Post by Tristero

Kerry's Lesser Known Work on Behalf of all Vietnam Vets

Even if John Kerry had never decided to run for President, he would be remembered by history as one of the outstanding Americans of his generation. So, I'm planning to focus some time on blogging about his exemplary career, as a welcome contrast to cataloguing his opponent's numerous, and now exponentially increasing, failures.

To start, I'm going to skip ahead a little in Kerry's story, and not blog about his bravery during the war, nor about his equally brave efforts to bring the truth about the war to the attention of his country. I'll go back to them soon enough, however.Tonight, I'll briefly remind all of us that, after Yale, after Vietnam, after protesting the war with VVAW.

Kerry co-founded a different group whose purpose was to move beyond the differences that divided the Vietnam generation. Dedicated to aiding all those who fought in Southeast Asia, it's called Vietnam Veterans of America, "the only national Vietnam veterans organization congressionally chartered and exclusively dedicated to Vietnam-era veterans and their families," currently with over 50,000 individual members. VVA receives no government funds of any kind whatsoever. But it provides philanthropic assistance to Vietnam Vets that need it, works with homeless vets. and has worked for twenty years in the effort for a full accounting of POW/MIAs.

In addition, the VVA site says they are "single-handedly leading the fight for judicial review of disabled veterans' claims for benefits. The result: In 1988, Congress passed a law creating the U.S. Court of Veterans appeals. This allowed veterans to appeal VA benefits denials to a court and required VA to obey the rule of law." Furthemore, they've pressed the Agent Orange issue, helping to press the Agent Orange Act which has resulted in the Veterans Administration paying compensation for nine Agent Orange-related diseases. They also publish and/or distribute material of interest to veterans of all wars, including a white paper on health care funding for all veterans ( Here's a pdf of the paper.)VVA isn't doing anything terribly glamorous, as far as I can tell; it's simply doing the hard, difficult work of daily advocacy for Vietnam Vets' rights and has been doing so long before most such groups. It is exactly the kind of group that smart, socially active Americans have formed since the days of Franklin.

Given both the heroic nature of his Vietnam service and his efforts to oppose the war, Kerry's co-founding of VVA seems a minor accomplishment. But there are only a handful of people capable and willing to make the effort to start something like this. Kerry has the character to do so, and the skills to do it extremely well. Kerry's co-founding of VVA, which would proudly cap the entire public service accomplishments of a lesser person, is often overlooked because Kerry's well-known achievements are so numerous and yes, truly great ones. posted by tristero