Umm ... his lie about not being under fire came from him long after he returned and long after he knew he himself earned a Bronze Star. What else ya got?
You mean other than there was a lot of "medal inflation" going on that day?
Here's the thing. The military is very good at giving medals to officers. It's not so good at giving them to enlisted men. SO if you see an EM with a Bronze Star, you should be impressed, an officer, not so much.
Again, my problem is not with what medals he got. Anyone who spent more than a few years in uniform realizes the whole medal thing is kind of silly. And frankly, if we were just talking about officers in Vietnam getting medals for blowing up rice bins (which is what Kerry was doing that day) there wouldn't be an issue here.
The issue with Kerry is that he made slanderous accusations against other Vietnam vets when he came back. And some of them didn't like being called baby killers.