White House records show that Nixon and his advisers were so concerned about Kerry they immediately began looking around for other Vietnam veterans who would counter his popular appeal. One they came up with was O’Neill, described by Colson in a memo as “a very attractive dedicated young man — short hair, very square, very patriotic.” Haldeman told Nixon that O’Neill (”a great little sharp-looking guy”) was not “as eloquent as Kerry” but was “more believable.”

O’Neill, who had returned from Vietnam in June 1970, belonged to a group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace, identified by Colson in a memo to Nixon as “an organization specifically set up to counter Kerry.” He started making the rounds of the TV studios, delighting the White House with his fiery denunciations of Kerry and support for Nixon’s Vietnamization policy.

Read the article I linked. Judge for yourself. The article says he was recruited by Colson and encouraged by Nixon.

My mistake. I thought you were talking about “far back in time”:

Look at the old Dick Cavett clips to see how far back in time Kerry’s war buddies hated his guts and thought he was a lying asshole.

Are you sure that John O Neil wasn’t an individual with a strong sense of being wronged by John Kerry’s claims who was eager to get a platform for his views?

It’s disappointing when they run away like that.

Archival records show that O’Neill, who has been making the rounds of the TV talk shows this month to promote his best-selling anti-Kerry book, “Unfit for Command,” was encouraged to go on television in 1971 by President Richard M. Nixon and his aide Charles W. Colson. Nixon regarded Kerry as the antiwar movement’s most effective and articulate spokesman, and the president was desperate to undercut the activist’s popular appeal.

“Let’s hear it from the O’Neills now,” Nixon told his 25-year-old protege, after warning him that the Cavett show’s producers “inevitably . . . have it stacked against you.” Colson later boasted to Nixon Chief of Staff H.R. “Bob” Haldeman that O’Neill “has agreed that he will appear anytime, anywhere that we program him,” according to White House records.

Wanna toke?

You wake up with dogs?

Quaker,
John O’Neil is a Nixon Goon? What are you smoking?

You’re welcome!

My favorite part, though, is this: “…A Swift Boat Vets attack ad released in September also claimed that Kerry “secretly met with enemy leaders in Paris.” But as MMFA and The Washington Post noted at the time, the meeting was not a secret. That, my friends, is comedy gold. Debunked, indeed.