Kovic was a speaker at the 1976 Democratic National Convention , seconding the nomination of draft resister Fritz Efaw for Vice President of the United States . '' Time '' magazine described the scene as one of the few poignant moments of the convention and many in the audience were brought to tears . On July 12 , 1977 , Kovic was arrested with 191 students and supporters during the Gym protests at Kent State University . In 1979 , Ron Kovic gave a speech at The Libertarian National Convention which nominated Ed Clark for President . In 1988 , Kovic was a Jesse Jackson delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Atlanta , Georgia . In 1983 , he published Around the World in Eight Days , a short novel about a Vietnam War veteran who wagers that he can circle the globe in eight days without the benefit of aircraft . Writing in American Book Review , Edmund Cardoni called the book " wildly imaginative " and noted that compared to Born on the Fourth of July , Around the World in Eight Days is " more patently literary in the tribute it pays to the transformative power of narrative art . " From 1990 to 1991 , Kovic took part in several anti-war demonstrations against the first Gulf War , which occurred not long after the release of his biographical film in 1989 . In early May 1999 , following the U.S. bombing of the Chinese embassy in Belgrade , Yugoslavia , Kovic met with China 's ambassador to the United States Li Zhaoxing at the Chinese embassy in Washington D.C. to express his most sincere condolences and present the ambassador and his staff with two dozen red roses . He was an outspoken critic of the Iraq War
1976 Democratic National Convention
1976 Democratic National Convention
Ron Kovic