Swift Boats Navigating the Campaign

The dust-up about whether Sen. John F. Kerry inflated his service record threatens to obscure a larger issue: the extent to which the Kerry campaign has politicized the military. Mr. Kerry has made his time in Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign. He travels with a "band of brothers" and placed uniformed veterans in conspicuous positions at his nominating convention. He flaunts his medals and salutes civilian audiences.

Other veterans, who find this behavior distasteful, have produced an anti-Kerry ad. Then, John McCain attacked the attackers [front page, Aug. 6]. This is a poisonous situation.

America's enviable political stability rests in part upon the fact that we have an apolitical military that operates under civilian control. In my lifetime many veterans have sought the presidency: Dwight D. Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, George S. McGovern, Gerald R. Ford, Jimmy Carter, George H.W. Bush, Michael S. Dukakis, Bob Dole, Al Gore, John McCain and Bob Kerrey .

All served longer than Mr. Kerry, and some suffered serious injuries. But not one traveled with a cadre of former servicemen or implied that the military endorsed his bid to become commander in chief. Kennedy famously deflected the reporter's question about his heroism with the comment, "It was involuntary. They sank my boat."

Mr. Kerry began this process of dividing retired military personnel into warring political camps. He should end it. It is his present conduct, not anything he did or didn't do 35 years ago, that raises questions about his fitness to serve as commander in chief.

LINDA M. COLE

Bethesda

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Robert D. Novak's discussion of John E. O'Neill and Jerome R. Corsi's book, "Unfit for Command" ["Veterans Against Kerry," op-ed, Aug. 9], attempted to portray the authors and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth as just a group of concerned Americans. Mr. O'Neill, in particular, said he is no Bush partisan. Mr. Novak's bottom line is that it is up to Mr. Kerry to release documents that have been "demanded by his critics."

But Mr. Novak did not mention that Mr. O'Neill was selected by Charles Colson in President Richard Nixon's White House in 1971 to counter the national popularity Mr. Kerry had gained by his opposition to the Vietnam War. The two men debated on Dick Cavett's talk show, Mr. O'Neill sporting the crew cut of a former Navy officer and Mr. Kerry the long-haired war protester.

Mr. O'Neill also was a clerk for Nixon Supreme Court appointee William H. Rehnquist. He further was considered for a federal judgeship vacancy by George H.W. Bush. Whatever Mr. O'Neill's politics are now -- he said he would have supported John Edwards for president -- they certainly were skewed toward the Nixon-Bush nexus.

ROBERT J. MURAWSKI

Arlington

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