Houston lawyer debated Kerry on Dick Cavitt show
Houston Chronical:
"As President Bush plunges into his race against Democrat John Kerry, he might want to get some debating tips from Houston attorney John E. O'Neill.
"In 1971, O'Neill squared off against Kerry on the Dick Cavett Show in a 90-minute, televised forum in which the two Vietnam War veterans sparred over the U.S. role in Southeast Asia.
"President Nixon and top aide Charles Colson had taken a keen interest in O'Neill as part of their effort to discredit Kerry and the anti-war movement, according to memos and tapes in the National Archives. A clean-cut Naval Academy graduate, O'Neill was viewed by Nixon's team as an effective messenger against Kerry, who was causing the administration headaches as the leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
"O'Neill, who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist later in the 1970s, has largely steered clear of national politics since the Vietnam War era. He has focused on his law practice at the firm of Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson & Fulkerson.
"But now, O'Neill's past role as a Kerry adversary is in the public spotlight as the news media and others look to the Massachusetts senator's past to gain insight into how he might perform as president. And O'Neill, recovering from an operation in which he donated a kidney to his wife, is preparing for an onslaught of interviews with newspapers and TV networks eager for his impressions of Kerry.
"O'Neill, 58, is still angry at Kerry for claiming in testimony in 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that U.S. soldiers committed war crimes by killing and maiming civilians in Vietnam."
Houston Chronical:
"As President Bush plunges into his race against Democrat John Kerry, he might want to get some debating tips from Houston attorney John E. O'Neill.
"In 1971, O'Neill squared off against Kerry on the Dick Cavett Show in a 90-minute, televised forum in which the two Vietnam War veterans sparred over the U.S. role in Southeast Asia.
"President Nixon and top aide Charles Colson had taken a keen interest in O'Neill as part of their effort to discredit Kerry and the anti-war movement, according to memos and tapes in the National Archives. A clean-cut Naval Academy graduate, O'Neill was viewed by Nixon's team as an effective messenger against Kerry, who was causing the administration headaches as the leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
"O'Neill, who clerked for U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist later in the 1970s, has largely steered clear of national politics since the Vietnam War era. He has focused on his law practice at the firm of Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson & Fulkerson.
"But now, O'Neill's past role as a Kerry adversary is in the public spotlight as the news media and others look to the Massachusetts senator's past to gain insight into how he might perform as president. And O'Neill, recovering from an operation in which he donated a kidney to his wife, is preparing for an onslaught of interviews with newspapers and TV networks eager for his impressions of Kerry.
"O'Neill, 58, is still angry at Kerry for claiming in testimony in 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that U.S. soldiers committed war crimes by killing and maiming civilians in Vietnam."
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