Jonah: Your correspondent Matt frames the issue in a misleading way. What was objectionable about Kerry’s 1971 testimony was not that he mentioned that Americans had committed atrocities in Vietnam. Nobody disputes that. What was objectionable was Kerry’s suggestion was that these were widespread and that they amounted to an official U.S. policy. Which goes back to the larger point about Kerry’s contradictions: Kerry surrounds himself with his band of brothers at every opportunity. But on his testimony they were a band of war criminals, albeit not as culpable as the ones in Washington.