April 20, 2004, 10:24PM

Election 2004
Kerry foe reignites debate
Houston lawyer: One-time war activist `not fit' to lead
By BENNETT ROTH
Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle
More than three decades have not softened Houston lawyer John O'Neill's anger at John Kerry, a fellow Vietnam War veteran and Navy lieutenant who later turned against the war.

O'Neill, who debated Kerry about Vietnam on the Dick Cavett Show in 1971, says the Democratic presidential candidate is unqualified for the White House because of his criticism of those who served in the war.

O'Neill is speaking out against the Massachusetts senator for having once accused Americans of committing atrocities in Southeast Asia and for military service that he and other veterans claim is less worthy of decoration than Kerry asserts.

"This is a guy who is not fit to be commander in chief of the United States," O'Neill told the Chronicle on Tuesday.

"I'm willing to give him some credit for the fact that he was actually there (in Vietnam), even for a short period," he said. "But this was like a baseball player that appears in a game and pulls himself out in the third inning and now wants to be baseball commissioner after claiming baseball is a crime and people shouldn't play it."

Although Kerry was awarded numerous medals for leading his naval unit in Vietnam, O'Neill said Kerry "couldn't tie the shoes on the people I saw in Vietnam who were heroes."

Just as President Bush was forced this year to defend his Air National Guard stint in the late 1960s, Kerry has faced questions about his military service and subsequent anti-war activities.

On Tuesday, the Kerry campaign provided documentation of his war injuries in response to stepped-up criticism that he exaggerated his wounds to get three Purple Hearts, which enabled him to end his second tour of duty after five months.

On NBC's Meet the Press, Kerry said Sunday that it was "a little bit excessive" when, as a returning veteran, he spoke about the "atrocities" committed by soldiers in Vietnam. O'Neill said the original comments were "more than just a little bit excessive."

Kerry campaign spokesman Bill Burton defended the senator's military record and his anti-war activities. "John Kerry doesn't apologize for being an emotional young man," Burton said. "He is proud of serving his country in both the Navy and in protest."

Kerry, expected to visit Houston on Thursday for a campaign fund-raiser, has been supported by a band of veterans who served on his boat and appear with him at campaign rallies.

But when C-SPAN replayed the debate, O'Neill said he received about 400 letters from veterans, many angry about Kerry's comments.

The Houston attorney disdains Kerry's constant reference to his military service on the campaign trail.

"He appears in a flight jacket, which, by the way, we never wore in Vietnam because the temperature was 90-plus degrees," he said.

O'Neill said he is not working for the president's campaign. He voted in the 1998 Republican primary, according to Harris County records, and was considered by former President Bush for a federal judgeship.

"I'm not a one-lever guy," he said, noting he voted for Mayor Bill White, a Democrat.

In his office at the firm of Clements, O'Neill, Pierce, Wilson & Fulkerson is a reminder of his service: a photograph of small boats huddled in a Vietnamese canal. O'Neill patrolled the waterways lined with Vietcong snipers. His vessel, PCF-94, was the same one commanded by Kerry less than a year earlier.

O'Neill said he first decided to challenge Kerry in 1971 after watching the young activist testify to Congress about alleged U.S. atrocities. O'Neill joined Veterans for a Just Peace, which supported the Nixon administration's war policy.