Of Swift boats and truth.

Byline: The Register-Guard

One needn't be a John Kerry-should-have-been-president diehard to support the 2004 Democratic nominee's long-overdue effort to clear his name from vicious attacks on his military service during the Vietnam War.

Granted, nearly two years have passed since Kerry's failed bid for the presidency - and more than three decades since U.S. troops fought in Vietnam. But Kerry has every right to defend his meritorious record against the smear campaign waged by the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

During the 2004 campaign, many Kerry supporters argued that he should have responded more forcefully to the attacks when they first occurred. In retrospect, they were right. Even though many of the allegations were obviously false and part of a Rovian strategy to blunt Kerry's strongest political attribute - a heroic war record in a contest against a president who never went to war - they helped sow the seeds of doubt that ultimately cost Kerry the election.

Now, The New York Times reports that Kerry has finally and fully engaged in a fight with the Swift boat group that accused him of fabricating the military reports that led to his military decorations - three purple hearts, a bronze star and a silver star - for his service aboard Navy Swift boats in Vietnam's Mekong Delta.

Kerry has formally requested that his entire Navy file be released, and has hired a researcher who is reviewing military archives for material that might clarify the incidents in dispute. Veterans who served with Kerry are being interviewed in an effort to reconstruct events in detail, and physical evidence, including photographs and journals, is being collected.

Some of the allegations against Kerry went far beyond accusing the senator of dishonesty and lacking patriotism. Principals of the Swift boat group have accused him of self-inflicting the wound that led to his first Purple Heart, of shooting an unarmed Vietnamese teenager who was fleeing his U.S. attackers and, perhaps most preposterously, of lying about his military experience in order to get medals that the young soldier hoped would someday help him get elected president.

Kerry's critics will no doubt claim that he is trying to clear his political runway of debris for another presidential campaign in 2008. That may well be true, but it's also irrelevant. He deserves a chance to clear his record, whether it's to run again for president or merely to fade quietly into retirement with military credentials unquestioned.

Kerry may also be motivated by a desire to prevent future attacks on other veterans. To be sure, some of the same Swift boat group principals were involved in similarly virulent campaigns against Sen. John McCain in the Arizona Republican's 2000 campaign for the Republican nomination and against Democrat Max Cleland in the triple-amputee Vietnam vet's 2002 re-election bid for the U.S. Senate. More recently, Rep. John Murtha, the Pennsylvania Democrat and former Vietnam combat veteran, was "Swift-boated" after he called for pulling out of Iraq.

Even though Kerry should have responded two years ago - and even though his efforts will almost certainly spur even more vile attacks from the ironically named Swift Boat Veterans for Truth - he is right to confront his accusers and to set the record straight.