credits him as author on the cover, along with his brother-in-law David Thorne, now a Kerry campaign aide, as a co-editor.
Camil told the Sun that he plans to accept an offer by the Florida Kerry organization to become active in Kerry's presidential campaign. Campaign aides to Kerry invited Camil to a meeting for the senator in Orlando last week, but they did not meet directly.
In his book "Tour of Duty," Kerry biographer Douglas Brinkley reports that Kerry left the VVAW a few days before the assassination plot vote, submitting an official letter of resignation on Nov. 10, 1971.
When the Sun questioned Brinkley on his source for Kerry's alibi, however, he said it was Kerry himself. In his book Brinkley writes in a footnote, "I could not locate Kerry’s November 10 VVAW resignation letter."
