John Kerry military service controversy

During John Kerry's candidacy in the 2004 U.S. presidential campaign, a political issue that gained widespread public attention was Kerry's Vietnam War record. In television advertisements and a book called Unfit for Command, co-authored by John O'Neill and Jerome Corsi, the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth (SBVT), a 527 group later known as the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth, questioned details of his military service record and circumstances relating to the awarding of his combat medals. Their campaign against Kerry's presidential bid received widespread publicity,[1] but was later discredited and gave rise to the neologism "swiftboating", to describe an unfair or untrue political attack.[2][3] Defenders of Kerry's service record, including former crewmates, stated that allegations made by SBVT were false.[4][5][6]

  1. ^ "University of Pennsylvania National Annenberg Election Survey". PollingReport.com. August 9–16, 2004. Retrieved March 30, 2007.
  2. ^ Cogan, Brian; Kelso, Tony (2009). Encyclopedia of Politics, the Media, and Popular Culture. ABC-CLIO. pp. 155, 187, 335. ISBN 978-0-313-34379-7.
  3. ^ Casey, Leo (Spring 2009). "No redemption song: The Case of Bill Ayers". Dissent. 56 (2). University of Pennsylvania Press: 107–111. doi:10.1353/dss.0.0041. ISSN 0012-3846. S2CID 143605641. In recent elections, the patriotism and good names of Democratic war hero candidates, from John Kerry to Max Cleland, had been impugned so successfully that a neologism for such smears—to swift boat'—was coined out of the assault on Kerry.
  4. ^ Coile, Zachary (August 6, 2004). "Vets group attacks Kerry; McCain defends Democrat". San Francisco Chronicle.
  5. ^ Zernke, Kate (May 28, 2006). "Kerry Pressing Swift Boat Case Long After Loss". The New York Times.
  6. ^ Akers, Mary Ann (June 20, 2008). "John Kerry's Vietnam Crew Mates Still Fighting Swift Boating". Washington Post. Archived from the original on February 24, 2012.