Posted on 02/20/2004 5:26:39 PM PST by Jackson Brown
Kerry's Denials at Odds With 1971 Book He Authored By Marc Morano CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer February 20, 2004
(CNSNews.com) - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry has denied ever accusing American troops of committing war crimes in Vietnam. But his remarks during an interview on CNN Thursday are at odds with the excerpts of a book Kerry authored in 1971, a copy of which CNSNews.com obtained this week.
The New Soldier, which is currently so difficult to find that it was selling on the Internet for about $850, featured the following passage by Kerry about his experiences in Vietnam. "We were sent to Vietnam to kill Communism. But we found instead that we were killing women and children."
In the book, Kerry stated that Vietnamese citizens "didn't even know the difference between communism and democracy" and he instead blamed the United States for causing chaos in Vietnam.
"In the process we created a nation of refugees, bomb craters, amputees, orphans, widows, and prostitutes, and we gave new meaning to the words of the Roman historian Tacitus: 'Where they made a desert they called it peace,'" Kerry explained.
But when asked by CNN anchor Judy Woodruff on Thursday about allegations that he had accused "American troops of war crimes," Kerry issued a denial.
"No, I was accusing American leaders of abandoning the troops. And if you read what I said, it is very clearly an indictment of leadership. I said to the Senate, where is the leadership of our country? And it's the leaders who are responsible, not the soldiers. I never said that. I've always fought for the soldiers," he said.
Kerry was referring to his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in April of 1971 as part of his involvement with the anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against the War.
But The New Soldier reveals Kerry's direct criticism of American soldiers, including charges that they committed atrocities against the Vietnamese while on patrol.
In the book, Kerry said he "saw Vietnam ravaged equally by American bombs and search-and-destroy missions, as well as by Viet Cong terrorism..." He added that his combat duty in Vietnam irrevocably transformed his outlook on the military.
"Because of all that I saw in Vietnam, the treatment of civilians, the ravaging of their countryside, the needless, useless deaths, the deception and duplicity of our policy, I changed," Kerry wrote.
The cover of the book displays long-haired, bearded men carrying an upside down American flag in an apparent mockery of the famous planting of the American flag on Iwo Jima during World War II.
Kerry's former brother-in-law and current campaign adviser, David Thorne and documentary maker George Butler were credited with editing the book.
A defiant Kerry told CNN's Woodruff that he did not regret his anti-war activism, but also shifted the conversation to his activities on behalf of veterans many years after his own service in Vietnam, his anti-war activities and the publication of his 1971 book.
"In fact, not only did we oppose the war, but we proudly stood up and fought for the additions to the G.I. Bill so that vets would be able to use it. We fought for the V.A. Hospitals. I wrote the Agent Orange legislation with Tom Daschle. I helped with the post-Vietnam stress syndrome outreach centers," Kerry said.
"...The fact is if we want to re-debate the war on Vietnam in 2004, I'm ready for that. It was a mistake, and I'm proud of having stood up and shared with America my perceptions of what was happening," Kerry added.
I wasn't offended by that book cover because it looked like a bunch of hippies fighting as to who would get the last bong hit and a flag got in the way.
Exactly! That's all that came out of his mouths for weeks and then DNC and the RAT Trolls went after Pres Bush for his ANG Duty. Kerry and the DemocRATs deserve to be called on their lies.
More, from inside: 
But Kerry knows the difference. That's why his ideology rests in between the two but with a lean toward the former.
Statement of Mr. John Kerry...I am not here as John Kerry. I am here as one member of the group of 1,000 which is a small representation of a very much larger group of veterans in this country, and were it possible for all of them to sit at this table they would be here and have the same kind of testimony....
WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION
I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command....
They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.
We call this investigation the "Winter Soldier Investigation." The term "Winter Soldier" is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.
We who have come here to Washington have come here because we f eel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.
etc.
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