What a topsy-turvy election! One candidate chose to fight in Vietnam. One candidate chose not to. Opponents of that war back the first, while supporters of that war back the second.

Ralph E. Luker - 9/15/2004

I have the impression that all the talk about Viet Nam _really_ is, in many ways, talk about Iraq. Perhaps we have to confront the present through an historical lens precisely because the present is too painful to confront directly.

Charles Johnson - 9/14/2004

Well, this is only half the story. After all, while John Kerry did volunteer to fight in Vietnam, he later opposed the war, and played a major role in organizing against it; whereas while George W. Bush had strings pulled to keep him far away from the fightin', he strongly supported the war.

David T. Beito - 9/14/2004

There is another example, sort of. In 1940, the pro-war FDR had failed to volunteer in WWI despite the stern advice of his cousin Teddy. His opponent Wendell Wilkie (who took a slightly skeptical view of the WWII) had enlisted in 1916.