The military career of Democratic Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota has come under scrutiny, a recurring theme in several presidential campaigns.

The vast majority of U.S. presidents have served in the military. Military service has played a central role in many election campaigns, for better or for worse. There have been several cases in recent decades where it has been worse.

Here are four cases in which a president or vice president’s military service, or lack thereof, has been subjected to severe scrutiny:

John Kerry

Perhaps the most famous example of how military service scrutiny affected a campaign was the 2004 campaign of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. A group of veterans formed the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to challenge Kerry’s claims about his military service and military awards.

Kerry served a single four-month tour as commander of a Patrol Craft Fast, also known as a Swift Boat, in Vietnam, during which he earned three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star, and a Silver Star. After returning home, he became a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War and attracted national attention.

He later used his service as a central part of his 2004 presidential campaign. Republicans attempted to undermine this by criticizing his record, and numerous Swift Boat veterans questioned his record. The group, organized into the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, launched a series of damaging ads undermining his record.

The ads were extremely effective in a campaign focused on national defense, four years after 9/11 and in the midst of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I remember being in Ohio and hearing this ad. And I called my campaign headquarters and said, ‘Guys, I just heard an ad. And if I had heard that ad, I wouldn’t have voted for me,'” Kerry said in a 2018 interview with NPR.

Kerry’s campaign struggled to respond effectively to the attacks, fearing that aggressive condemnations would only give them more bolsters. The attacks had consequences and contributed to Kerry’s eventual defeat.

The counterclaims themselves have drawn scrutiny, as nearly all of Kerry’s teammates supported the account of his service. Of the numerous signatories to the letter questioning Kerry’s service, most were not deployed at the same time or place as Kerry.

The campaign went down in political history and gave rise to the term “swiftboating,” which describes an unfair or untrue political attack.

Bill Clinton

Clinton was a vocal opponent of the Vietnam War, participating in anti-Vietnam War protests and organizing a protest for the moratorium to end the Vietnam War in 1969. He organized the protest at Oxford University in the United Kingdom, where he was studying as a Rhodes Scholar.

He received two deferments for his training, but these expired after his return.

Throughout the war, he tried various ways to avoid being drafted. His uncle sent him to the naval reserve and enrolled him in the National Guard, among other things. Both were unsuccessful.

Clinton then sought to apply for the Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program. After a two-hour interview with Colonel Eugene J. Holmes, the program’s director, he was accepted. He later withdrew his offer, saying it was not an honorable way to avoid the draft. Other critics argued that he only resigned after receiving a high draft number that would have virtually guaranteed that he would not be selected.

According to the WashingtonPostThe most damaging part of Clinton’s story was his campaign’s handling of the matter – the campaign was “taciturn” about the sequence of events that led to his non-conscription, leading to widespread distrust. Clinton initially denied knowing about his uncle’s attempt to send him to the Naval Reserve, but soon admitted he had been informed of it.

Although his patriotism was questioned, Clinton won the election and re-election by large margins.

Donald Trump

Trump drew criticism not for his military service, but rather for his lack of it. Despite being of legal age during the Vietnam War, Trump never joined the army, which raises questions. He was able to avoid the draft by getting five deferments, one for bone spurs and four for training. It was the first deferment that raised eyebrows.

The nature of his illness has been the subject of scrutiny, with some openly questioning whether it was fabricated to allow Trump to avoid the draft. An August 2016 report by the New York Times has drilled holes in Trump’s story.

During the 2016 campaign, Democrats and other critics tried to enshrine the label of “conscientious objector,” a long-standing taboo in American politics. Still, the attack never stuck, and Trump largely shrugged it off. The attack was never a focus of the Clinton campaign, so it slowly faded into the background.

Trump won a surprise victory, although his alleged conscientious objection played little role in the election campaign.

Trump, for his part, claims he had bone spurs. In an interview with Piers Morgan in 2019, the president said it would have been “an honor” for him to serve in Vietnam.

“I wouldn’t have minded at all. It would have been an honor, but I think I’m making it up to him now,” Trump told Morgan. “I think I’m making it up to him quickly because we’re rebuilding our military to a level that’s never been seen before.”

The episode was later brought back into the spotlight by former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley during her doomed 2024 primary campaign. Once again, the allegations failed to bear fruit, and Haley lost in almost every primary.

George W. Bush

Bush’s military service was the subject of critical scrutiny in the 2000 election and then even more criticism in the 2004 election. A July 1999 article in the WashingtonPost found that Bush was accepted as a pilot in 1968 into the Texas National Guard, a unit barred from serving in Vietnam, despite scoring only 25% on the pilot aptitude test, the lowest acceptable score. He was accepted the same day, encouraged by his prominent father.

The scrutiny of Bush’s military service played a much larger role in the 2004 election campaign, particularly as to whether he had fulfilled the terms of his six-year contract and whether he had knowingly joined the unit to avoid deployment to Vietnam.

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The climax of the investigation was the so-called Killian documents, alleged memos from Bush’s commander, Lt. Col. Jerry B. Killian, in which he alleged preferential treatment and dereliction of duty. After CBS News obtained and published these documents, observers noted several technical discrepancies. The documents were later found to be forged, dealing a serious blow to the credibility of CBS News and reporter Dan Rather.

Bush’s victory in his re-election campaign was partly due to the scrutiny of Kerry’s military career.