I was 17 in 1971 and looking at the possibility of getting drafted in a year. I was weighing my options if I drew a low number and the Navy was looking good, but not on one of those Swift boats! As a result I was keenly aware of the political climate. And of how my activism wasn’t getting me any dates, especially with the TeenAged Republican girls I hung out with. (Working within the system and all.)
Kerry was speaking in a room full of his fellow members of the VVAW so of course there will be applause. Chairman Fulbright (who gave us Bill Clinton!) was, by 1971, against the war as were several of the other committee members present, though barely more than a third of the committee was present. As it was, the Foreign Relations Committee was known at the time as more anti-war than the public.
Popular sentiment against the war was growing by '71 but phrases like “peace with honor” and “Vietnamization” described situations the more anti-war American public still thought possible. Many of the rest felt then as they do now: winning the war was possible if the military were allowed to use whatever means were necessary and it was only because “traitors” like John Kerry and J. William Fulbright were sapping the national will that the war hadn’t been won already. It seems that fight is still going on.