These days now, people can say that John Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War presented just a lot of lies about US atrocities in Vietnam.

However, back in those days back then, people knew better. On March 29, 1971, William Calley was convicted for the My Lai massacre, and it was the major news story at that time. About three weeks later, on April 22, John Kerry gave his testimony to Congress — the testimony people now say was just a bunch of lies. And on the following day more than 800 Vietnam veterans threw away their ribbons and medals in protest against the war.

When I say that Kerry made a lot of mistakes, I mean primarily that he was not careful enough about his facts in his statements. But he was working with the information that he received from other members of his organization about what they themselves claimed they had seen, heard and done.

Whether or not this or that fact in the testimony might be contradicted, the facts that were established by the US military itself in the My Lai trial did make it clear to the entire public that atrocities had been committed and had been covered up.