A Letter from a Kerry Classmate at Yale

The Editor,
Wall Street Journal
Dear Sir/Madame:

I hope you will print this letter about my classmate, John Kerry.
Thank you.
David Schlossberg, MD
Yale ’66
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The Editor
The Wall Street journal

Dear Sir/Madame:

As a graduate of the Yale class of 1966, I resent the self-serving
lies and misrepresentations advanced by my classmate John Kerry.
Herewith, a few corrections:

John Kerry has been using the Pershing name to dramatize his
Vietnam experience, claiming to have been a close friend of Richard
Pershing, the grandson of General (Black Jack) Pershing. Richard
Pershing was a member of the Yale class of 1966, and he was killed in
Vietnam shortly after we graduated. However, Kerry’s constant
references to his `dearest’ friend are exaggerated and exploitative.
In fact, Dick Pershing and I roomed together for all 4 years at Yale.
I don’t remember John Kerry ever being in our room or even being a
particular favorite of Dick’s. In this regard, it is particularly
revealing that a recent biography of General Pershing, Until The Last
Trumpet Sounds (by Gene Smith), includes an entire chapter on Dick,
primarily on his years at Yale; the name John Kerry does not appear.
The Pershing Family did know Kerry, but they disliked him
intensely. This antipathy stemmed primarily from an incident at the
Pershing home on Park Avenue not long after Dick’s death: at a
gathering of friends and family, Kerry worked the room with his
anti-Vietnam message, incurring the undying enmity of Mr. and Mrs.
Pershing and Dick’s older brother Jack, a Green Beret. The family was
shocked and insulted by Kerry’s insensitivity.
Kerry has implied – as recently as the first Presidential debate -
that he became disillusioned about Vietnam by his military experience.
However, as early as 1965, in his Junior year at Yale, he was giving
anti-war speeches; and his Class Day Oration in 1966 – prior to
graduation – criticized American involvement in Vietnam. These
sentiments clearly antedated his Vietnam experience. So why did he
join the Navy? He told some classmates that it would help his career.

The above pattern suggests a callous and opportunistic personality
- hardly what I would call Presidential.

David Schlossberg, MD
Yale `66