the best thing he had going for him was his awesome fake mid-atlantic accent, which he jettisoned at some point. if you look up his Vietnam testimony before Congress from the early 70s, you can hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIP0QtTewSw

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5607273&forum_id=2#48168699)

Kerry was originally considered a military brat,[7] until his father was discharged from the Army Air Corps in 1944.[8] Kerry lived in Groton, Massachusetts his first year and Millis, Massachusetts afterwards before moving to the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. at age seven, when his father took a position in the Department of the Navy's Office of General Counsel and soon became a diplomat in the State Department's Bureau of United Nations Affairs.[9][10][11]

As members of the Forbes and Dudley–Winthrop families, his maternal extended family enjoyed great wealth.[12] Kerry's parents themselves were upper-middle class, and a wealthy grand-aunt paid for him to attend elite boarding schools[6] such as Institut Montana Zugerberg in Switzerland.[13] Through his maternal ancestry, Kerry also descends from Rev. James McGregor who was among the first 500 Scots-Irish immigrants to Boston Harbor in the 18th century.[14]

At the age of ten, Kerry's father took a position as the U.S. Attorney for Berlin. When Kerry was twelve, he crossed into the Soviet Occupation Zone to visit Hitler's bunker and ride through the Brandenburg Gate. If Kerry had been captured, it would have caused an international incident.[15]

In 1957, his father was stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Oslo, Norway, and Kerry was sent back to the United States to attend boarding school. He first attended the Fessenden School in Newton, Massachusetts, and later St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, where he learned skills in public speaking and began developing an interest in politics.[6] Kerry founded the John Winant Society at St. Paul's to debate the issues of the day; the Society still exists there.[16][11] In 1960, while at St. Paul's, he played bass in a minor rock band called The Electras with six of his classmates.[17][18][19] The band had about five hundred copies of one album printed in 1961, which they sold some of at dances at the school; it was made available on streaming platforms many years later.[17][19][20][21]

The young John Kerry (in white) aboard the yacht of President John F. Kennedy, in August 1962

In 1962, Kerry attended Yale University, majoring in political science and residing in Jonathan Edwards College.[22] By that year, his parents returned to Groton.[23][24] While at Yale, Kerry briefly dated Janet Auchincloss, the younger half-sister of First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy. Through Auchincloss, Kerry was invited to a day of sailing with then-President John F. Kennedy and his family.[25]

Kerry played on the varsity Yale Bulldogs men's soccer team, earning his only letter in his senior year. He also played freshman and junior varsity hockey and, in his senior year, junior varsity lacrosse.[26] In addition, he was a member of the Psi Upsilon fraternity and took flying lessons.[27][28]

In his sophomore year, Kerry became the chairman of the Liberal Party of the Yale Political Union, and a year later he served as president of the union. Amongst his influential teachers in this period was Professor H. Bradford Westerfield, who was himself a former president of the Political Union.[29] His involvement with the Political Union gave him an opportunity to be involved with important issues of the day, such as the civil rights movement and the New Frontier program. He also became a member of Skull and Bones Society, and traveled to Switzerland[30] through AIESEC Yale.[31][32]

Under the guidance of the speaking coach and history professor Rollin G. Osterweis, Kerry won many debates against other college students from across the nation.[33] In March 1965, as the Vietnam War escalated, he won the Ten Eyck prize as the best orator in the junior class for a speech that was critical of U.S. foreign policy. In the speech he said, "It is the spectre of Western imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism and thus, it is self-defeating."[34]

Kerry graduated from Yale with a bachelor of arts degree in 1966. Overall, he had below-average grades, graduating with a cumulative average of 76 over his four years. His freshman-year average was a 71, but he improved to an 81 average for his senior year. He never received an "A" during his time at Yale; his highest grade was an 89.[35]

pic of him with JFK on JFK's yacht:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Kerry#/media/File:KN-C23433-JFK_with_wife_Jackie_and_John_Kerry_among_others.jpg

(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5607273&forum_id=2#48168720)