Barbiero and others noted that there was a "huge difference" between Kerry's Class of '66 and Bush's Class of '68. While volunteering for active-duty military service was unusual in 1966, it was practically unheard of by 1968. A Bush roommate, Clay Johnson III, could think of only one close Yale acquaintance who served in Vietnam.
"By 1968, no one I knew would have considered going to Vietnam," said Lanny Davis, a Washington lawyer and former chairman of the Yale Daily News, who knew Bush and Kerry. "The place was awash with antiwar protests."
Bush, however, did not share those sentiments.
In an interview with The Post in 1999, he said he had no recollection of any antiwar activity on campus -- a remarkable statement, considering what was going on. The school's legendary chaplain, William Sloane Coffin, was a national leader of the antiwar movement and had been arrested for aiding draft resistance during Bush's senior year. Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey and Lady Bird Johnson were greeted by protesters when they visited Yale that year.
"George Bush had no political visibility whatsoever," said Gaddis Smith, professor emeritus of diplomatic history, who taught Bush and Kerry. "He was more like a student from the decade before, the mid-'50s, people who enjoyed their fraternity life."
According to Coffin, Bush "missed the great action and passion of his time." While Bush told The Post in 1999 that he generally supported the Johnson administration's position on the war, he did not feel strongly enough to speak out publicly.
"We were very apolitical," Clay Johnson said. "We didn't talk politics."
Some friends believe that Bush associated the antiwar movement at Yale with intellectual snobbery. "He had little sympathy for the antiwar people and their behavior and antics. They were pompous and pretentious," said roommate Robert J. Dieter. "They were 22-year-olds who thought they were going to run the world."
For Bush, deciding how to respond to the draft was a "practical" rather than a "moral" question, according to Clay Johnson, now deputy director for management of the president's Office of Management and Budget. Bush would later tell a reporter that he decided to join the National Guard because he was "not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun" to get another deferment and was unwilling to move to Canada.
"That's irresponsible," he told classmate Robert R. Birge when Birge told him he was thinking of going to Canada to avoid the draft. "I'll respect you more if you just went to jail," Birge recalled Bush saying.
Bush completed his officer qualification tests on Jan. 19, 1968, scoring in the 25th percentile for pilot aptitude -- the lowest acceptable grade -- and the 95th percentile for "officer quality." Three weeks later, Kerry set sail for Vietnam on the USS Gridley. Between the two events, the Viet Cong launched the Tet offensive into the heart of Saigon, effectively putting an end to American hopes of winning the war.
Duty and Politics
Kerry took command of a 50-foot Swift boat on Nov. 17. Nine days later, Bush began pilot training at Moody Air Force Base in Valdosta.
Since Kerry volunteered for Swift boat duty, back in February, the mission had become much more dangerous. Instead of patrolling coastal waters, the boats were being sent upriver into hostile territory, to show the flag and disrupt enemy supply routes. During his four-month tour as a Swift boat skipper, Kerry would be awarded a Silver Star, a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for combat injuries, qualifying for an early return home.
Although Bush won positive evaluations from his flight instructors, his service during this time was pretty routine. The highlight came in the spring of 1969, when he was whisked off to Washington on a government plane for a date with Nixon's daughter Tricia. According to Bush biographer Bill Minutaglio, the date was arranged by his father, George H.W. Bush, then a Republican congressman from Houston, who was seeking Nixon's support to run for the Senate.
