War Stories

Newsweak ^ | Feb. 23 , 2004 issue | By Evan Thomas

[FBD]

By Evan Thomas Newsweek - John Kerry did not have to think all that hard about joining the military and going to Vietnam. He had doubts about the wisdom of U.S. intervention in Vietnam, which was rapidly escalating during 1965-66, his senior year at Yale. But Yale leaders were expected to serve, as the school song went, "for God, for Country, and for Yale." His closest friends in Skull and Bones, the Yale senior society for the best and the brightest, were signing up. Fred Smith, who would go on to found Federal Express, was joining the Marines. So was Dick Pershing, grandson of World War I Gen. "Black Jack" Pershing. There wasn't a lot of anguished debate, recalls Kerry's fellow Bonesman David Thorne, who, like Kerry, joined the Navy. But, he added, "if it had been '68, we might have made a different decision."

What a difference two years makes: 1968 was the year George W. Bush graduated from Yale. By then, virtually no Yale graduates were going into the military, if they could possibly avoid it. The war and the counterculture it spawned had transformed Yale. Preppy boys in coat and tie were rapidly giving way to long hair and angry protesters. The prom was canceled for lack of interest; marijuana was replacing beer. A throwback, good-time frat brother, young Bush had little use for the antiwar movement. On the other hand, he didn't want to go to Vietnam. Draft deferments for graduate school were ending that spring of 1968. The Texas Air National Guard offered another way. "I was not prepared to shoot my eardrum out with a shotgun in order to get a deferment. Nor was I willing to go to Canada," Bush explained to The Dallas Morning News back in 1990. "So I chose to better myself by learning how to fly airplanes."

The two men were still fighting the Vietnam War last week. Kerry was defending himself from conservative radio talk-show hosts who accused him of siding with "Hanoi Jane" Fonda to undermine the war effort when he came home as an angry vet. The White House was showering reporters with documents attempting to show that Bush had not gone AWOL from the National Guard, as some Democrats allege. But flaps were mostly side-shows based on sketchy facts (Kerry barely met Fonda; Bush apparently did his time in the Guard, if a bit sporadically). The Vietnam era was critically important in the lives of both men. But the vastly different outcomes for the two men were the product of a subtle interplay of class and character and of small but critical differences in time and place.

[FBD]

NewsweAk, indeed...

[ken5050]

Ya gotta remember the "barf alert" next time...

[dead]

conservative radio talk-show hosts who accused him of siding with "Hanoi Jane" Fonda to undermine the war effort when he came home as an angry vet.

Gee, I wonder if they have any proof to back up these “accusations”?

[Krodg]

John Kerry did not have to think all that hard about joining the military and going to Vietnam.

But he did ask his draft board for permission to study in Paris for a year....he enlisted only after they turned him down.

[FBD]

Gee, I wonder if they have any proof to back up these “accusations”?

Yeah, maybe newsweak will want to see some photo documentation...anyone have this gals email?

There is so much bias in thispiece, some subtle, mostly blatant slants in this piece, one hardly knows where to start. But you picked a good one.

[NutmegDevil]

This leftist a'hole (who is heard too often on Imus - I switch the station to NPR when he or Plagiarette Red Sox Lover What's Her Name are on) states President Bush performed his Air National Guard duties sporadically - SLAM!

But his guy, Lurch, only knew Hanoi Jane from a distance.

Subtle, but obvious bias.

Nothing about JF'nK calling all military (including himself - documented for him, alleged for the rest of us)who served in JFK/LBJ's Viet Nam baby killers.

He did only kill one baby & he does feel pretty bad about it - it would have been a orphan anyway as he had already killed the baby's mom. So it's not a bad as it appears at first blush.

[FBD]

"Ya gotta remember the "barf alert" next time..."

Thanks, my error! :)

[GOPJ]

Bump:And when is the media going to ask Mrs. Ketchup to close3 those 57 overseas plants...

syriacus

[rhombus]

Generally a boring article.

[FBD]

"This leftist a'hole (who is heard too often on Imus - I switch the station to NPR when he or Plagiarette Red Sox Lover What's Her Name are on) states President Bush performed his Air National Guard duties sporadically - SLAM!"

Yup.

How about this one:

"As a Catholic at an Episcopal church school, dominated by a huge Gothic chapel, Kerry had to take a cab into town to mass on Sunday. Barbiero recalls sitting with Kerry in the study of the school chaplain, painfully talking about what it was like "to be excluded by the in crowd."

Such a little saint, he was!

Bush on the other hand:

"Bush had a quality prized by Andover boys of that era: sarcastic humor. Everyone had a nickname at Andover; Bush's was "Lip." Bush felt the pressure to live up to his father, who had been a great student-athlete at the school. Bush was neither. But he could capture an audience of jaded schoolboys..."

Meek, Dave- step into the NewsweAk spin machine, and see what you can pull out of this article! :)

[FBD]

Just trying to point out all of the bias. It's not even subtle anymore. (if it ever really was)
I didn't post it for educational purposes! <:-)

[FBD]

Leftist newsweak ping:

"Bush was the class cutup, but he was learning a style of leadership and cajolery—bestowing nicknames, mugging for the crowd, knowing how to tease but not too harshly—that he would use to disarm reporters and win over reluctant moneymen and legislators in later years."

"Kerry was dead serious when he walked around the campus his first day at Yale with his St. Paul's friend and now freshman roommate, Barbiero. Kerry looked up at the gargoyles atop Harkness bell tower, totems to the qualities Yalies were supposed to strive for: Pen Wielding, Proficient Athlete, Tea-Drinking Socialite and Diligent Student. Kerry announced that he would be all four. At Yale Kerry was "the definition of a Big Man on Campus," recalls retired professor and Yale historian Gaddis Smith."

Yup. John F'n Kerry was Big Man on campus. Bush; the class clown. {gag}

[Grampa Dave]

Evan Thomas and the owners of NewsWeak decades ago had permanent knee pads attached to their knees to assume their worship position of slime like Kerry/Clinton __________ fill the blank.

I cancelled my subscription to NewsWeak and Slimes during Reagan's first campaign.

They were vile liars then, and they haven't changed.

[Hatteras]

"...The White House was showering reporters with documents attempting to show that Bush had not gone AWOL from the National Guard, as some Democrats allege."

Attempting? More like PROVING that Bush had not gone AWOL from the National Guard...

[Hatteras]

So Senator Kerry.... about those 3 Purple Hearts you used to get out of Vietnam early, you do have the medical records to confirm your injuries sustained in combat, don't you?

[FBD]

You caught that word too, huh Hat? I emailed the newsweak webmaster, and complained about their biased coverage, and that was one of the words I highlighted.

Please contact newsweak at:

WebEditors@newsweek.com

RE: Evan Thomas front page article

Feb. 23 , 2004 issue

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4271520/

[MeekOneGOP]

Hey, thanks for the post and ping !

I'll be back here later to check it out.

[FBD]

"They were vile liars then, and they haven't changed."

From my perspective, it seems that they used to try to be more subtle about it, which is potentially more subversive...At least now newsweak lies blatantly.
Perhaps I just look for it now, because I know it's there.

I wonder if the "undecideds", IE: "The great "unwashed" pick up on this stuff?

[Grampa Dave]

They were subtle on some things and blatant on others.

My Mother cracked their code during the Watergate and Nam years. I was younger and dumber. When they went after Ronald Reagan I woke up. My Mother just laughed when I called told her that I had cancelled NewsWeak and Time.

She had done that close to two decades before.

[Grampa Dave]

"I wonder if the "undecideds", IE: "The great "unwashed" pick up on this stuff?"

That is our task in this cultural war that we fight each day. We point out the decades of lying and biased spins to our relatives and friends who fall into what I call the moderates.

In our area, the great unwashed are the old hippies who have voted rat for decades while collecting unemployment, medi Cal and food stamps from us evil tax payers.