Paul Galanti learned of Kerry's speech while held captive inside North Vietnam's infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prison. The Navy pilot had been shot down in June 1966 and spent nearly seven years as a prisoner of war.
During torture sessions, he said, his captors cited the antiwar speeches as "an example of why we should cross over to [their] side."
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Saturday February 28, 2004 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 2 National Desk 2 inches; 83 words Type of Material: Correction
John F. Kerry -- An article Feb. 17 in Section A about the Vietnam War's legacy and Sen. John F. Kerry said that in his April 1971 testimony before Congress he accused fellow servicemen of committing wartime atrocities against Vietnamese civilians. In fact, Kerry was citing first-person accounts by veterans. The article also said that Kerry "later acknowledged" that he did not witness the alleged incidents. Kerry had said at the outset of his testimony that he was reporting the accounts of others.
"The Viet Cong didn't think they had to win the war on the battlefield," Galanti said, "because thanks to these protesters they were going to win it on the streets of San Francisco and Washington."
He says Kerry broke a covenant among servicemen never to make public criticisms that might jeopardize those still in battle or in the hands of the enemy.
Because he did, Galanti said, "John Kerry was a traitor to the men he served with."
Now retired and living in Richmond, Va., Galanti, 64, refuses to cool his ire toward Kerry.
"I don't plan to set it aside. I don't know anyone who does," he said. "The Vietnam memorial has thousands of additional names due to John Kerry and others like him."
But Mike Mahler says Kerry saved lives.
A former gunner's mate aboard the aircraft carrier Enterprise, he admits the antiwar protests at first "made me sick." Years later, he agrees the war was folly. And he believes that Kerry's voice helped halt the killing.
At age 57, Mahler, a lifelong Republican, has campaigned for Kerry in his home state of Iowa. For the first time, he says, Vietnam combat veterans -- many of whom have felt neglected and maligned by their country -- have one of their own in a position to become president.
Some Vietnam veterans returned to criticism from people who, they say, would never understand the nightmare service members endured in the humid jungles of Southeast Asia.
As president, Mahler says, Kerry could help bring a generation of neglected Vietnam vets out from the shadows of the national consciousness.
Mahler, the owner of a construction company in Davenport, said he recently asked a fellow veteran whether he thought any of his fallen Vietnam buddies could have become president. The friend, after a few moments, began to name several he thought might have achieved such success.
"Vietnam has cost us an entire generation of potential leaders," Mahler said. "Some might have become judges or senators or even president. We all knew somebody like that. But they're gone. But maybe through John Kerry they can still do it."
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