Vietnam Veterans are not "flocking” to John Kerry’s campaign, as his camp would all have us believe. In the South Carolina primary Kerry’s campaign made a big deal out of the monumental support they received from Vietnam Veterans. But when all was said and done, the Kerry campaign received only 33% of the veteran vote. In other words, the veteran’s of South Carolina didn’t vote for him by a ratio of 2:1. That’s a far cry from monumental support.

Kerry has been doing quite a bit of walking on both sides of the fence when it comes to his military career and his anti-war activities. While he should be appreciated for his service to our country, service that many others gave their lives performing, his anti-war activities after his service are what many are finding quite disturbing.

In testimony before Congress Kerry alleged of atrocities being committed by American troops in the Southeast Asian country. He told of rapes and mutilations, torture and murder. He spoke of these allegations, most of which were never proven but for the massacre at My Lai and isolated instances, as US service men and women were still fighting and dying in the Vietnam rice fields, cities and jungles. While he was attending and speaking at rallies here in the United States with the likes of Jane Fonda and Donald Sutherland, people like Oliver North and Senator John McCain were risking their lives in a military action born of the Cold War, designed and implemented by Lyndon Johnson and Robert McNamara. While he spotlights the deeds that garnered him a chest full of medals, he broke the code of leaving no one behind when he turned his back on those who were still fighting in Vietnam after his return.

Oliver North, the recipient of two Purple Hearts courtesy of his service in Vietnam, told radio show host and co-host of FOX News’ Hannity & Colmes, Sean Hannity, "The Vietnam Veterans Against the War encouraged people to desert, encouraged people to mutiny - some used what they wrote to justify fragging officers," and that "John Kerry has blood of American soldiers on his hands." While some would disagree with this viewpoint still others, many in number, would contend that this is the way they view Kerry’s actions.

Still others believe that John Forbes Kerry was in it from the very beginning to establish and further his political career. Back in his war activist days Kerry’s anti-American stance didn’t sit well with voters from his home state. He had outraged the families of POW’s being held in North Vietnamese prisons with his military hate-speeches and sympathetic tone toward the North Vietnamese government and he had drawn the ire of many of his former Navy buddies. His allegations to Congress infuriated the patriotic among his constituents and they sent him home defeated in his first bid for a congressional seat.

In 1978 he would be quoted by a reporter from the Boston Herald American who was goading him about which political office he would aspire to next as saying, "If I had been calculating, I would have kept my mouth shut when I got out of the service and run for office on my record.” Kerry was an assistant district attorney in Massachusetts at the time. He continued, "There I was, a decorated veteran, a Yale graduate—I could have gone the traditional road and probably been in Washington now.” Hardly the genuinely concerned image Kerry would like to have us remember now that he is on the national scene 26 years later.

To their credit, some of his VVAW comrades knew it even then. In reviewing Douglas Brinkley’s book Tour of Duty: John Kerry and the Vietnam War, Jan Barry, a source for Brinkley’s book and an VVAW organizer who worked with Kerry on the 1971 veterans’ march on Washington, is quoted as saying, "Kerry’s Ivy League background and the media spotlight he attracted irked many of his VVAW comrades, who resented what they felt was a crass maneuver to launch a political campaign from the righteous platform of their protest.” While Barry goes on to extol Kerry’s virtues he overwhelmingly validates the contention that many saw through the political maneuverings of John Forbes Kerry.

Couple all of this with a few little known facts and we can begin to see how Kerry has manipulated the actualities of his past in order to tailor them for his future.

Kerry’s tenure on his first swift boat, No. 44, left him with no honors but rather some skeletons. While in command of Swift Boat No. 44, Kerry and crew functioned without forethought in a ‘Free Fire Zone’ injudiciously firing at targets of opportunity achieving a number of enemy kills along with some civilian deaths as well. His body count included-- a woman, her baby, a 12 year-old boy, an elderly man and several South Vietnamese soldiers. He freely admits enjoining in this type of activity and the casualties they caused – even the civilian casualties.

Between December of 1968 and February of 1969 Kerry received two of his three purple hearts, one for a minor injury to his arm and another for a minor injury to his thigh.

He then took command of a second swift boat, No. 94, which operated in the Mekong Delta. Under his command they totaled 18 missions over a period of 48 days, a far cry from the many who completed full tours of duty there, Oliver North and Sen. John McCain among this group. It was with this assignment that he was awarded his Silver Star for killing a Viet Cong soldier who was already pinned down and wounded in a "Hooch” courtesy of Kerry’s .50 caliber gunner. It was also on swift boat No. 94 where he received his third Purple Heart for once again receiving a minor wound from a mine that went off adjacent to his swift boat. Later, when asked about the severity of the combat injuries Kerry himself said that one of them cost him about two days of service, and that the other two did not interrupt his duty. He classified himself as "walking wounded.”

Keep in mind that John Forbes Kerry was the commander of his swift boats and that as commander he was the one charged with citing people in his command for commendations, an interesting fact to say the least.

In April 1969, having opted for early transfer out of the war zone courtesy of his three minor wounds, Kerry returned state-side to a preferred assignment as an aide to Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr. Later that year, in October, while he was still on active duty and still assigned to Admiral Schlech, Kerry was transporting Adam Walinsky (Robert Kennedy's former speech writer), around New York State to deliver anti-war speeches. BY January of 1970, Kerry had become "transformed” by Walinsky's anti-war sentiment and petitioned Admiral Schlech, "to tell his boss that his conscience dictated that he protest the war, that he wanted out of the Navy immediately so that he could run for congress." Admiral Schlech consented and Kerry received an honorable discharge from the Navy six months early.

While Kerry is quick to point out his chest full of medals from Vietnam, he is not as quick to release his medical records from that same period, records that would verify that his injuries were superficial at best. And as Kerry pontificates on his war record while on the campaign trail, the vast majority of those in the know have either refused to come forward with the actualities of how he received his silver star, have recanted the stories that have Kerry acting ineffectively and dangerously as a leader during his command of swift boats 44 and 94 or when questioned on the matter spin their way out of the question by referring to any and all who question Kerry’s performance in Vietnam as unpatriotic and anti-veteran. It would behoove Kerry to do the same thing that his surrogates pressed President Bush to do – release all his records, both military and medical, so the American people can be the judge of just how much of a hero he really is.

Like so many before us we too should be able to see the truth about the "meritorious service” John Forbes Kerry performed in the name of his country. One thing is for certain; John Forbes Kerry has no room to say that President George W. Bush deceived anyone. His "war hero” status is hanging by one of the threads his medals are hanging from.

Frank Salvato is a political media consultant, an editor for The Washington Dispatch and the Managing Editor for The New Media Journal.us. He is a contributing writer to OpinionEditorials.com, ChronWatch.com and AmericanDaily.com. He has appeared as a guest on The O’Reilly Factor, The Kevin Matthews Radio Show (Chicago) and The Brad Messer Radio Show (San Antonio). His pieces are regularly featured in Townhall.com, GOP-USA, The Iconoclast.com and the Free Republic Network. His pieces have been recognized by the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention and are occasionally featured in The Washington Times and The London Morning Paper as well as other national and international publications.