WASHINGTON (AP) - During a Vietnam-era run for Congress three decades
ago, John Kerry said he opposed a volunteer Army because it would be
dominated by the underprivileged, be less accountable and be more prone
to "the perpetuation of war crimes."
Kerry, a decorated Vietnam veteran who turned against the war, made the
observations in answers to a 1972 candidate questionnaire from a
Massachusetts peace group.
After Kerry caused a firestorm this week with what he termed a botched
campaign joke that Republicans said insulted current soldiers, The
Associated Press was alerted to the historical comments by a former law
enforcement official who monitored 1970s anti-war activities
Kerry apologized Wednesday for the 2006 campaign trail gaffe that some
took as suggesting U.S. soldiers fighting in Iraq were undereducated.
He contended the remark was aimed at Bush, not the soldiers.
In 1972, as he ran for the House, he was less apologetic in his
comments about the merits of a volunteer army. He declared in the
questionnaire that he opposed the draft but considered a volunteer army
"a greater anathema."
"I am convinced a volunteer army would be an army of the poor and the
black and the brown," Kerry wrote. "We must not repeat the travesty of
the inequities present during Vietnam. I also fear having a
professional army that views the perpetuation of war crimes as simply
'doing its job.'
"Equally as important, a volunteer army with our present constitutional
crisis takes accountability away from the president and put the people
further from control over military activities," he wrote.
Kerry's spokesman, David Wade, said Wednesday the historical document
needed to be viewed in the era in which it was written but that it
nonetheless raised a "bedrock question in a time of war when sacrifice
should be shared by all Americans."
"These are the words 34 years ago of a 28-year-old veteran home from a
war gone wrong, wondering who in America will bear the cost of battle
and shoulder the responsibility of military service," Wade said.
Kerry filled out the candidate questionnaire at the request of
Massachusetts Political Action for Peace, an anti-war group that
decades later turned over its historical documents to university
researchers.
AP obtained the document from someone who gathered it from archives
during Kerry's unsuccessful 2004 presidential campaign against
President Bush. Republicans in that election relentlessly assailed
Kerry's role in the anti-war movement decades earlier.
Kerry and Bush renewed their rivalry again this week, with the
president accusing Kerry of offending troops. Kerry said he botched the
text of a joke and didn't mean to insult troops.
On Wednesday, Kerry canceled campaign appearance on behalf of Democratic congressional candidates and issued an apology.