SwiftVets.com

[jwbarden]

See Jed Babbin, "It's the War; Stupid" The American Spectator, October 2004, pg. 36.

". . . By [May 1969] Tedd Peck was recuperating from his wounds in a New York naval hospital. When [RADM] Schlech [Kerry's boss] himself was hospitalized there, Peck and Kerry met again.
"Peck said, 'Kerry kept coming up to me asking to get together and talk. Finally, I acquiesced. I met Kerry on the 4th of May 1969, on Sunday. I met him in an upper East Side tavern. . . Kerry told me that 'I'm starting this thing called Vietnam Veterans Against the War. And I want you to join and help us end this war.' And I said to him, 'Kerry, you just don't get it, do you?' I said, 'We still have friends over there, and I'm not going out protesting what they are doing.' "
"This incident contradicts one of the central points in the Brinkley book [Tour of Duty]. It suggests Kerry was calculating, planning, and working actively to protest the war while he was still in uniform."

If true, this is a startling revelation.

Why would Kerry have claimed on 4MAY69 that he was starting something called VVAW? Wasn't this organization already in place?

I gather that Peck had an abiding dislike for Kerry that started in Vietnam. It is notable that he quotes himself as addressing Kerry as "Kerry" here and in other citations. In my experience it is irregular for one junior officer to address another junior officer by last name only except as an insult, almost a calling out for a duel. Onboard ship, off watch and outside the hearing of enlisted men, officers address the commanding officer as "Captain," the exective officer as "XO," and all other officers by first name. When I became a department head, new Ensigns would call me "Engineer" at first, but that ended after a couple of weeks.