Could Vietnam win the White House for Kerry?

guardian.co.uk ^ | Tuesday February 3, 2004 | Suzanne Goldenberg

[jtminton]

Could Vietnam win the White House for Kerry?

Short answer: No
Long answer: No

[ohioman]

You are right. But we do have a right to slam Kerry for acting the traitor when he got back from Nam. It was after the war when he screwed up, and it is for this that he shall be remembered.

[joesnuffy]

Bill "I loathe the military" Clinton was the icon of anti Vietnam veteran...
Didnt keep him out of the White House...2X

[johnb838]

Or George H.W. Bush

[OneTimeLurker]

"UK is so leftist it makes the NY Times look like a Bush conservative."

That's not saying much. How about "like a Reagan conservative."

[johnb838]

Makes one wonder what Buckley thinks about John F'ing Kerry now.

[johnb838]

In 1992 Kerry was arguing about what a travesty it was to reopen the old wounds of that long-ago conflict with regard to on William Jefferson Blythe Klinton.

[CyberCowboy777]

What did Kerry say about his fellow men at arms when he got home and asked for an earlier discharge so he could run for congress?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

On which side ?

[Wolfstar]

He was and remains an ugly SOB.

[Coop]

He put his words down on paper:

[CyberCowboy777]

How can we get the word out?

Local Veterans writing to the editors? Talk shows?

[Coop]

Sure. Or E-mail the photo to everyone you know.

[arasina]

Here's a great source for a timeline of events concerning U.S.-Vietnam relations from 1939-2004. A good compilation of data and links.

Vietnam: Yesterday and Today

A portion of the timeline (further links to details are provided on the website link above)

• April 30, 1995 Vietnam celebrates the 20th anniversary of the end of the war.
• May 15, 1995 Vietnam gives U.S. presidential delegation batch of documents on missing Americans, later hailed by Pentagon as most detailed and informative of their kind.
• May 23, 1995 Senators John Kerry (D, Mass) and John McCain (R,-Ariz.), both Vietnam veterans, urge Clinton to normalize relations.
• May 31, 1995 Vietnam turns over 100 pages of maps and reports about U.S. servicemen killed or captured during the war. An American veteran's map helps locate a mass grave of communist soldiers killed during the war.
• June 1995 Senators Kerry and McCain say they plan to offer a Senate resolution approving normalized relations with Vietnam.

  Secretary of State Warren Christopher recommends to President Clinton that the United States establish formal diplomatic relations with Vietnam.

  State Department praises Hanoi authorities for increasing counter-narcotics cooperation with the United States.

  Vietnamese President Le Duc Anh announces he will visit the United States in October for a celebration marking the 50th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.

• July 11, 1995 President Clinton announces normalization of relations with Vietnam, saying the time has come to move forward and bind up the wounds from the war.

[KQQL]

Answer : IT COULD !

[KQQL]

Monsieur Jean "Bring It On" Kerry

Measure Number: H.R. 3396 (Defense of Marriage Act) Kerry (D-MA), Nay

"I think there has been an exaggeration," Mr. Kerry said when asked whether President Bush has overstated the threat of terrorism.
SC Dem Debate 01/29/04

Kerry opposed the death penalty until 2002 , voted against military action in the 1991 Persian Gulf war, and voted to freeze defense spending.

Bank records would later show that Kerry's Chinese campaign cash came from $300,000 in overseas wire transfers sent to Chung on orders from the chief of Chinese military intelligence, Newsweek reports.
NewsMax 02/02/04

U.S. Sen. John F. Kerry yesterday said Pope John Paul II ``crossed the line'' by instructing pols to block legalization of gay marriage.
Boston Herald 08/02/03

During the height of the Cold War, Kerry opposed the entire strategic modernization effort proposed by President Reagan — the Peacekeeper, B-1 and B-2 bombers, the Trident submarine and D-5 missile, opposed the non-strategic modernization of the defense budget as well, and the deployment of the INF missiles in Europe.
Washington Times 01/04

[KQQL]

[KQQL]

[archy]

Hmmm...I'll take a stab...Kerry maybe also volunteered for a patrol boat, and because it was the closest thing to JFK's PT boat.

Actually, the PCF boats Kerry commanded wasn't- they were a 47-footer with a 5-man crew. The closer version would have been the Norwegian-designed Nasty boats, the PTF, with 80-foot mahogany plywood hulls like a PT boats, and which carried a crew of 2 officers, 20 or so enlisted men.

Kerry volunteered for the PCFs as his first choice, the even smaller PBR fiberglass jet boats [as seen in the film *Apocalypse Now*] as his second. He got what he asked for. On a PTF he would have first served as a junior officer; on the smaller PCF or PBR, they were smaller, but it was *his* command.

Kerry had been boating, motor and sail, with JFK and the Kennedy family before. It wouldn't surprise me a bit if JFK gave young John Kerry some seagoing advice and told him a PT war story or two. But remember that before JFK was a PT boat skipper, he was with Naval Intelligence.

JFK in the blue crew shirt, Kerry in a white one.

[JDoutrider]

For a guy who was in country to go back and agitate against those who were still in country isn't a mark of brotherhood, it's a mark of betrayal. That's what most Vietnam era vets will be remembering, IMHO.

Rodger that brother!