Kovic became one of the best-known peace activists among the veterans of the war and has been arrested for political protest 12 times. He attended his first peace demonstration soon after the Kent State shootings in May 1970, and gave his first speech against the war at Levittown Memorial High School in Levittown, Long Island, New York that same spring. Kovic's speech that day was interrupted by a bomb threat and the auditorium cleared. Undeterred, Kovic continued speaking to students from the school's football grandstands. His first arrest was during an anti-Vietnam War demonstration at an Orange County, California draft board in the spring of 1971 when he refused to leave the office of the draft board explaining to a representative that by sending young men to Vietnam they were inadvertently, "condemning them to their death," or to be wounded and maimed like himself in a war that he had come to believe was, "immoral and made no sense." He was told that if he did not leave the draft board immediately he would be arrested. Kovic refused to leave and was taken away by police. In a new introduction to his book, Born on the Fourth of July, written in March 2005, Kovic stated, "I wanted people to understand. I wanted to share with them as nakedly and openly and intimately as possible what I had gone through, what I had endured. I wanted them to know what it really meant to be in a war—to be shot and wounded, to be fighting for my life on the intensive care ward—not the myth we had grown up believing. I wanted people to know about the hospitals and the enema room, about why I had become opposed to the war, why I had grown more and more committed to peace and nonviolence. I had been beaten by the police and arrested twelve times for protesting the war and I had spent many nights in jail in my wheelchair. I had been called a Communist and a traitor, simply for trying to tell the truth about what had happened in that war, but I refused to be intimidated." In early 1989, he presented Tom Cruise with his Bronze Star medal on the final day of filming Born on the Fourth of July explaining to the actor that he was giving him the award as a gift for his "courageous portrayal of the true horrors of war." Time Magazine reported that Oliver Stone said, "He gave it to Tom for bravery for having gone through this experience in hell as much as any person can without actually having been there."
In 1974, Kovic led a group of disabled Vietnam War veterans in wheelchairs on a 17-day hunger strike inside the Los Angeles office of Senator Alan Cranston. The veterans protested the "poor treatment in America's Veterans Hospitals" and demanded better treatment for returning veterans, a full investigation of all Veterans Affairs (V.A.) facilities, and a face-to-face meeting with head of the V.A. Donald E. Johnson. The strike continued to escalate until Johnson finally agreed to fly out from Washington, D.C., and meet with the veterans. The hunger strike ended soon after that. Several months later Johnson resigned. In late August 1974 Kovic traveled to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where he spent a week in the Catholic strong hold of, "Turf Lodge," interviewing both political activists and residents. In the spring of 1975 Kovic, photojournalist Loretta Smith, and author Richard Boyle traveled to cover the Cambodian Civil War as correspondents for the Pacific News Service.[citation needed]
