Politics take back seat as Kerry honors WWII vets
WASHINGTON -- Sitting 175 yards away as President Bush dedicated the new National World War II Memorial yesterday, John F. Kerry applauded his Republican rival's remarks a dozen times and, earlier, declared "there are no politics today" -- though he did take one subtle jab at Bush's diplomatic skills.
Before joining tens of thousands of fellow veterans on the sun-splashed national Mall for the dedication, Kerry met with a member of Easy Company who landed at Normandy and told reporters about a World War II special on television that he had watched the night before.
"I watched 'Midway' last night at home, and saw a History Channel reunion of one of the guys who went up on the beach, and a German gunner, a British soldier," Kerry said, standing beside 83-year-old Joseph Lesniewski in the lobby of a hotel here. "You see them all come together, years later, and it kind of underscores to you the importance of trying to find a way of trying to resolve these differences beforehand."
The presumptive Democratic nominee has repeatedly called for "a new era of alliances" as part of his national security platform, and regularly criticizes Bush's diplomatic style as ideologically driven and rigid. In the Democrats' weekly radio address yesterday, Kerry also chided Bush to "put away pride and stubbornness" and reach out to America's historic allies.
For the most part, however, Kerry bowed to a bipartisan spirit of celebration and remembrance yesterday. It was the first time that Kerry and Bush had been in the same place since the 2003 State of the Union address.
"There are no politics today," Kerry said at the hotel before attending the memorial dedication. "We welcome the president's comment. I hope his father [former president George H. W. Bush] will be there, I assume, because he certainly deserves to celebrate this -- he's one of that generation."
Lesniewski, who enlisted in the Army in October 1942 and volunteered for the Army Air Force, and was a member of the original "Band of Brothers" in the 101st Airborne, had some tougher words for Bush yesterday.
"I don't agree with him for so many things -- I can't, I can't see the man winning," said Lesniewski, of Erie, Pa. "And most of my friends back home feel the same way."
Kerry received a raucous greeting as his motorcade pulled up to the Mall and he worked a rope line, initially walking just 20 feet behind Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, whom Kerry has called on to resign over planning of the Iraq war. Several veterans shouted "Mr. President" and "hope you win, hope you win" in Kerry's direction as he and Lesniewski shook hands and signed autographs on their way to a VIP area on the sloping lawn near the Washington Monument.
Along the way, Kerry met a man in a white Navy dress uniform in a wheelchair. The man, 89-year-old Roy Gibson of Illinois, took off his officer's hat and showed Kerry the inside lining, which had Gibson's name printed on a faded brown piece of paper. Kerry leaned in to hear Gibson's story, and later told reporters:
"He flew off the Yorktown, in World War II, but he never got his Purple Heart. We're going to help him get his Purple Heart. But he got a Distinguished Flying Cross; he's wearing it now. He flew off the Yorktown -- amazing," Kerry said, referring to the famed Pacific carrier that was lost at the Battle of Midway.
Gibson said afterward of Kerry, "It was fine to meet him. He's a wonderful man, very good. He said he could help me get my Purple Heart, which I haven't had. I really hope he can."
For the most part, Kerry received a warm welcome from the crowd; one person did yell "loser" from the audience. At another point, veterans and others swarmed around him and brought foot traffic to a standstill along the walkways, prompting one World War II veteran to quip, "I made it through the whole thing and died at the dedication."
Kerry sat directly in front of Governor Mark Warner, Democrat of Virginia, who is sometimes mentioned as a possible running mate on the party's ticket this year, but Warner said he was not a guest of Kerry's and was attending to pay tribute to his own father, who was a Marine in World War II.
"Today's a day when politics takes a far back seat to the pride we all feel as Americans," Warner said.
As Bush spoke from the main dais, Kerry applauded every time an ovation swept through the audience assembled on the Mall, and laughed with others at one point when the president recalled a World War II veteran who discounted his own heroism in charging up a hill by saying that he had been driven by the equivalent of modern-day "road rage."
Afterward, Kerry spent a half-hour shaking more hands, and told reporters that he was impressed by the event.
"I thought it was very moving, beautiful. The numbers of people going back was just stunning," Kerry said.
Patrick Healy can be reached at phealy@globe.com.
