Follow the Medals

On April 23rd, 1971, there was a protest in Washington, D.C.

In a real sense, this administration forced us to return our medals because beyond the perversion of the war, these leaders themselves denied us the integrity those symbols supposedly gave our lives. - John Kerry

As part of that event, a group of veterans threw their medals away.

In outcry against President Nixon’s war, Vietnam Veterans streamed past the U.S. Capitol today as they hurled on to the Capitol steps the golden, silver, purple and green medals they had won for “gallantry” in Indochina. - Tim Wheeler and Gene Tournour

Apparently, the scene was fairly well ordered.

Afterward, he joined a dramatic political-theater display at the Capitol steps, where hundreds of vets took a microphone and, one by one, stated their name, identified their combat medals and flung them over a police fence on the steps. Kerry renounced his Bronze Star, his Silver Star and his three Purple Hearts. - J. Michael Waller

John Kerry made a public confirmation at the time.

I gave back, I can’t remember, six, seven, eight, nine medals. - John Kerry

But then later on, it was noticed that he still had his medals.

People say, ‘You didn’t throw your medals away.’ Who said I had to? And why should I? It’s my business. I did not want to throw my medals away. - John Kerry

But if he didn’t want to throw away his medals, what did he throw away?

It later came to light that when Kerry took part in a much publicized demonstration in which embittered veterans had thrown away their medals over the White House fence, the ones he had discarded were not his own but had belonged to another veteran who asked him to make the gesture for him. When a Washington Post reporter asked Kerry about the incident, he said: “They’re my medals. I’ll do what I want with them. And there shouldn’t be any expectations about them.” - Current Biography Yearbook 1988, p. 297

So they all came from one other person and he chose to keep his.

I didn’t have them with me. It was very simple. And I threw some medals back that belonged to some folks who asked me to throw them back for them. But it was a very dramatic, very moving ceremony that touched all of us who were part of it. And to this day, I think it had an impact on the country. - John Kerry

So the medals from multiple other people and he didn’t have his own to throw away. But everything he threw away was a medal.

Earlier, in 1984, the Wall Street Journal reported that Kerry had tossed away his combat ribbons, not his medals, at the 1971 protest in Washington. Kerry had never implied otherwise (indeed, the protesters that day had tossed all sorts of things—dog tags, photographs, discharge papers, insignia), but he had complicated the story with an excess of honesty, recalling that he’d also tossed several medals that had been given him by veterans who were unable to make the trip. - Joe Klein

If you find any of this confusing, that is despite the efforts of John Kerry over the last 33 years.

I’m the one who made it known exactly what happened. - John Kerry

Somehow I think there is a simple answer to be found.

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Follow the Medals

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