April 28 (Bloomberg) -- The accusations and questions over what Senator John Kerry, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney did during the Vietnam conflict spilled onto the floor of the U.S. Senate. Senator John McCain, a former prisoner of war, called on both sides to end the debate.

New Jersey Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg called Cheney a ``chicken hawk'' for not serving during the Vietnam conflict and said he had no right to question Democratic presidential candidate Kerry's stance on national security.

``Chicken hawks -- they shriek like a hawk, but they have the backbone of a chicken,'' Lautenberg, 80, said. ``When it was their turn to serve, where were they? A-W-O-L, that's where.''

``Could we declare that the Vietnam war is over,'' McCain, an Arizona Republican and a decorated former Navy pilot, asked, ``and have a cease-fire and agree that both candidates for the president of the United States served honorably, end of story?''

Kerry, 60, a four-term Massachusetts Senator, won three Purple Hearts for wounds and a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for valor when he commanded a Navy boat in Vietnam in 1968 and 1969. Bush, 57, served in the Texas and Alabama Air National Guard during the Vietnam war era. Cheney, 63, received four student deferments that kept him from being drafted into the military.

Iraq Policies

Lautenberg, a World War II veteran, made his remarks as part of a broader criticism of the Bush administration's policies in Iraq and Republican attacks on Kerry.

``The reality is that the chicken hawks in this administration are doing a lousy job of bolstering our nation's defense and supporting the troops,'' he said.

McCain, 67, said senators should focus on helping U.S. troops in Iraq and not what Kerry or Bush did during Vietnam.

``We are attacking a president's credentials because of his service or lack of service in a war that ended 30 years ago,'' said McCain, who spent five years in a POW camp and was awarded a Purple Heart, a Silver Star and the Distinguished Flying Cross. ``That's wrong. I wish we would stop it.''

The exchange extended a debate that began on Sunday with former Bush adviser Karen Hughes saying Kerry ``only pretended'' to toss away his medals during a protest after he returned from Vietnam. Cheney, in a speech on Monday, said Kerry's voting record raises doubts about ``the judgment and attitude he brings to bear in the vital issues of national security.''

Service Records

Kerry said in an interview with the Dayton Daily News on Tuesday that the attacks on his record were coming from ``a president who can't account for his own service in the National Guard and a vice president who got every deferment in the world and decided he had better things to do'' than go to Vietnam.

Questions about Bush's attendance in the National Guard units prompted the White House to release the president's pay stubs to show he was paid for service. Some Democrats such as party Chairman Terry McAuliffe have said the records don't show whether Bush actually reported for duty.

``All the records have been released, and the President fulfilled his duty and was proud to serve and be honorably discharged from the National Guard,'' White House spokesman Scott McClellan said today. He called Kerry's statements a ``political attack'' and refused to address them.

Kerry released his military records last week.

Raising Questions

``What Bush's campaign is trying to do is attach a question in the minds of voters: `Isn't Kerry service overstated? Was he really that good?''' said Michael Dimock, research director at the Pew Research Center in Washington. ``Getting all that out there now makes them look petty and ugly in the short term, which is why Cheney's doing it and not the president. But the goal is to limit the power of Kerry's service down the road.''

Republicans also stepped up attacks on Kerry's past votes on defense, releasing a position paper from his 1984 Senate campaign that advocated cancellation of the MX missile, the B-1 bomber and President Ronald Reagan's proposed ``Star Wars'' missile defense system.

``If Kerry had his way in 1984 Aegis destroyers would have been built,'' the Republican National Committee said in a statement on Kerry's defense record. Aegis-class destroyers were among the weapons that Kerry advocated canceling when he was elected to the Senate by Massachusetts's voters in 1984.

Kerry argued that ``the biggest defense buildup since World War II has not given us a better defense. Americans feel more threatened by the prospect of war, not less so,'' the candidate said in his campaign paper.

Kerry will talk about national security Friday at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, the same venue Cheney used to question Kerry's judgment.

Westminster President Fletcher Lamkin invited Kerry to speak after saying in an e-mail to students and faculty he was ``surprised'' by the political tone of Cheney's speech. In a statement posted on the college's Web site yesterday, Lamkin cited ``the need to hear both sides of these most important issues facing our country.''

Kerry won't talk about Bush's and Cheney's actions during the Vietnam era and will focus on the war on terrorism and Iraq, campaign spokesman Bill Burton said.

``It will be a substantive foreign policy speech about his clear plan for winning the peace in Iraq,'' Burton said.

Bush's approval rating on how he is handling the situation in Iraq has improved over April even as troops from the U.S.-led coalition there have faced a spike in attacks from insurgents, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

A poll conducted by Pew April 21-25 showed 44 percent of U.S. adults approved of the job he's doing in Iraq, up from 40 percent in a poll conducted at the beginning of the month.

His overall approval rating has risen to 48 percent from 43 percent, according to data released by the Pew Center.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jay Newton-Small in Washington at jnewtonsmall@Bloomberg.net

Last Updated: April 28, 2004 19:10 EDT