Re: Two Vets Passing in the Night

There’s a personal story about the two on that score: Webb despised Kerry for his anti-war activities after Vietnam. It took the Iraq war to bring about an unlikely rapprochement. I ran into Webb during the height of the Swift Boat controversy in 2004, and asked him what he thought about it as a Vietnam vet himself. (At the time, it had never occurred to me that Webb might some day be a candidate, much less an actual Senator. Nor could I see Ronald Reagan’s Secretary of the Navy as a Democrat.) After venting about how ridiculous and shameful he thought the whole furor was, Webb told me his own feeling was that Iraq was the only real issue in the election. Then he added of Kerry: “You know, for 20 years, I refused to shake that guy’s hand. Now, I think I’m going to have to vote for him.”