FREEREPUBLIC NET LAUNCHES WEB SITE ON “WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION”

JOHNKERRYFORPRESIDENT.INFO ^ | 2/23/03 | Diotima

[diotima]

***NEWS RELEASE***

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 23, 2004
Contact: Scott Swett (frn@freeper.org) (703) 863-8033

FREE REPUBLIC NETWORK LAUNCHES WEB SITE ON "WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION" AND KERRY SLANDER OF U.S. TROOPS IN VIETNAM

(Washington, DC) The Free Republic Network today announced the unveiling of www.WinterSoldier.com, a new web site to provide news, analysis and research material regarding the false claim by John Kerry and others during the Vietnam era that atrocities were routinely committed by America's military.

In 1971 former Navy Lt. John Kerry testified before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about American "war crimes" in Southeast Asia, which he described as "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command". Free Republic Network Director Scott Swett released the following statement:

"John Kerry played a key role in the leftist disinformation campaign that undermined support for the war by slandering a generation of American soldiers as mass murderers of civilians. Kerry testified before the Senate that the United States committed war crimes in Vietnam as a matter of military policy, citing claims of atrocities made at the discredited 'Winter Soldier Investigation' -- an event primarily funded by Jane Fonda."

"The truth is that atrocities were the exception in Vietnam, not the rule."

"Since Senator Kerry has made the strength of his military record a key issue in his pursuit of the Presidency, it is important for voters to have access to a more complete picture of his actions than is available from the Kerry campaign or the media. WinterSoldier.com will document and analyze the activities in which Kerry and others participated during the Vietnam era."

The site features a section on Kerry's hard-to-find 1971 book "The New Soldier" and covers the activities of the group Vietnam Veterans Against the War and its sponsors. New information will be added as it becomes available. Readers are invited to provide feedback, submit editorial pieces, and provide relevant material. The site will go live on Monday, February 23, 2004.

The Free Republic Network www.FreeRepublic.net is a 501(c)(4) public service corporation whose mission is to organize, train and support conservative activists nationwide. It provides information and organizational services to more than 50 regional and issue-based chapters around the country, and serves as the activism arm of the Free Republic Forum www.FreeRepublic.com.

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[Badray]

'Great work' BUMP!

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

"One of the things I was never able to understand about Fonda was why she was allowed to travel to Hanoi
while we were at war with that country. Isn't there a law against that for "common" citizens?"

Because Nixon let her.
And when she came back she was not proscuted.
Again, Nixon turned his back on the silent majority and catered to the radical minority.
Don't forget this was the same time period that Nixon went to China.

[BlackElk]

Ego te absolvo (I absolve you).

Go and sin no more.

[kabar]

It was not only Nixon but Congress as well. Politically, it was a non-starter. The US was drawing down its troop levels significantly with 1973 being the last year we had any significant presence in Vietnam.

[Rebelbase]

Ciao!

[rustbucket]

If the poster had read, "If you had been Confederate...", it would explain the rabidly anti-Yankee attitude of my Georgia in-laws whose parents had seen Sherman's troops come through.

[BlackElk]

I am not looking to fight with you and I will leave the new site to those who will meet the standards of scrupulous accuracy towards which you are striving. If you succeed on that level, it will be a genuine service.

[Victoria]

From the same link above:

Tom Hayden, cofounder of SDS and still a leader of the New Left, passed through Detroit in February, 1971, while Vietnam Veterans Against the War was staging its Winter Soldier Investigation (in fact he first met Jane Fonda, his future wife, there). He claims that until he listened to veterans speaking about their war experiences, it had never occurred to him that the United States might lose the war. In other words, before Winter Soldier, the war for him was chiefly a foreign-policy issue. Afterward, at least in part because of what the vets said there, he began to see more clearly that "losing a war is a state of mind." The major loss for individual soldiers, he learned, was not of the territory they were holding, but a loss of their own mental peace:

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

We were in Viet Nam starting in 1955.
Every President, Eishenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, refused to fight that war to win.
I was over there under Johnson and Nixon.
There was no difference under either.
I took an oath, and I kept it no matter who was President.
Me and so many other countless others.

[kabar]

me too

[b4its2late]

Excellent!!!!!

[BlackElk]

That really IS the point, isn't it? And it always will be. Thanks to both of you.

[68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub]

Welcome Home Brother

[b4its2late]

Should a man who falsely accused American troops of atrocities serve as Commander-in-Chief?

Sure	13 (4.89%)
No	24 (9.02%)
Hell, no	229 (86.09%)

[BlackElk]

My wife is very distantly related to Henry V and loves the play and particularly the speech (which BTW is published in full every year on Memorial Day by the New York Post as its sole editorial). My ancestors were various nationalities of decidedly non-royal Bowery elks.

[TruthNtegrity]

Bookmarked.

[Interesting Times]

I am not looking to fight with you and I will leave the new site to those who will meet the standards of scrupulous accuracy towards which you are striving. If you succeed on that level, it will be a genuine service.

We'll do the best we can.

But don't leave the discussion -- it's light on large quadrupeds.

[Interesting Times]

Yep... that's at the heart of what the American Friends of Hanoi were working for, and eventually achieved.

We included the "losing a war is a state of mind" quote by Hayden on the WS.com quotes page.

[kabar]

Afterward, at least in part because of what the vets said there, he began to see more clearly that "losing a war is a state of mind." The major loss for individual soldiers, he learned, was not of the territory they were holding, but a loss of their own mental peace:

Sounds like revisionist history. Hayden visited Hanoi in Dec 1965 for the first time. He was mainly responsible for the shift of the New Left from anti-war to pro-Hanoi. Far from being a foreign policy matter, Hayden wanted Hanoi to win. He was Fonda's Svengali. I also wonder where Hayden's insights were when he was posing with our POWs in Hanoi.

[octobersky]

bttt