Posted on 02/22/2004 1:35:58 PM PST by KQQL
VIETNAM has been the defining issue for John Kerry. His status as a decorated war hero has helped to propel him to the front of the pack of Democrat candidates seeking to evict George W.Bush from the White House. Conservative critics believe he has been given a free ride for too long on his war record, however, and are planning a fightback.
Support for their case is expected to come from a book to be published next month by reporters from The Boston Globe in Kerry's home state of Massachusetts. The book, JF Kerry, the Complete Biography, will question the extent of his injuries in Vietnam and whether he was entitled to an early release from the war.
Vietnam, The Washington Post opined at the weekend, "is a double-edged issue" for the 60-year-old Democratic frontrunner. Kerry has not authorised the release of his war records - a strange omission, say his political foes, given the ferocity with which his supporters have demanded to see every last document of Bush's military service in the Texas Air National Guard.
"Vietnam is such a crucial part of his background and his campaign, you would think he would want people to see them," said Rich Lowry, editor of National Review, a conservative journal. "There is going to be pressure on him to release them."
Kerry, who is surrounded on the stump by the "band of brothers" who fought with him in the Mekong Delta, became a fierce public critic of the Vietnam War after he left the navy.
A faked photograph of Kerry sharing a microphone with Jane Fonda was a warning of how his opposition to the conflict would be used against him. There also has been much criticism of the way he threw away another man's medals rather than his own during a 1971 protest demonstration.
Kerry's conduct during the war, however, was until now thought to be sacrosanct. Unlike many of his generation, he volunteered for service in Vietnam. He went on to perform heroically as the skipper of a Swift boat patrolling Vietcong-infested waters, and won a Bronze Star and a Silver Star for bravery.
Kerry served only four months of a year-long tour of duty after he received three Purple Hearts for being wounded in action. The injuries were not serious; by his own account, one shrapnel wound laid him off for two days and the other two did not interrupt his duties.
Five of his friends died in action and his medals show that, at the very least, he had several brushes with death. The future senator then invoked what he insists was a "three and you're out" rule enabling a soldier with three Purple Hearts to be sent home.
He requested a transfer and was given a plum job as an admiral's aide in Brooklyn. He returned to the US a bitter opponent of the war and was released from the army early.
In response to an inquiry from The Sunday Times, Kerry's campaign staff gave the newspaper a copy of naval regulations stating that "all naval personnel" who are "wounded three times, regardless of the nature of the wound or the treatment required for each wound" may be reassigned.
A spokesman for the US Navy said, however, that such redeployment was not automatic: "It would depend a lot on the nature of the injuries."
Ted Sampley, who runs Vietnam Vets Against John Kerry, said if a soldier could be sent home for minor wounds, "there would have been a lot of people claiming scratches, getting their Purple Hearts and getting out of there".
Sampley believes that the well-connected Kerry - photographed with president John F.Kennedy as a young man - simply received favourable treatment. "How many other people were able to get out of Vietnam early and be reassigned to a cushy post?" he said.
au contraire. If you will read Mr. Brinkley's (mostly favorable ) book about Kerry, you will see that his first "tour in Vietnam" consisted of roaming about the South China Sea in the USS Gridley. It was a tour of duty in Asian waters during the Vietnam conflict, but not a tour of duty IN Vietnam. There are those of us who served, but our service was not IN Viertnam. The custom is to refer to such individuals as "Vietnam-era vets." We were drafted , we served, but our tours were not IN Vietnam. Same for Kerry, he served 1 (one) short tour IN Vietnam, and another tour that was NOT IN Vietnam.
au contraire. If you will read Mr. Brinkley's (mostly favorable ) book about Kerry, you will see that his first "tour in Vietnam" consisted of roaming about the South China Sea in the USS Gridley. It was a tour of duty in Asian waters during the Vietnam conflict, but not a tour of duty IN Vietnam.
There are those of us who served, but our service was not IN Viertnam. The custom is to refer to such individuals as "Vietnam-era vets." We were drafted , we served, but our tours were not IN Vietnam. Same for Kerry, he served 1 (one) short tour IN Vietnam, and another tour that was NOT IN Vietnam.
Pardon me for the re-post.
Our successes in Afganistan with a small force when contrasted with Chechnya and the USSR's Afghan war have exposed the Red Army as a second-rate military who's only card is it's land-based ICBM's (which are growing extremely vulnerable to US technology advances).
His support of John Kerry, a fellow despiser of America, fits.
That you have this feeling is because campaign fever and blood lust has hit you and you rather flail around then get to real campaign issues like Kerry's liberal voting record that can actually win us the presidency.
I am actually shocked that his war records, the records that indicate what he did to earn his medals and who recommended said medals and who approved said medals are sealed (if they are indeed sealed). I don't care that private military medical records are sealed for any individual per say but combat service related to awarding of medals I assumed was for the public record.
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