Posted on 02/15/2004 9:29:47 AM PST by 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."
This is a losing issue anyway. Concentrate on Kerry’s vicious rhetoric and attacks now, and his voting record after he calls for a new tone. This Hanoi Jane BS will work against us, makes us look like dirt mongers.
That is a distortion of the truth in that they are attempting to link Kerry to "Hanoi" Jane. Hanoi Jane went to North Vietname in 1972 and 1974 a full year or so after this rally they were at. So Kerry meet with Jane before she was Hanoi Jane-before her trip to Hanoi and the attempt to make it seem so is disingenuous and even Clintonian. That is why this issue will not make any headway with vetrens and Dennis Miller dismissed the photo it on his television show. Pushing this issue in this manner is not only counter productice but makes our side look foolish, ignorant of the hostorical time frame and turns independent voters off.
You all want to earn a medal? Find proof of a Kerry-Fonda meeting AFTER her trip to Hanoi. That would be killer.
Amen. See my #23. Any meeting with Fonda happened before she went to Hanoi.
Wonder what Kerry thinks of all this.
It would seem that Brinkley has material not released that he is willing to share.
Tell us who you support!
Lt. Kerry was more than likely the type of corner-cutting finagler that wasn't uncommon to the armed forces, both officer and enlisted, during the days of mandatory military service.
First, we know that he engineers a transfer to what he thinks is going to be just a routine small-boat coastal patrol operation. You can imagine his chagrin when he found out their mission had been changed to an aggressive reconnaissance in force stance shortly after he made the move. Not quite the assignement he'd been looking forward to.
Secondly, we know that he was a bit of a "stockade lawyer," who carried around a copy of the rules of engagement in his hip pocket and, according to his own statements, wasn't adverse to waiving them around under his senior officers' faces on occasion. Kerry knew the rules, chapter and verse ... no doubt about it. So he probably knew about the "three wounds" ticket home thing too.
Thirdly, Kerry was probably the one who wrote up the initial recommendations that he be awarded the medals he eventually earned and submitted those documents himself as part of his after action paperwork.
Fourth, Kerry has stipulated that at least two of his wounds were "superficial," requiring no hospitalization time and that a third wound only cost him two days of "off duty" time.
Fifth, Kerry has refused to waive his Privacy Act rights and authorize the release of the medical records that were part of his military service. If he's so proud that he earned those records, he certainly shouldn't mind the public disclosure. After all, that disclosure can only bolster his status and the war hero image he's trying to project, right?
Their paths must have crossed hundreds of times.
VVAW was founded in New York City in 1967 after six Vietnam veterans marched together in an anti-war demonstration. As opposition to the war grew, membership in the VVAW grew from 600 members in 1970 to 7,000 in 1971. This was however a very small proportion of returning combatants. At this time, VVAW is said to have received significant financial support from Jane Fonda. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_Veterans_Against_the_War
"Oh, Jane!"
what? "Sleazeball" and a hottie like Jane just acquaintences?
Course, on the other hand, he probably couldn't even attract women without the Heinz fortune, so perhaps Jane really wasn't brought under his 'spell.'
Good luck making people salute that flag.
I think it's very dangerous for us to engage in any kind of debate regarding the extent of Kerry's wounds, and the circumstances under which his medals were awarded. The Rats will jump all over this, and accuse the Republicans of denigrating every serviceman who was wounded in battle. That's not what we should be focusing on.
The real story here is what Kerry did after he returned from Viet Nam - his relationship with Hanoi Jane, his outrageous charges of atrocities leveled against other Viet Nam vets, etc. That is where Kerry is vulnerable, and that's where he should be held accountable.
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