A somewhat different view from Wilkepedia
The Kansas City VVAW meeting
In 1971, VVAW was holding quarterly meetings and met in different cities, including St. Louis, Missouri in July. From November 12 to 15, 1971, the group met in Kansas City, Missouri. At this meeting, a VVAW member named Scott Camil advocated the assassination of certain politicians who favored continuing the war, including Senators Strom Thurmond, John Stennis, and John Tower. This idea was quickly shouted down and was never seriously discussed.
Years later, Kerry did remember the meeting in St. Louis, where acrimonious discussions had contributed to his decision to resign from VVAW. He said, however, that he did not recall attending the Kansas City meeting, and thought that he had already resigned by then. Some people who were at the Kansas City meeting agreed that he was not there. Historian Gerald Nicosia, recounting the history of the antiwar movement in his book Home to War, stated that Kerry had resigned from VVAW at the St. Louis meeting.
In 2004, however, Nicosia said that new FBI documents included a report from an unnamed confidential source. The source recounted KerryÂ’s resignation at a VVAW meeting, but placed the event at the meeting in Kansas City rather than at the one in St. Louis. In response, KerryÂ’s office reiterated that he did not remember being at the later meeting, but added, "If there are valid FBI surveillance reports from credible sources that place some of those disagreements in Kansas City, we accept that historical footnote in the account of his work to end the difficult and divisive war."
VVAW member Randy Barnes was also quoted in the media as having seen Kerry at the Kansas City meeting. Thereafter, however, he said that he had thought that Kansas City was first but now realized that St. Louis was first. He concluded that he might have been confusing the two Missouri meetings.
The focus on the Kansas City meeting arises because of CamilÂ’s suggestion of violence. (Camil himself has said that he does not remember seeing Kerry at that meeting.) No one has contended that Kerry himself ever supported violent action. Instead, he is remembered as having advocated moderation, nonviolence and work within the system. He resigned partly because he was uncomfortable with the radicalism of some VVAW members, and partly because he wanted to run for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, which he did in 1972.
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External links
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Accounts of different recollections of Kansas City meeting
Boston Globe article (
http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/articles/2004/04/01/kerry_cant_recall_being_at_71_parley?mode=PF)
Wall Street Journal article (
http://www.opinionjournal.com/diary/?id=110004881)
Patrick J. Buchanan article (
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=3751)
New York Sun article (
http://daily.nysun.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=NYS/2004/03/12&ID=Ar00100)
Retrieved from "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry_VVAW_controversy"
