John Forbes Kerry (born December 11, 1943) is a Democratic Party politician who was the 68th United States Secretary of State. He previously served in the United States Senate, where he chaired the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Kerry was the Democratic nominee for President of the United States in the 2004 presidential election, losing to Republican incumbent George W. Bush.
Kerry was born in Aurora, Colorado and attended boarding school in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. He graduated from Yale University class of 1966 with a political science major. Kerry enlisted in the Naval Reserve in 1966, and during 1968–1969 served in The Vietnam War in an abbreviated four-month tour of duty in South Vietnam as officer-in-charge (OIC) of a Swift Boat. For that service, he was awarded combat medals that include the Silver Star Medal, Bronze Star Medal, and three Purple Heart Medals. Securing an early return to the United States, Kerry joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War organization in which he served as a nationally recognized spokesman and as an outspoken opponent of the Vietnam War. He appeared in the Fulbright Hearings before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs where he deemed United States war policy in Vietnam to be the cause of war crimes.
After receiving his J.D. from Boston College Law School, Kerry worked in Massachusetts as an Assistant District Attorney. He served as Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts under Michael Dukakis from 1983 to 1985 and was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1984 and was sworn in the following January. On the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, he led a series of hearings from 1987 to 1989 which were a precursor to the Iran–Contra affair. Kerry was re-elected to additional terms in 1990, 1996, 2002 and 2008. In 2002, Kerry voted to authorize the President "to use force, if necessary, to disarm Saddam Hussein", but warned that the administration should exhaust its diplomatic avenues before launching war.
In his 2004 presidential campaign, Kerry criticized George W. Bush for The War on Terror. He and his running mate, North Carolina Senator John Edwards, lost the election, finishing 35 electoral votes behind Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. Kerry returned to the Senate, becoming Chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship in 2007 and then of the Foreign Relations Committee in 2009. In January 2013, Kerry was nominated by President Barack Obama to succeed outgoing Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and then confirmed by the U.S. Senate, assuming the office on February 1, 2013 and serving until the end of the Obama administration. In 2021, President Joe Biden created a new cabinet position, United States Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, and appointed John Kerry to this position.
Media:
Live Action Television
- Cheers: He appeared as himself in an episode.
Web Original
- During his time as Secretary of State, The Onion ran a series of articles portraying him as though he was the protagonist of an action movie, and picked up right as the action started happening.
Western Animation
- The Simpsons: In "The Kid Is All Right", Lisa had a nightmare about "losers" in which Kerry, Walter Mondale, and Michael Dukakis appeared to her in ghostly forms, referencing that all three were Democrats who lost U.S. presidential elections: Mondale in 1984, Dukakis in 1988 and Kerry in 2004.
