Brinkley Details Kerry's Meetings with 'Hanoi Jane' (Hanoi John and Jane are both liars!)

Newsmax ^ | 2/15/04

[areafiftyone]

Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley revealed Sunday that Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry personally met with "Hanoi Jane" Fonda at least twice during the days when the two played leading roles in the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, including a never before detailed 1971 meeting in Detroit.

"The Jane Fonda incidents occurred in two places; one on a march from Morristown to Valley Forge when they shared a platform at Valley Forge," Brinkley told WABC Radio's Steve Malzberg.

"Then he met her in the more troubling Detroit Howard Johnson's Comfort Center [event], where there was this thing called the Winter Soldier Investigation."

It had been known that Fonda and Kerry had both helped organize the Winter Soldier protest at a time when he served as the VVAW's National Coordinator and she held the title Honorary National Coordinator.

But Brinkley, who wrote the definitive chronicle of Kerry's war years, "Tour of Duty," is the first authoritative source to suggest that Kerry and Fonda had a face-to-face meeting while organizing the event.

Brinkley's account of Kerry's contacts with Fonda suggests they had a much more extensive relationship than either of them are now willing to admit.

The activist and the top Democrat both offered accounts last week that minimized their contact during the 1970s, with Fonda describing efforts to link her to Kerry as part of a "big lie" campaign to discredit the presidential front-runner.

Of the Valley Forge protest, Fonda told CNN, "I don't know if we even shook hands."

For his part Kerry said through a spokeswoman, "John Kerry and Jane Fonda were just acquaintances."

During Winter Soldier Fonda and Kerry solicited testimony from alleged combat veterans detailing U.S. atrocities, though many of the accounts were later completely discredited.

The Kerry campaign has refused to return multiple phone calls from NewsMax requesting details of the Senator's interaction with Fonda during the Feb. 1971 Winter Soldier event.

On a related subject, Brinkley said that Kerry's Vietnam war wounds, for which he received three Purple Hearts, were not particularly serious.

Asked about the severity of Kerry's injuries, Brinkley told Malzberg, "They were minor wounds."

[Gritty]

the least we can do as a nation is bury the old divisions from 30 years ago.

I really have no problem with most of your arguments. But it is the Democrats who insist on dredging up the past to smear, run and demand no more be said.

What Kerry did then is precisely relevant to what he is doing today as he has not changed. There is plenty to look at in his record as a Senator, but that is not the point. He is insisting he can have it both ways; his status as a "war hero" (questionable, IMHO) and a pass on his very revealing actions and words after he left Vietnam. He can't have it both ways. My problem with your statement is you appear to be willing to let him have it that way, at least what he did 30 years ago, and which he has neither repented nor renounced. Nay, he instead touts it as "patriotic". I say, "bullshiite!", and so should you if you really feel as your words indicate. It is emblematic of his character and continuing views.

GWB may have gotten drunk and driven someplace, but he has long past given that up. Kerry hasn't given up what he did and is still doing - stabbing America in her back. He needs to be exposed on ALL fronts.

[Peach]

Kerry didn't even finish that statewide assignment:

John Kerry did not complete his tour of duty in Vietnam – he opted out; he cut and ran. In March of 1969, despite the fact that he was not disabled in any way, John Kerry appealed to Commodore Charles F. Horne for an early transfer out of combat. His request was granted on March 17, 1968. A loophole in the rules permits a soldier who has been “thrice wounded” to request transfer out of combat. Although Kerry’s wounds had been nothing more than band-aid “boo boos”, and he was perfectly fit to serve, Kerry explicitly declined to continue serving his country. Kerry, for lack of a better phrase, opted to cut-and-run.

Kerry ended up with a cushy desk job in Boston, working for Rear Admiral Walter F. Schlech, Jr.

But Kerry found even that to be too onerous, getting in the way of his political ambitions. Thus, on January 3, 1970, Kerry requested a complete discharge from the service – so he could run for Congress. Kerry’s request was granted, though he dropped out of the race only three months into the campaign.

http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061603.shtml

[Peach]

Kerry has called President Bush's military service into question.

President Bush has not called Kerry's military service into question.

Therefore, I think it is perfectly legitimate for Freepers and others to request to see Kerry's medical records to determine just what "injuries" he received to get his medals. By his own admission, the injuries were nothing more than bandaid injuries.

[CalKat]

The article you linked said he served two tours in Vietnam, and asked to be sent stateside after being wounded three times. Is there something wrong with that? The rule allowed someone wounded three times to leave Vietnam, and he took advantage of a chance to get out of there after serving one tour and part of a second. And just because his wounds weren't grave enough to satisfy you, and you think they were "boo boos" he did receive three Purple Hearts.

George Bush was perfectly fit to serve as well, and he opted to join the National Guard. I don't think there's anything at all wrong with that, but I do find it odd that you have a problem with someone who served in Vietnam and after one tour and part of another tour requested a desk job when the rules allowed him to do so.

And you're criticizing his request to be discharged early to run for Congress (I didn't know he was discharged six months early), but George Bush got an early discharge as well.

[Lancey Howard]

Gimme a break.

Downloading illegally obtained classified personal FBI dossiers on individuals is a whole lot different matter than asking for archived photos taken at anti-war rallies.

The Scumbag administration shamelessly used FBI files for blackmail purposes. They actually threatened a scenario of mutual (personal) mass destruction. (I forget the phrase - - I think it was named after some woman from the '60s.)

By the way (a slightly belated) "welcome" to Free Republic.

[LowOiL]

IT HAPPENED THIRTY F*CKING YEARS AGO! SO WHAT???

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1070896/posts

I am personally tired of the curse words being used and "***" being inserted like it really makes it decent. Seems the admit mods agree with my stance. Take your trash elsewhere Tall Texan, perhaps to a drug thread.

[CalKat]

Hey thanks.

[Lancey Howard]

Like John F. Kennedy (who served on a World War II patrol boat, PT 109), Kerry sought to do the same. He enlisted in the Navy and became an officer.

After training, Kerry volunteered for Vietnam. He served a relatively uneventful six months, far removed from combat, from December 1967 to June 1968, in the electrical department aboard the USS Gridley, a guided-missile frigate that supported aircraft carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin.

His ship returned to its Long Beach, Calif., port on June 6, 1968. Five months later, Kerry went back to Vietnam, securing an assignment as "swift boat" skipper. Kerry commanded his first swift boat, No. 44, from December 1968 through January 1969. He received no medals while serving on this craft.

While in command of Swift Boat 44, Kerry and crew operated without prudence in a Free Fire Zone, carelessly firing at targets of opportunity racking up a number of enemy kills and some civilians. His body count included-- a woman, her baby, a 12 year-old boy, an elderly man and several South Vietnamese soldiers.

"It is one of those terrible things, and I'll never forget, ever, the sight of that child," Kerry later said about the dead baby. "But there was nothing that anybody could have done about it. It was the only instance of that happening."

Kerry said he was appalled that the Navy's ''free fire zone'' policy in Vietnam put civilians at such high risk.

Kerry experienced his first intense combat action on Dec. 2, 1968. He was slightly wounded on his arm, earning his first Purple Heart.

In late January 1969, Kerry joined a five-man crew on swift boat No. 94 completing 18 missions over 48 days, almost all of them in the Mekong Delta.

Kerry earned his second Purple Heart after sustaining a minor shrapnel wound in his left thigh on Feb. 20, 1969.

February 28, 1969:

When Kerry's Patrol Craft Fast 94 received a B-40 rocket shot from shore, he hot dogged his craft beaching it in the center of the enemy position. To his surprise, an enemy soldier sprang up from a hole not ten feet from Patrol Craft 94 and fled

The boat's machine gunner hit and wounded the fleeing Viet Cong as he darted behind a hootch. The twin .50s gunner fired at the Viet Cong. He said he "laid 50 rounds" into the hootch before Kerry leaped from the boat and dashed in to administer a "coup de grace" to the wounded Viet Cong. Kerry returned with the B-40 rocket and launcher.

Kerry was given a Silver Star for his actions.

[xzins]

Leave the war wounds alone. Concentrate on the false testimony that he had no reason to know since he was a naval officer. Concentrate on the socialist and communist statements and connections via Hanoi Jane. SHOW that they are an unbroken pattern of his beliefs and votes that should cause every American to worry that we're not putting Fidel's or Mao's go-to guy into the Presidency.

As far as the wounds, he was either wounded or he wasn't. If they gave him a Purple Heart then leave it there.

Benedict Arnold was a war hero until he turned traitor. Kerry wasn't the first of that kind.

[Lancey Howard]

WOW!!!
BUMP your post #139

[Peach]

I don't have a problem with either Kerry or Bush asking for early discharge.

But your post #169 said that Kerry didn't ask to be discharged early. I was correcting you.

And those injuries Kerry received have been referred to by him as boo boos; I am not saying what he did isn't service or isn't commendable.

Since you have asked why Bush didn't release his records and wondering why Freepers want to see Kerry's records, I am responding on several levels.

#1. Bush didn't call Kerry's service into question.

#2. Kerry called Bush's service into question.

#3. Since Kerry has called Bush's service into question, I think it's perfectly legitimate for Freepers and others to find out just what kind of injuries Kerry received and how in order to put his service into context. Since Kerry wants Bush's medical/dental records, it only seems fair. You disagree which doesn't surprise me. YOu are a Bush basher since the day you signed up here.

[speekinout]

You might want to lay off the call for Kerry to release his medical records from the VietNam war. Is Bush releasing his medical records from the National Guard?

Kerry's medical records are relevant, since he got 3 Purple Hearts, and they are the reason why he was able to leave Nam early.
Bush has released all of his medical records from that period, including his dental records.

[secretagent]

Jane Fonda has gone on record as wanting a communist (her choice of word) America, as early as 1970. "Hanoi Jane" fits at that point.

[Destro]

My position is near to yours on Vietnam. I think after LBJ took over the stink and embarrassment of "The Bay Of Pigs" fiasco where a counterinsurgency failed and the poor fighting record of the South Vietnamese contributed to the minds of our military that they had to Americanize that war. Fighting communists using local forces was not new to America. After all Greece defeated a powerful communist guerilla movement with native forces backed by American advisors and airforce in the early 50s.

I also think Cuba radicalized an element of our "military industrial complex" (which Ike warned us about) as proof of this I present the existance of Operation Northwoods which was drafted in 1962 with the intent of getting public support for an invasion of Cuba. The Joint Chiefs of Staff argued that the US population would only support military intervention in Cuba in the event of provocative, aggressive action by the island nation against American soldiers, American civilians or Cuban refugees and Cubans in exile. The document frequently refers to staging fake attacks with fake victims, but in other cases does not specify whether the attacks should be fake or real, and for some recommended attacks explicitly notes that they could be real.

So once LBJ came to office it seems Operation_Northwoods served as the basis for setting up an Tonkin Gulf indcident in 1964 just 2 years after the drafting of Operation Northwoods.

What made it easier for LBJ to do what he did - the real reason congress gave him a blank check to fight that war - was because the congress knew their home districts would benefit from a war economy. Who knew we would lose so many lives and stay in the war for a decade? But the money flowing to factories all over America and the fact that mostly poor Americans were fighting the war meant that the congress was not to eager to end it or provide the proper oversight to the president for fighting the war as the constitution demands. So that is my complicated reason why Vietnam was fought the way it was by our so called leaders of both parties.

In reality Nixon was moving back to the Greek model - the Ike and JFK model of having the locals fight with help from the US airforce but it was too late. So much blood was shed and so much treasure spent that this country could not sustain that fight in anyway.

Secondly - Iraq- The Kurds - armed with an American airforce would have taken Baghdad without the need to slog it up from Kuwait. That this administration did not have the guts to take on Turkey - because the need to keep Turkey sweet with Isreal keeps the neocons from doing what must have been done (which is why Wolfowitz failed to move the Turks) stopped us cold. The Kurds can still be used to clean up the Sunni traingle - they are Sunni Muslims themselves - though not Arabs and thus not liable to be Saddamists or al-Qaedaists sympathizers.

[Destro]

This morning on Fox News Sunday, someone (I think it was Brit Hume) dismissed this as well, saying that Kerry met with Fonda a full two years before she went to Hanoi.

My position is based on classic conservative principles.

[Destro]

Jane Fonda has gone on record as wanting a communist (her choice of word) America, as early as 1970. "Hanoi Jane" fits at that point.

Then I suggest you build a time machine and go back in time and tell Americans in 1970 to call her that. Because Americans did not label Jane Fonda "Hanoi" Jane until after her trip to Hanoi.

[Jorge]

Personally, I don't care if Kerry raped Jane Fonda while burning an American flag and I don't care if Bush drove drunk from Texas to Alabama while skipping out on Guard duty. Even if we accept that the worst of the charges are all true...

We do know that Bush fulfilled his duties and received an honorable discharge as well as glowing reviews from his superiors.
So even if the "worst" is true and he missed a few months of service it means almost nothing.

HOWEVER, if the the charges against Kerry are true, that he came back from Vietnam and spoke at antiwar rallies with Jane Fonda, belonged to an antiwar organization that often used the Viet Cong Flag as a backdrop, and accused his fellow soldiers of horrific atrocities before Congress while they were still in Vietnam...

..THEN you better believe this matters A LOT to veterans.

[Col Freeper]

So why are the veterans lining up to support him?

I can't speak for any other veterans, but I can assure you that this Veteran is not lining up to support him.

[secretagent]

I'd love to see Jane Fonda protest her Hanoi Jane label:

"Now that's unfair! I didn't go to Hanoi for at least a year. Sure, I was a communist by 1970, but I didn't go to Hanoi til 1972, so technically..."

And public feeling for Fonda will grow.

[PeoplesRepublicOfWashington]

Of the Valley Forge protest, Fonda told CNN, "I don't know if we even shook hands."

Hell no. They did the horizontal mambo.