The thing that rankled the wingnuts on the right is that when Kerry retuned home from Southeast Asia he had the audacity to be a vocal and prominant critic of the Vietnam conflict. For these righties, who confuse nationalism and their own ideology with patroitism, dissent is the same as treason. And that's why they unleahed their smear merchants on him. Had Kerry remained silent regarding his views of the war there is no doubt whatsoever that we would have never heard of these accusations.