Posted on 02/11/2004 7:08:43 PM PST by 11th_VA
That quote falls into the "too good to be true" category, if you ask me. Unless we can find other verification of Zumwalt saying the same thing to somebody else, we probably shouldn't go around spreading this quote as gospel.
This was taken from this thread, and came from http://www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com/ originally.
I was not in the delta, but friends who were describe these boats as fearsome gun platforms that could chew up the shoreline and landscape as they cruised the rivers and waterways. Consider that in a primative environment, villagers go down to the river for any number of reasons and major trails would often track right alongside the river.
Even in a "free fire" zone, a leader was expected to prevent senseless slaughter. We would see kids all the time in these areas in my AO when on patrol. Just because we saw them, didn't mean we were supposed to shoot them, but the accusation seems to be that JFK did.
"We had virtually to straight-jacket him to keep him under control," the admiral said. "Bud" Zumwalt got it right when he assessed Kerry as having large ambitions -- but promised that his career in Vietnam would haunt him if he were ever on the national stage.
Sheesh, Kerry sounds like a real psycho.
I'm sure if Zumwalt said this, he was talking about John Kerry. They are both Navy, plus Zumwalt & Kerry are linked in his Vietnam war bio. Kerry met with Zumwalt to complain about the free-fire zones according to the Boston Globe background stories by Mike? Kranish? After hearing this Zumwalt story, I am beginning to think the meeting was about Zumwalt dressing down Kerry for abusing the free-fire zone policy, and NOT Kerry complaining to Zumwalt as he told the Boston Globe.
Admiral Zumwalt was routinely listed as a minor contributor to Senator Bob Kerrey's election campaigns for Senator and President. Kerrey was a Medal of Honor winner. I am sure Admiral Zumwalt knew to which Senator he was referring.
Regards,
TS
I flat don't believe this. If Kerry created problems for his commanders, it would have been many layers below Zumwalt's notice; and those much lower commanders would have had no trouble at all shipping a 'killer' Kerry back to the States ASAP 'for the good of the service'.
Going up and down the rivers, it would be easy for him to order his men to shoot civilians fishing or farming on the banks.
Gotta hand it to Kerry - with the Republican base on the verge of splintering into a million squabbling fragments, he manages to do the one thing that not only fires up and starts to unite the conservatives, but also totally exposes his most vulnerable flank. And he's made sure that we will absolutely relish every single minute of digging up every single piece of dirt we can find and pounding him into lumpy red spaghetti with it.
You really thought they would have learned after going so overboard on smearing Schwarzennegger during the California recall, but they didn't learn squat. Making them pay for their ignorance is going to be so much fun.
Half a dozen independent barrier operations comprised the SEALORDS initiative. The intent was to block a Viet Cong supply flow estimated at 175 to 200 tons per month. The Americans had great success, but their overall impact remained difficult to gauge. In one of the operation's deemed most successful, Giant Slingshot-an attempt to isolate the Parrot's Beak section of Cambodia, phased out in May 1970 after the invasion of that country, an enormous effort was made by fifty or more PBRs. A typical sailor assigned here logged 172 ambush missions during his Vietnam tour. Total seizures in Giant Slingshot came to 150 tons of ammunitions and 400 more of other material, compared to an estimated Viet Cong supply flow (November 1968 to May 1970) of 3,300 to 3,800 tons. Lt. John F. Kerry, a Swift boat commander at Phu Quoc Island in 1968-69, recalls, "You'd randomly stop a boat among the dozens that were going up and down. But for the one or two you stopped, hundreds of others went by, and you knew weapons were slipping by you."
See Viet Vet Urges Kerry To Come Clean for more details:
When challenged last week to repudiate his previous testimony, after I faxed to his office for review, a spokesman there abruptly terminated the call saying if Senator Kerry testified to it, he stands by it. The Senator recently condoned the alleged atrocities, war crimes, committed by a fellow Democratic Senator and Vietnam Veteran, Robert Kerrey. He said the operation should not be investigated because it allegedly happened all the time in Vietnam. Further, on the Sam Donaldson show, Kerry short shrifted the program, Phoenix, under which the atrocity allegedly occurred, saying he personally helped conduct similar anti-infrastructure operations, ferrying SEALs. This, apparently is part of the source of the Senator¹s alleged first hand knowledge he testified to before.
The Senator, as a former officer, knows his obligations were to avoid participating in war crimes and reporting them when knowledge of them occurred. Instead, the Senator broad brushed veterans of the war as crazed killers forced to be that because of governmental policy. As a US Senator now, when faced head on with an allegation that a member of his party, his Senatorial Fraternity, Robert Kerrey helped cut a civilian's throat and possibly commanded an operation that killed over 20 civilians without provocation, the Senator Kerry reverted to the 1971 allegations that everyone did it. He ignored the formalized eyewitness allegation by a veteran of that operation who belatedly lived up to a responsibility to report a crime. Murder in a war zone has no time limits for investigation or prosecution.
I agree with you but it sure makes sense. I find that Democrats often use public forums, from protests to policy, as a way to cleanse their souls and make up for their personal failings.
That will be impossible
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