Posted on 02/21/2004 6:45:10 AM PST by thesummerwind
In a stark about-face, Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry is now denying that he ever accused U.S. soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam, despite amply documented comments - some televised, others delivered while under oath - where he did exactly that.
Asked on Thursday whether he had accused his fellow soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam during his April 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Kerry told CNN's Judy Woodruff:
"No, I was accusing American leaders of abandoning the troops. And if you read what I said, it is very clearly an indictment of leadership. I said to the Senate, where is the leadership of our country? And it's the leaders who are responsible, not the soldiers. I never said that."
However, a transcript of Kerry's April 22, 1971 testimony contains accusations that his brother-soldiers committed all manner of atrocities; charges he based on interviews of returning Vietnam vets earlier that year at the Winter Soldier Investigation, an event Kerry organized with anti-American actress Jane Fonda.
Kerry told the Senate that Winter Soldier witnesses "testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command."
Speaking under oath, Kerry continued:
"They told stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires with portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan."
A few days before his Senate testimony, Kerry gave the following account on NBC's "Meet the Press":
"There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 calibre machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages."
The future presidential candidate added:
"All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down."
Appearing on "The Dick Cavett Show" in July 1971, Kerry admitted that he'd never actually seen some of the atrocities he testified about, but still maintained that U.S. soldiers fighting in Vietnam routinely violated the Nuremberg Principles.
"I personally didn't see personal atrocities in the sense I saw somebody cut a head off or something like that," he told Cavett. "However, I did take part in free-fire zones, I did take part in harassment and interdiction fire, I did take part in search-and-destroy missions in which the houses of noncombatants were burned to the ground."
Kerry continued:
"And all of these acts, I find out later on, are contrary to the Hague and Geneva conventions and to the laws of warfare. So in that sense, anybody who took part in those, if you carry out the application of the Nuremberg Principles, is in fact guilty."
CNN's Woodruff declined to confront Kerry with his previous comments accusing his brother soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam.
It's on TAPE, FGS!
Lib, can you paste it right here???
Totally agree. NewsMax preaches to the choir. This story would have been better if it came from the WashPost or NY Times.
You have a point, and I usually feel like you do a bit. But, the media does like a story, and this DENIAL of facts IS A STORY. I think when a percentage of those on the fence voters learn of this, they will vote for Bush.
You see, the mainstream media has been trying their best to avoid the VVAW activities of Kerry when he came back from Vietnam. Now, with this DENIAL, there is just a chance that they can't avoid it any longer!
And isn't it strange that CNN's Woodruff was involved - a big Clintonista. This might be all the Clintons' doing to dump Kerry for Hillary.
Freefire zone, an area designated to be clear of civilians and friendly troops. Well posted and usually large and vital to the enemy for either access to food growing or as an area of passage.
In Iraq we would setup areas from the border inward for say ten miles all along the borders, there would be small well defined areas of safe passage under human super vision.
Remember, America will elect a lying, treasonous draft dodger over an honorable war veteran - TWICE!!
IIRC, a free-fire zone was basically an area where there were no restrictive rules of engagement. Some suggest that it meant any and all people encountered in the zone were to be killed. That is not how it worked where I was, we still were expected to exercise good judgement in engaging targets, even in a free fire zone.
Rules of engagement are always used with "normal" US military units. These were often too restrictive and counterproductive in some areas of VN. Such as not allowing troops to have a magazine in their weapon when riding in a jeep or a truck (I am not making that up).
I agree with you completely. But to what percentage of American voters is the destructive-to-America-and-to-truth" liberal mainstream media going to condescend to introduce the real John Kerry?
If the media doesn't at least show a slight bit of honesty and non-bias, there is no more country.
Thanks, I did miss that point! It sure would have been better if he made the denial right there on SeeBS News, or it was a headline in the New York Slimes.
By the way, it would be nice to know where and how Kerry gave Judy Woodruff this denial (on air or off?)! Does anyone know? That information is sadly missing from the Newsmax report.
Statement of Mr. John Kerry
...I am not here as John Kerry. I am here as one member of the group of 1,000 which is a small representation of a very much larger group of veterans in this country, and were it possible for all of them to sit at this table they would be here and have the same kind of testimony....
WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION
I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command....
They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.
We call this investigation the "Winter Soldier Investigation." The term "Winter Soldier" is a play on words of Thomas Paine in 1776 when he spoke of the Sunshine Patriot and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge because the going was rough.
We who have come here to Washington have come here because we f eel we have to be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country; we could be quiet; we could hold our silence; we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we feel because of what threatens this country, the fact that the crimes threaten it, not reds, and not redcoats but the crimes which we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out.
etc.
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