To FBI, Kerry Was a ‘Glib’ Spokesman for Antiwar Protesters

The FBI considered John F. Kerry a “glib, cool” spokesman for Vietnam War protesters when he was attached to an antiwar veterans group, but the bureau focused on more radical elements of the organization during an investigation spanning four years, documents show.

In more than 9,000 pages from the early 1970s, the FBI is seen tracking the protests, manifestos and myriad activities of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, and concluding that the group took a more extreme turn in the years after Kerry, now a senator from Massachusetts and the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, quit it.

FBI files on the organization were released Wednesday in response to a Freedom of Information Act request by Associated Press and other news organizations.

Kerry is accused in the file of little more than charisma.

An FBI summary of the anti-war protests he helped organize in April 1971 said Kerry, a decorated war hero, “overshadowed” many of the organization’s other leaders and was “a more popular and eloquent figure” than the rest.

“Kerry was glib, cool, and displayed just what the moderate elements wanted to reflect,” the summary said.

Although the FBI was watching Kerry and the other protesters earlier in 1971, it placed the group under active investigation in August of that year after reports from many field offices that members were “engaging in illegal and subversive activities,” an FBI memo said. Kerry left the group before the end of 1971 and was not implicated in violent activities or conspiracies attributed to other members in the file.

That memo, which does not mention Kerry, said that in 1972, the group “moved toward increased militant and revolutionary-type activities in addition to continued cooperation with communist-dominated groups and foreign elements hostile to the U.S.”

By then, Kerry had moved on to an ill-fated run for a seat in Congress.

The FBI memo -- the names of the sender and recipient are blacked out -- asserted that the investigation was never directed or influenced by the Nixon White House. That was said despite known efforts by President Nixon’s aides to discredit Kerry.

Campaigning Wednesday in Los Angeles, Kerry welcomed the release of the records.

“I think it’s great,” he said. “I’m very proud of my efforts to end the war. I welcome anybody’s perusal of them. I’m proud that I stood up to Richard Nixon. And you know, I personally have also requested those documents. So I’m happy to have them out there. It’s terrific.”

Kerry is mentioned only sporadically in the file, most of which covers the group’s activities from 1972 to 1975.

In one document, the FBI field office in Pittsburgh noted that Kerry spoke at the University of Pittsburgh on Nov. 3, 1971. “The essence of Kerry’s speech was to condemn those who did not get involved in social change,” the FBI memo said. “He urged those present to make a conscientious commitment to end the war.”

An April 12, 1971, FBI memo from Baltimore quoted a confidential source as saying that Kerry had been telling members of the group that “Congress is prepared to listen” to their antiwar agenda but cautioned that it was critical that the coming demonstrations remain nonviolent. Kerry was on the group’s national steering committee at the time.

Another FBI memo described in detail the medals Kerry won as a Navy lieutenant in Vietnam and noted that he was a Yale graduate who had been named class orator in 1966.

In contrast, others members of the group were accused of conspiracy to riot during the 1972 Republican National Convention, of passing classified information to a Japanese communist leader, and various acts of violence. A Connecticut member was arrested with an explosive device on the way to a speech given by Vice President Spiro T. Agnew.