Free Republic

The Democratic Party has become something both JFK and RFK would deplore—the party of war. I was a Democrat all my life. I came to Washington to serve President John Kennedy and Attorney General Robert Kennedy. When the president was murdered and his brother struck off on his own, I joined his Senate campaign and staff as his legislative assistant and speechwriter, until his presidential campaign ended with his own assassination. I ran on a (losing) Democratic ticket in the New York state elections of 1970. When I was working to enact my own program of police reform in the...

From B. G Burkett's great book, "Stolen Valor," pp. 130-138:The TribunalsOn January 31, 1971, an organization called Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) convened what came to be known as the Winter Soldier Investigation. Some of the major organizers included Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory, Phil Ochs, Graham Nash, David Crosby, and actor Donald Sutherland. For four days in a hotel in Detroit, "veteran" after veteran told grisly tales of horror of using prisoners for target practice and throwing them out of helicopters, of cutting off the ears of dead VC, of burning vil­lages and gang-raping women. Lawyer and activist Mark...