U.S. State Department official Wendy Sherman said the US will be watching Netanyahu’s new government “very closely.” Photo: State Department.

Secretary of State John Kerry told negotiators from six world powers and Iran that his experience in the Vietnam war fueled his ambition to seek the diplomatic route that led to the nuclear deal with Iran announced on Tuesday, according to Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman.

Sherman, speaking to the 6th Annual Prague Conference at the State Department in Washington DC, regaled her audience with intimate moments among negotiators behind closed doors in Vienna just before the deal was announced.

“Secretary Kerry said when I was 22 I went to war,” she relayed. “And then he choked up … he couldn’t get the words out. And everybody was completely spellbound. And he sort of got his voice and said I went to war and it became clear to me that I never wanted to go to war again.”

She said, “That’s what this was about. Trying to settle these matters through diplomacy and peaceful means. It was such a moving moment that everybody in that room applauded, including the Iranian delegation. Everybody had tears in their eyes.”

Sherman said Kerry was the final speaker, adding that he followed very moving comments by Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif.

Kerry served the U.S. navy in Vietnam from 1966-69. He later campaigned against the war.