Next Secretary of State? Kerry’s Vietnam experience gives him an edge

Next Secretary of State? Kerry’s Vietnam experience gives him an edge

Walter Shapiro-------4 hrs ago

There never was a single triggering event, never a moment when a president decided that Vietnam was worth the lives of more than 58,000 Americans.

Virtually every troop escalation, every expansion of the war into Cambodia and Laos, every bombing campaign against Hanoi was regarded as a final step -- an action that would pave the way to victory or at least bludgeon North Vietnam into a negotiated settlement. No president wanted to be the one to lose a war and, as a result of this refusal to withdraw, they all lost Vietnam.

During the early stages of his 2004 race for the presidency, Kerry often spoke passionately about the antiwar movement that had toppled Lyndon Johnson. Standing in a back yard in Londonderry, N.H., Kerry talked about the insurgent political army in 1968 that “sent the president of the United States a message that he couldn’t continue to be president of the United States and wage that war.”

John Kerry remains a complicated political figure, but his lesson about how a once-popular president was driven from office by his stubborn refusal to abandon an ill-considered war is an integral part of his personal experience and public persona.

During the next four years -- as Obama deals with threats ranging from Iran’s nuclear program to the shakiness of the Pakistan government – I want someone at the table in the White House Situation Room who knows how quickly things can go wrong in foreign policy and military interventions. That’s why Kerry embodies for me the best sadder-but-wiser choice for Secretary of State.

MORE and a Good Read with reasons I couldn't fit into this post because of copyright at:

http://news.yahoo.com/next-secretary-of-state--kerry%E2%80%99s-vietnam-experience-gives-him-an-edge--101017021.html