http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2004/2/13/165004.shtml Why Families Say Kerry Betrayed POWs and MIAs
Dave Eberhart, NewsMax.com
Friday, Feb. 13, 2004
Editors note: This is part one in a series that will reveal the Democrat
front-runners track record on the important issues of the day.
Putative presidential nominee Sen. John Forbes Kerry, D-Mass., began
his involvement with the nations painful POW/MIA drama long before
entering the hallowed halls of American political power.
In April 1971, when as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, he
gave his infamous war-bashing testimony before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Kerry did not stop at declaring that he and many
other veterans of that conflict were war criminals.
Pointedly, Kerry also insisted that the United States had a definite
obligation to make extensive economic reparations to the people of
Vietnam.
Specifically, the newly discharged Navy veteran was an advocate of the
so-called Peoples Peace Treaty, a tome reportedly drafted up in
communist East Germany. Its nine points closely followed the enemy Viet
Congs proposals being touted at the Paris peace talks as a quid pro quo
for ending the fighting.
What rankles many Vietnam veterans today is that Kerrys blatant
advocacy of the enemy's position occurred while hundreds of captured
American fighting men suffered and languished as prisoners of war in
North Vietnamese prisons.
Keep the POWs Hostage
Until the Communists Get Their Way
A key provision of the enemy platform supported by Kerry:
The Vietnamese pledge that as soon as the U.S. government publicly
sets a date for total withdrawal [from Vietnam], they will enter discussion
to secure the release of all American prisoners, including pilots captured
while bombing North Vietnam.
In the end, of course, the American leadership wanted nothing to do with
a sham proposition that called for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from
Vietnam first, followed later by negotiations for the release of prisoners.
Some observers suggest that the perfidy of the youthful Kerry had not
much tempered by the time, when as a U.S. senator, he was frocked as
chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs in 1992.
To many Kerry's agenda as chairman appeared to be more about racing
to the normalization of relations with Vietnam than ending the miseries of
POW/MIA survivors thirsting for definitive answers as to what happened to
their men.
Visiting Vietnam, Kerry repeatedly angered the homefolk by praising his
former enemy for being open and reporting he was convinced they were
not holding American POWs.
In the end, Kerry and his committee determined in a 500-page final report
that American POWs were left alive in Vietnam after the war but felt none
were still alive. It made no attempt to identify those left behind, how they
died, who killed them or where their remains might be located.
Many POW/MIA families simply didnt believe him, and they were soon
given more to ruminate on as to what could have driven Kerry to such
unsatisfying and incomplete conclusions.
Multimillion-Dollar Incentive to 'Reward Vietnam'
Shortly after Kerry declared to the world, President Bush should reward
Vietnam within a month for its increased cooperation in accounting for
American MIAs, Vietnam announced it had granted Colliers International,
based in Boston, a contract worth millions.
Designating Colliers International as the exclusive real estate agent
representing Vietnam, the communist regime positioned the company to
rake in tens of millions of dollars in future contracts to upgrade Vietnams
ports, railroads and other infrastructure.
C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive officer of Colliers International, is John
Forbes Kerrys cousin.
The saga, however, does not end there. There remains the nettlesome
matter of the document shredding.
John F. McCreary, a Defense Intelligence Agency analyst assigned to
Kerrys committee, is a member of the Virginia State Bar and
consequently saw an obligation to report what he suspected was
misconduct by Kerry, also an attorney governed by the lawyers ethic
code.
McCreary felt duty-bound to report knowledge of Kerrys document
shredding specifically, the intelligence briefing text - to Vice Chairman
Bob Smith.
Kerry: Destroy All Copies
A memorandum by McCreary: Sen. John Kerry ... told the Select
Committee members that all copies would be destroyed. This statement
was made in the presence of the undersigned and of the Staff Chief
Counsel who offered no protest.
On April 9, 1992, McCreary verified that the original document was
destroyed, as well as 14 copies.
The McCreary memo continued: On 15 April 1992, the Staff Chief
Counsel, J. William Codinha ... ridiculed the Staff members for expressing
their concerns; and replied, in response to questions about the potential
consequences, Whos the injured party, and How are they going to find
out because its classified.
To defuse the growing crisis, on April 16 Kerry stated that the original
documents had remained in the Office of Senate Security all along, so
nothing wrong had been done.
But according to McCreary: The Staff Director had deposited a copy of
the intelligence briefing text in the Office of Senate Security at 1307 on 16
April.
Kerry had, according to McCreary, ordered a non-original copy of the
document entered into the Office of Senate Security, but only after
protests from staff caused him to rethink complete destruction of the
documents.
Cover-up
As McCreary stated at the time, this constituted an act to cover up the
destruction.
Ironically, the Kerry campaign's Web site states: When John Kerry
returned home from Vietnam, he joined his fellow veterans in vowing
never to abandon future veterans of Americas wars. Kerrys commitment
to veterans has never wavered and stands strong to this day.