Posted on 02/12/2004 2:44:43 AM PST by kattracks
Edited on 07/12/2004 4:13:20 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts has used his combat record in Vietnam as a major campaign asset in his drive to become the Democratic candidate for president.
His ads feature testimony from veterans, and a number of political pundits have claimed Mr. Kerry could compete with President George W. Bush for the military vote, which normally goes for the GOP. The Washington Post's Mark Leibovich has argued that if Republicans attack Mr. Kerry "as a 'Massachusetts liberal,' Vietnam will be his patriotic armor."
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: A man who has nothing for which he is willing to fight - nothing he cares about more than his own personal safety - is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions and blood of better men than himself." - John Stuart Mill -
Do they really believe veterines are so stupid? I know that many are holding back until Kerry faces GW in the "finals" then they will make known "the rest of the story".... it's gonna be fun to watch!
So true, BUT: liberofascists like Kerry, whose crocodile tears for the working Joe flow only while he can amass power and exceptional treatment for himself, will try to instill doubt in America into the swing voters.
Liberofascists will try to make America the villain.
Liberofascists are smearing and will continue to smear the President any way they can, to make him appear to be a liar. They are trying and will continue to try to make voters doubt the President's trustworthiness. Liberofascist allies in the mainstream media will aid them.
The campaign of poison was designed by James Carville months ago in collusion with the Clintons and other hate-mongering vipers in the DemocRat ruling class.
We have to take a page from the DemocRat Carville playbook. We, however, have the advantage, the facts. Get the facts, then get right into the faces of party-line hacks and debate fearlessly.
The lies of liberofascists are repeated so often, they seem true. That is an old fascist tactic used by Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, etc. We simply must repeat the truth just as often. The truth is our best weapon.
http://www.620wtmj.com/620programs/charliesykes/weblog.asp
As stunning as his charges, Kerry insisted that the barbaric acts of American soldiers “were not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command.”
As evidence for his sweeping indictment of the American soldier in Vietnam, Kerry cited the testimony from the Winter Soldier Investigation. As Kerry explained: “The term Winter Soldier is a play on words of Thomas Paine's in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriots and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.”
The “Winter Soldier Investigation,” Mackubin Thomas Owens recently wrote in National Review Online, was, in fact “organized by the ‘usual suspects’ among antiwar celebrities such as Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory, and Kennedy-assassination conspiracy theorist, Mark Lane.” Owensis a professor of strategy and force planning at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. He led a Marine infantry platoon in Vietnam in 1968-1969. He notes that “Kerry's 1971 testimony includes every left-wing cliché about Vietnam and the men who served there.”
Even worse, much of what Kerry said turned out to be demonstrably false.
Owens writes: “In fact, the entire Winter Soldiers Investigation was a lie. It was inspired by Mark Lane's 1970 book entitled Conversations with Americans, which claimed to recount atrocity stories by Vietnam veterans. This book was panned by James Reston Jr. and Neil Sheehan, not exactly known as supporters of the Vietnam War. Sheehan in particular demonstrated that many of Lane's ‘eye witnesses’ either had never served in Vietnam or had not done so in the capacity they claimed….
“When the Naval Investigative Service attempted to interview the so-called witnesses, most refused to cooperate, even after assurances that they would not be questioned about atrocities they may have committed personally. Those that did cooperate never provided details of actual crimes to investigators. The NIS also discovered that some of the most grisly testimony was given by fake witnesses who had appropriated the names of real Vietnam veterans. Guenter Lewy tells the entire study in his book, America in Vietnam.”
http://www.vietnam.ttu.edu/vietnamcenter/events/1996_Symposium/96papers/lesson.htm
. Was the American antiwar movement important to Hanoi’s victory? A. It was essential to our strategy. Support for the war from our rear was completely secure while the American rear was vulnerable. Every day our leadership would listen to world news over the radio at 9 a.m. to follow the growth of the American antiwar movement. Visits to Hanoi by people like Jane Fonda and former Attorney General Ramsey Clark and ministers gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses. We were elated when Jane Fonda, wearing a red Vietnamese dress, said at a press conference that she was ashamed of American actions in the war and that she would struggle along with us.
Q. [Why] did the Politburo pay attention to these visits? A. These people represented the conscience of America. The conscience of America was part of its war-making capability, and we were turning that power in our favor. America lost because of its democracy; through dissent and protest it lost the ability to mobilize the will to win. While we need not attribute North Vietnam’s victory solely to domestic dissent in the U.S., we need to recognize that such dissent poses some unresolved issues. Clearly in a democracy, the government shouldn’t be able to mold public opinion. Dissent against an unwise or immoral war is a necessary part of democratic society. In some way, however, it must be possible to counter dissent which involves collaboration with the enemy. We must not allow the enemy to intervene in our domestic politics, even under the guise of dissent. However, this issue has yet to be satisfactorily resolved.
http://www.vietnamwar.com/Timeline69-75.htm (time line hard to read, because of the colors they use)
http://www.geocities.com/seavet72/AW/ws-kerry.htm
http://www.geocities.com/seavet72/LI/link-1.htm#AWP2-6
Kerry's Vietnam service now fair game
www.NewsAndOpinion.com | Jack Kelly
Posted on 02/11/2004 9:45:25 AM PST by nelsonted1
Kerry's Vietnam service now fair game
Jack Kelly
http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com | I would not have contemplated writing anything even mildly critical of John Kerry's Vietnam service, were he not making it the centerpiece of his campaign, and were not he impugning President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. But as lawyers say before cross examination: "if the witness opens the door..."
Kerry joined the Navy after graduation from Yale in 1966, became an officer, and volunteered for Vietnam. After service on a destroyer, Kerry volunteered again to be a swift boat commander. This was courageous and commendable. Service on the swift boats, which patrolled the Mekong river, was about the only way a sailor who wasn't an aviator or a SEAL could get shot.
Kerry served on swift boats for about four months. During that time, he was awarded the Bronze Star (the lowest decoration for heroism in combat) and the Silver Star (the next higher decoration for valor) and three Purple Hearts for wounds sustained in battle. These latter decorations — like my title of "nationally syndicated columnist" — sound more impressive than they are. All three wounds were minor cuts from shrapnel, which, according to Kerry, caused him to miss a grand total of 2 days of duty.
For soldiers and Marines, especially of the enlisted variety, a Silver Star is a big deal. You've got to do something profound to get one. But the rules were different for officers, especially for naval officers.
This is the action on Feb. 28, 1969, for which Kerry was awarded the Silver Star: A Viet Cong fired a B-40 rocket at Kerry's boat, Patrol Craft Fast-94. Tom Belodeau, manning the twin 50-caliber machine guns at the rear of the boat, opened fire on the VC, wounding him. The VC fled behind a hooch. Kerry ordered PCF-94 to shore, leaped out of the boat, pursued the VC, and finished him off.
I can envision grizzled infantrymen shaking their heads. "He got the Silver Star for that?"
Kerry had an advantage most servicemen do not. Medal recommendations have to be made by the commanding officer of the unit in which the heroism took place. Kerry was the commander of PCF-94. Presumably, Kerry's medal recommendation was made by the commander of the squadron to which PCF-94 belonged. But Kerry's commander wasn't there. The evidence he had of the heroism of Lt (jg) John F. Kerry came chiefly from the after action report of Lt. (jg) John F. Kerry.
Shortly after being awarded the Silver Star, Kerry took advantage of a provision in Navy regulations that permits a sailor who has been wounded three times to obtain early release from his combat tour. For Kerry — since his wounds were so minor — this was taking advantage of a technicality. There is nothing wrong with this. Many officers similarly situated would have done the same. But it wasn't heroic.
.........................................................
"I didn't really want to get involved in the war," Kerry said in a little-noticed contribution to a book of Vietnam reminiscences published in 1986. "When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling and that's what I thought I was going to be doing."
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml
Now let's see Hanoi Jane & Hanoi John say they don't know each other!!
And here's another site with the skinny on his 'heroism'.
Vietnam Special Forces Against Kerry
Really good reading :-)
BTW, as I've posted a few times it appears that Kerry was wearing ribbons that he wasn't entitled to wear. He's always shown wearing ELEVEN ribbons, but as far as I can ascertain he would've only been entitled/authorized to wear EIGHT or NINE at the most.
Due to this discrepancy late yesterday I went on a search and found a link to where under the FOIA anyone, including 'concerned citizens' can obtain the military records of ANYONE who's served. They contain everything - a copy of the DD214, service time, medical, disciplinary AND medals and awards. The whole nine yards.
As such, I think I'm going to busy filling forms over the weekend (can't do it sooner).
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