This explains vividly why us vets are so against Kerry and the ambulance chaser and are working for their defeat.
Revenge is a Dish Best Served Cold By Barbara Stock September 1, 2004
Over 30 years ago they put away their medals and their uniforms. They buried their anger and bitterness and moved on with their lives--and they waited.
Revisionists are trying to change history, claiming the returning Viet Nam veterans didn't suffer all that much when they returned home. All that talk of being labeled animals has been exaggerated over the years. But the veterans know better. They were there.
On the radio last week, one man related that he had unpacked the uniform that he wore home from Viet Nam all those years ago. It had not seen the light of day for over 30 years. He showed it to his children and grandchildren and, for the first time, spoke of the day that he returned home from war and was spat on, cursed at, and literally had to run a gauntlet of protesters who threw human waste and rotten fruit on him and his fellow vets. With the words "baby killers" ringing in his ears he was warned by laughing policemen not to retaliate or he would be arrested. So he ran. The able-bodied helped the wounded as they do on any battlefield because those on crutches or in wheelchairs were not spared the profanity and bags full of feces that were thrown at them by the raging anti-war protesters.
This now middle-aged vet went on to tell his family that he had hid in thebathroom at the airport for over two hours, bewildered and afraid. He wondered if he had landed in some foreign land where Americans were hated. Finally, he cleaned up the uniform he was still proud to wear as best he could and made his way to his plane, where he suffered more insults from the passengers. When he got home, he packed up his medals and his dirty uniform, just as it was, and he knew that one day, he would take it out again and he would have his say. That day has come.
One POW stated that he had never put a face to the name until he heard the words "Genghis Khan" pronounced only as John Kerry does and suffered his first flashback to the time he was being tormented by Kerry's words in a North Vietnamese prison camp.
They buried their anger and the bitterness --and they waited. Most of them didn't know who or what would be the signal to make their move, but they knew they would recognize it when it happened.
On July 29, 2004, it happened. John Forbes Kerry came to the podium at the Democratic Convention and uttered three words that made many Viet Nam vets skin crawl: "Reporting for Duty!" At last the time had come for these long-suffering veterans.
The past was staring back at these wrongly disgraced vets from their television sets. The face it bore was that of John Kerry, the man who had shredded their honor without a thought and climbed over the bodies of their fallen friends to launch a political career. Kerry had stripped them of their dignity the day he sat before Congress in his fatigues and portrayed them as "baby killers" and "murderers." Kerry did the unspeakable. He had publicly turned on his fellow vets while they were still in harm's way and American prisoners were still in the hands of the enemy. Kerry accused them all of being out-of-control animals, killing, raping, and pillaging Viet Nam at will. The anti-war movement--the protesters--had their hero and he was a Viet Nam War veteran, an officer, a medal winner, a wounded warrior: John Forbes Kerry.
Many Viet Nam vets buried the memories of their less-than-welcome homecoming, and John Kerry moved off the national scene. The feelings of betrayal had faded, but they were never resolved. The unprecedented injustice inflicted on the Viet Nam vets has always lain just under the surface, waiting for a chance to be uncovered. The war had stolen their youth and innocence and John Kerry stole their dignity and rightful place of honor in history.
Like an unlanced boil, the anger festered but there was nothing that could ease the pain. These vets didn't ask for "forgiveness" because they had done nothing wrong in serving their country. They never asked to be treated as heroes, just good soldiers. All they have ever wanted was the respect due all the men and women who have worn the uniform of this country. Being allowed to march in a few parades wasn't enough. A long over-due memorial was not enough. The Viet Nam Veterans moveable wall only brought back the suffering as they searched for the names of their fallen friends whose memory had been defiled and disgraced by people who considered them rampaging killers instead of men who died with honor for their country.
Now before them stands this man who would be president--this man who holds his service in Viet Nam up as a badge of honor now that it suits his purposes. This man Kerry brags about his medals and his tiny wounds and demands the respect they were denied, yet he offers no apologies for what he did to them. "I will be a great leader!" Kerry proclaims, because of his brief and self-proclaimed valiant service while wearing a uniform--the very same uniform that they wore and were spat upon because of it.
All across America, soiled uniforms and memories of being shamed and humiliated have resurfaced and Vietnam vets demand their rightful place in history. John Kerry seems bewildered by the reaction of his "fellow vets." He has become defensive and angry because now his service and honor are being questioned. Kerry seems oblivious to the pain he caused three decades ago when he stole all honor and dignity from those same "fellow vets" for personal gain. Now he wants to use them again, for the same reason.
All across America, Viet Nam vets are smiling. At last, perhaps they can bury their demons. These angry vets are demanding that this man who sentenced them to being shunned as criminals, tell the world that he was wrong and that he is sorry for what he did to them. Kerry must admit that he lied about them.
For many, it would still not be enough. Satisfaction and hopefully peace will come when Viet Nam vets see and hear John F. Kerry give his concession speech the night of November 2, 2004 with the knowledge that it was their votes that helped defeat him. There are approximately 2.5 million VietNam veterans in America and they have not forgotten.
Kerry denied them their rightful place as heroes and they will deny him his dream of the presidency. Angry Viet Nam veterans, silent for so long, will finally have their say. Payment in full will be delivered to John Kerry on November 2, 2004.
Revenge is indeed a dish best served cold.
bttt-
I've heard some vets call into Rush and Laura Ingraham and other radio shows.
Their pain, 30 years later, is evident and difficult to listen to. My hope is that they get the full attention their stories deserve and that Americans can come to grips with how Old Media and Kerry swayed a nation and just how deeply the propoganda ran is fully understood. Never again.
Godspeed to our soldiers and veterans.
God bless America and our Vets!
FMCDH(BITS)
ping. great read.
The peaceniks who tormented our guys will have to live with that dishonor for the rest of their lives. Fortunately for them, they don't have the intellect to realize just how low they are.
And this ONE paragraph illustrates EVERY reason why Kerry should never be allowed to become President.
Payback IS a B*tch.
John Kerry forgot about the vig.
Vets should organize and pay Kerry the same treatment. Follow him around the country from event to event like he's his old pals The Grateful Dead. Bring lots of rubber gloves and nose plugs.
bump
I feel that the treatment that I received, and have lived with for the past 33 years, was due to John Kerry and his lies. If I could get within 10 feet of John Kerry I would spit in his face and I don't care what the consequences would be.
John Kerry does not have the moral integrity, honesty, or judgment to be the Commander-In-Chief of the world’s most powerful military. John Kerry IS, unfit for command.
Vietnam Veteran
Mekong Delta 1970-1971
For many, it would still not be enough.
It wouldn't be enough. It will be enough when Kerry starts over (from scratch) rather than continue the dishonorable life he built for himself on his foundation of lies about others.
It might be a start.
I am a Vietnam era vet, although I was never in Vietnam. I never had to run a gauntlet upon my return from the other side of the world, although I did hear a comment or two about the evils of the military. The point is, I don't have the first hand experience of the shameful treatment Kerry-types perpetrated, but I do specifically recall the "Winter Soldier" bilge.
The surface damage he could clean, but what was done inside him could not be. He was proud of his service, and the look in his eye when I went into the Air Force was beyond words....and now, his voice seethes with a loathing I have never heard before. When he says "Kerry," there's a venom there....a tone that says "You're in my gunsights, John F....just like those NVA trucks were in 1969 and 1970, and the 'Stinger' is gonna nail you!"
"Deny Them The Dark" was my Dad's unit's old motto....and Kerry was hoping the darkness of ignorance would get him into office the way the dark helped the NVA get into South Vietnam. The honorable Vietnam Veterans have gone back into combat. They are denying that darkness to Kerry. My Dad is flying one more mission. Before, it was to try to save people they'd never met from being enslaved to a tyrannical government. Now, it's to save their country from a traitor.
If they need me, a veteran of the Cold War, I'll be with them.....and proud to stand by the men who showed those of us who served later what honor and courage truly were. I'm ready to fly my mission against Kerry. I could ask to be on no better crew than with the Veterans of Vietnam.
I have only recently read about Vietnam vets being abused such as is described in this article.
I got out of the military in 1966, ( maybe too early to suffer abuse, ) and by the time the war was over I was pretty much totally disinterested in politics or reading the news.
I didn't hear about any abuse during that time. However, I have to assume that this kind of abuse took place in California and other left-wing areas.
I think I can say with confidence that if anything like this had occurred in the New Orleans area the perpetrators would have been dealt with by the locals. Disrespect of the military would not have been tolerated.
I have also wondered if all of this abuse was somehow displaced anger over having "lost the war," even though the "loss" of the war was a total falsehood pushed forth by the left-wing press.
This is a tremendous, heart-wrenching read.
It should be circulated widely.
I was young during this time - graduated HS in '76. I remember the war because it was on the nightly news although I didn't understand much about it.
I sure do understand it now.
For what it's worth, please accept my sincere, heartfelt, grateful Welcome Home to all Vietnam Vets.
Thanks for posting this for those of us who missed it before. The thread police might not be happy about it, but I am.
I was too young to serve in 'Nam, but not too young to be horrified by the treatment our veterans got.
Though I would vote for Bush anyway, I feel a sense of pride that my vote will also count as support for the veterans. Also proud that it will be a spit in the face of not only Kerry, but also all the dirtballs who participated in such shameful actions.
-Always proud of our veterans. Thanks for the freedom!