Heinz Kerry on Iraq, Vietnam, and Presidential Politics
May 6, 2004 -- Teresa Heinz Kerry is in a category all on her own among political wives. She's a woman who seems comfortable with contradiction — an environmental activist who owns three SUVs, for example.
Her husband, Sen. John Kerry, is the presumed Democratic presidential candidate, but Heinz Kerry was a registered Republican until just last year.
Beyond Heinz Kerry's substantial wealth — she's said to have a personal fortune of $500 million — her most notable trait as a political wife may be that she says exactly what she's thinking. "I'm a real person. I may not be what everybody would like to see, but it's real," she tells ABCNEWS' Barbara Walters in an exclusive interview for 20/20.
Widow of H. John Heinz III, she is no stranger to the political spotlight and the scrutiny that comes with it. Her first husband, H. John Heinz III, sole heir to the Heinz ketchup and food fortune, served nearly 20 years in Congress — as a Republican congressman and senator from Pennsylvania — before his death in a 1991 plane crash.
And she's made it known over the years that she's never been particularly thrilled at the thought of being first lady.
When people asked her late husband to seek the presidency, she said, "I used to say 'over my dead body,' you know, because I was so terrified of it."
Indeed, she tells Walters she had no idea that Kerry was interested in a presidential bid when she married the Massachusetts senator in 1995. And she says she struggled to support his decision to seek the White House.
"It's something that you really have to come to terms with if it's not kind of a passion of your own," she said.
After some soul-searching, she tells Walters, she told Kerry she would support his presidential aspirations. "I said, 'I've thought about this a lot and I really have no right to be in your way.' … That means that I have an obligation to help. Because you can't do it halfway.
You either do it or you don't do it. But I had to come to terms with that myself, and if I hadn't, he wouldn't have run."
Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz Kerry is at least as complicated as her name. The daughter of a doctor, she was born in what was then the Portuguese colony of Mozambique, which borders South Africa and Tanzania. She mastered five languages: Portuguese, French, Spanish, Italian and English. While studying in Switzerland, she conquered the heart of H. John Heinz III, the heir to his family's ketchup and food fortune. They married in 1966.
She has three sons from her 25-year marriage with Heinz, and began seeing Kerry after meeting him at an Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. Even after their marriage in 1995, she says it took a while for her not to think of Heinz when referring to Kerry as her husband. "It took me a while to not say 'my husband' meaning John Heinz, cause I'd been married to him for 25 years. Then I switched to thinking my husband John Kerry — and then I thought thank goodness they're both called John."
Wrestled With Abortion Decision
Heinz Kerry also tells Walters she once wrestled with whether she should have an abortion some 30 years ago. She tells Walters that her doctor advised her to have an abortion when she learned of a pregnancy while taking cortisone medication.
"I always wanted the baby. I didn't want to have an abortion, but they gave me 15 days to because it was early and the night before I was due to go in, I miscarried it. So, God was very kind. … But the point is, I'm glad I had a choice."
Her husband, a Roman Catholic, has drawn criticism from the church for his pro-choice stance and his support for civil unions for homosexual couples.
The Medals Controversy
Heinz Kerry responded to the recent controversy over whether her husband had thrown away military decorations he earned during his service in Vietnam.
She says she has seen his medals. "Three, I think," she tells Walters.
But she thinks the criticism of Kerry's act of protest after his Vietnam service is unfair coming from political leaders who didn't serve. "If someone went to war and came back and didn't throw their medals in and criticized my husband, I'd say you have a right. But to be criticized by people who evaded going to war, I don't think is fair game."
Iraq vs. Vietnam
Heinz Kerry says her husband doesn't view Iraq as a quagmire along the lines of Vietnam."John doesn't compare the two in the sense that we have a lot more communication," she said, "and we see a lot more today than they did before they went."
But true to her unedited form, she doesn't shy away from offering sharp criticism of President Bush's policy on Iraq. "On the other hand, we were misinformed before going in too. And so, in that sense, there are similarities. Iraq, although it was in terrible, terrible shape in terms of Saddam Hussein, had nothing to do with terrorism, nothing!"
She added, "Our first priority was terrorism. We have now made enemies of people who were our friends, and even our allies distrust us. And that's a terrible thing."
No Pretense and No Holds Barred
Heinz Kerry also answers criticism that her husband is aloof and indecisive, saying simply that "he's deliberate and patient." However, she thinks "he should learn to be a little briefer" on the campaign trail.
Although there have been a flurry of reports suggesting that Heinz Kerry has kept Kerry's campaign handlers on edge with her off the cuff remarks, she says nobody's telling her to keep her opinions to herself.
"If they did, I wouldn't be there campaigning. You know, I can only be me. And I also know that's not what the American people want. They don't want phonies. They don't want pretense — they want real people — I'm a real person."