Kerry joined "other side".

ITEM: The Associated Press released a national story on May 2, carrying the headline, "Dole Rises to Kerry's Defense over Vietnam," citing the former Kansas senator and World War II hero. The lead sentence, referring to an interview on Fox News Sunday, stated, "Former Sen. Bob Dole isn't making much of the controversy over whether decorated Vietnam veteran John Kerry threw away his medals or ribbons during a 1971 anti-win" protest."

BETWEEN THE LINES: This AP article, particularly its headline, is a striking distortion of what Bob Dole actually said. When questioned about his former Capitol Hill colleague, Dole responded: "I don't know what possessed John. I know he came back, came out against the Vietnam War, but he made his point, and he's going to have to live with it. I think some of the, things he said were probably not very good judgment, but he was a much younger man then without much experience in public life, but that's the record."

Said host Chris Wallace: "And so that's something people should take into account?" Dole answered: "Oh, I think so. When you come back, when first you brag about all the medals you have and being wounded three times and things of that kind, then you throw everything away and join the other side, it's going to be fairly hard to explain, particularly to veterans."

The flap about which decorations John Kerry discarded and his repeated misrepresentations have also shunted aside other important facts. Consider: John Kerry's notorious "antiwar" actions--when he joined "the other side," aiding and abetting Hanoi--actually took place when he was still a commissioned officer in the Naval Reserve. (Kerry's released service records bear this out. Though no longer on active duty, he remained a Reserve officer until 1978.) Kerry testified falsely against his fellow servicemen, who were still under fire, accusing them (and himself) of committing atrocities and war crimes, "on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."

The Reserve lieutenant even privately met in 1970, during wartime, with enemy emissaries--huddling with North Vietnamese officials during negotiations in Paris. Little wonder that 19 of 23 officers who served with Kerry in Vietnam, and almost every officer who commanded him for any significant period of time, have called him unfit to be commander-in-chief.