Recruitment By Nixon White House
O’Neill has stated that he deeply resented Kerry’s 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which, among other things, related controversial testimony about American atrocities given by Vietnam veterans at the earlier Winter Soldier Investigation in Detroit. O'Neill stated that he believed the committee hearings were creating a false impression of popular opinion about Vietnam veterans, and that he contacted the committee, offering to provide additional testimony he believed would contradict Kerry’s, but that his request was denied.
Richard Nixon's former special counsel Charles Colson has stated that he recruited O'Neill to be a "counterfoil" to John Kerry. Kerry had come to prominence as part of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and had become a particular target for the White House since his appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
O'Neill was at the center of the new organization, Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, and he became a media figure defending the Vietnam war and criticizing opponents of the war. O'Neill first met Kerry during a debate on the Dick Cavett Show on June 20, 1971. O'Neill strongly defended American incursions in Laos and Cambodia, and opposed anti-war veterans. He was particularly critical of Kerry's claims regarding the commission of war crimes by U.S. military personnel in Vietnam.
Read more about this topic: John O'Neill (Vietnam Veteran)
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