Bob Kerrey

File:Bob kerrey.jpg

Senator Bob Kerrey

Joseph Robert "Bob" Kerrey (born August 27, 1943) was the Democratic Governor of Nebraska from 1983 to 1987, and a U.S. Senator from Nebraska (1989–2001). He was also an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1992. Since then he has served as president of The New School, a university in New York City.

Biography

Kerrey was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, attended Lincoln Northeast High School, and went on to graduate from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in 1966 with a degree in pharmacy. During his senior year at Nebraska, he was a member of the Society of Innocents, the chancellor's senior honorary. He served in the United States Navy SEALs special operations forces unit from 1966–1969 during the Vietnam War, lost the lower part of one leg in combat, and received the Medal of Honor.

Returning to Nebraska, he operated a chain of restaurants and fitness centers from 1972 to 1982 before defeating Charles Thone in the 1982 election for Governor of Nebraska, serving in that office from 1983 to 1987. He refused to run for re-election in 1986, but two years later, ran for the Senate against appointed incumbent David Karnes and defeated him by 15 points. He was reelected to the Senate in 1994 and served as the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee for the 104th Congress before retiring in 2001. An attempt to gain the 1992 Democratic nomination for president failed due to a lack of fundraising and poor results in early primary elections.

As a Senator, Kerrey had a relatively liberal voting record despite the fact that Nebraska is one of the most conservative states in the union. He was one of only a handful of senators, for example, to vote against the Defense of Marriage Act of 1996. Kerrey also led the opposition in the Senate to the proposed flag burning amendment, which failed to get the necessary two-thirds majority needed for passage. His record on economic issues was mixed but generally liberal. He voted against phasing out many farm subsidy programs, lawsuit reform measures such as the Private Securities Litigations Reform Act, and he was one of the twelve senators to vote against the Personal Responsibility Act of 1995, a welfare reform bill vetoed by President Clinton. Kerrey's record on environmental issues and taxation was more moderate, and he was a strong supporter of free trade and limiting the size of the federal government.

Kerrey was a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (popularly known as the "9/11 Commission"), where he has accused persons like Madeleine Albright, William Cohen, and Donald Rumsfeld of pursuing US interests with insufficient aggression.

While serving as governor of Nebraska, Kerrey had regularly issued admiralty commissions in the Nebraska Navy to supporters and contributors. When he co-chaired the 9/11 Commission, his signature and seal on documents conferring military rank to others years earlier took on added meaning as the Commission sought to learn critical details of the terrorist attacks from the entrenched military.

At the New School, Kerrey initially opposed the efforts of the United Auto Workers to unionize the adjunct (part-time) faculty, agreeing to negotiate with them only after several rulings against the administration by the National Labor Relations Board. A threatened strike of adjunct faculty was averted by the approval of a labor contract just before the strike deadline of October 31st, 2005.

Kerrey is presiding over an ambitious program of reorganization at the university, overhauling several divisions and bringing in the respected Arjun Appadurai as Provost (Appadurai resigned in 2006). On April 14, 2005, Kerrey announced that the university was changing its name to The New School, and rebranding its eight divisions as specialized, separate entities serving different constituencies.

On April 17, 2005, The New York Times reported that Kerrey was interested in becoming a Democratic candidate for Mayor of New York City, joining such candidates as Fernando Ferrer and C. Virginia Fields in opposing the re-election of Mayor Michael Bloomberg. After much speculation over the potential ramifactions of his entry into the race, Kerrey eventually withdrew his interest in the 2005 mayoral race.

In 2006, Kerrey became involved in convincing his friend and fellow Vietnam Vet, James Webb, to run for the US Senate. Webb entered the Virginia Democratic Primary, and Kerrey volunteered to serve as Webb's National Finance Chair.

Medal of Honor citation

His Medal of Honor citation reads:

Medal of Honor

Medal of Honor

For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty while serving as a SEAL team leader during action against enemy aggressor (Viet Cong) forces. Acting in response to reliable intelligence, Lt. (j.g.) Kerrey led his SEAL team on a mission to capture important members of the enemy's area political cadre known to be located on an island in the bay of Nha Trang. In order to surprise the enemy, he and his team scaled a 350-foot sheer cliff to place themselves above the ledge on which the enemy was located. Splitting his team in 2 elements and coordinating both, Lt. (jg.) Kerrey led his men in the treacherous downward descent to the enemy's camp. Just as they neared the end of their descent, intense enemy fire was directed at them, and Lt. (jg.) Kerrey received massive injuries from a grenade which exploded at his feet and threw him backward onto the jagged rocks. Although bleeding profusely and suffering great pain, he displayed outstanding courage and presence of mind in immediately directing his element's fire into the heart of the enemy camp. Utilizing his radio, Lt. (jg.) Kerrey called in the second element's fire support which caught the confused Viet Cong in a devastating crossfire. After successfully suppressing the enemy's fire, and although immobilized by his multiple wounds, he continued to maintain calm, superlative control as he ordered his team to secure and defend an extraction site. Lt. (jg.) Kerrey resolutely directed his men, despite his near unconscious state, until he was eventually evacuated by helicopter. The havoc brought to the enemy by this very successful mission cannot be over-estimated. The enemy soldiers who were captured provided critical intelligence to the allied effort. Lt. (jg.) Kerrey's courageous and inspiring leadership, valiant fighting spirit, and tenacious devotion to duty in the face of almost overwhelming opposition sustain and enhance the finest traditions of the U.S. Naval Service.

Thanh Phong Massacre

In 2001, the New York Times Magazine and 60 Minutes II carried reports on an incident that occurred during Kerrey's Vietnam War service. On February 25, 1969, he led a Swift Boat raid on the isolated peasant village of Thanh Phong, Vietnam, targeting a Viet Cong leader that intelligence suggested would be present. The village was considered part of a free fire zone by the U.S. military.

Kerrey's SEAL team first encountered a peasant house, or hooch, and killed the people inside with knives. While Kerrey says he did not go inside the hooch and did not participate in the killings, another member of the team, Gerhard Klann, said that the people killed there were an elderly man and woman and three children under 12, and that Kerrey helped kill the man. Despite the differing recollections about who actually stabbed these people, Kerrey accepts responsibility as the team leader for their deaths: "Standard operating procedure was to dispose of the people we made contact with," he told the New York Times Magazine.[1]

Later, according to Kerrey, the team was shot at from the village and returned fire, only to find after the battle that all the dead were women and children, clustered together in the center of the village. "The thing that I will remember until the day I die is walking in and finding, I don't know, 14 or so, I don't even know what the number was, women and children who were dead," Kerrey said in 1998. "I was expecting to find Vietcong soldiers with weapons, dead. Instead I found women and children." [2]

Klann, and a Vietnamese woman, Pham Tri Lanh, who says she witnessed the assault, gave a different account, saying that the SEALs rounded up the inhabitants of the village and shot them.

Regardless of what actually occurred that night, Kerrey expressed anguish and guilt over the incident:

You can never, can never get away from it. It darkens your day. I thought dying for your country was the worst thing that could happen to you, and I don't think it is. I think killing for your country can be a lot worse.[3]

Kerrey was awarded a Bronze Star for the raid on Thanh Phong. The citation for the medal reads, "The net result of his patrol was 21 Viet Cong killed, two hooches destroyed and two enemy weapons captured."

Quotes

"Santorum, that's Latin for 'asshole'" - Referring to newcomer Senator Rick Santorum after the first three weeks of his tenure on the senate floor.[4]

Trivia

While he was Governor of Nebraska, Kerrey dated actress Debra Winger while the latter was in Lincoln filming Terms of Endearment (part of which is set in Nebraska), which won the 1983 Oscar for Best Picture.

He and fellow Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts (who was the 2004 Democratic Presidential nominee) have often been confused for each other, despite the different spellings of their last names.

References

• The New School's website of president Bob Kerrey
• "One Awful Night in Thanh Phong," by Gregory L. Vistica, New York Times Magazine, April 25, 2001
• CNN Story on the Thanh Phong Incident
• Clinton, Bill (2005). My Life. Vintage. ISBN 1-4000-3003-X.
• "Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole," By Jeffrey St. Clair, "Counter Punch"
• Saddam, Al Qaeda Did Collaborate, Documents Show

Further reading

• Kerrey, Robert. When I Was a Young Man: A Memoir. New York: Harcourt, Inc., 2002.