The Bush administration was not the first to smear John Kerry for his antiwar activities (front page, Feb. 28). Following Kerry's appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April 1971, Nixon political operative Charles Colson reported,"I think we have Kerry on the run, he is beginning to take a tremendous beating in the press, but let's not let up on him, let's destroy the young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader."

Mel Small
(for HNN subscribers, quote comes from Tom Wells's The War Within, p. 514)