FREEREPUBLIC NET LAUNCHES WEB SITE ON “WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION”

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."

"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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Your point is well taken. It is also true, however, that McGovern made the unfathomable distinction that the war he fought against Hitler as a bomber pilot was a "good war" whereas any war against communists was a "bad war." This allowed McGovern who engaged in the bombing of Danzig (concededly a military necessity) to denounce Vietnam War B-52 pilots for doing precisely what McGovern had done and also for military necessity (such as Ho Chi Minh placing anti-aircraft guns in the courtyard of a Hanoi children's hospital).

As with Kerry, I will refrain from regarding McGovern as a hero since he dishonored those who sacrificed in Vietnam to attempt to stop Ho Chi Minh and communist expansion. Unless and until either apologizes credibly as Joan Baez did, I am not going to go around with the mantra of "Thank you for your service" on my lips as to either of them. McGovern and Kerry are both part of the problem and not part of the solution.

I don't know what Kerry has said about education, however keep this bit of information from Rush's stack of stuff handy when he or anyone else from the left starts the usual rhetoric - more money for education

The next time you hear that we are not spending enough on education, blow it up, it's crazy. We spend $300 billion a year on defense, the defense of the country, for crying out loud. We're spending close to three times that on education. And then you look at all the entitlements that by definition never end, the war on Iraq is going to end. This money is at some point going to end up being spent. Not so with education, not so with Social Security, not so with Medicare. And not so with this new Medicare prescription drug entitlement. It just keeps growing, and there's no end in sight to it. And yet everybody is focused on Iraq, everybody is focused on the defense budget. Well, the Democrats are. It's irresponsible. And, again, this silly notion that we're under-funding education, don't buy it because it's nowhere near the case.

"...total Iraq war expenditures are in the neighborhood of $142 billion. The Medicare entitlement is going to start out at $400 billion. Nobody is demanding itemized costs of that. Nobody is demanding itemized costs of anything but the expenses from the military. $745 billion on education. And nobody is demanding to know where it goes!

Thank you for fighting them on this.

I didn't expect the left-press-Hollywood-profs to apologize today for the wrong they did our troops, our country and the free world during the Vietnam War when they misreported that war and misrepresented our honorable troops as babykillers, but to do it again today! Unacceptable!

We have a new generation of honorable men and women risking their lives for our freedom, with help from many of the same Veterans who came home to rotten vegetables and sneering, misinformed and inflamed communities in the 70s.

Kerry and his pals telling his fellow Veterans "put some ice on it!" is so un-American and dishonorable, it's difficult to forgive. It does prove that our cultural elites are longtime liars, and that we need to speak up more often in the public square...and to our neighbors who take our "news" personalities too seriously, and choose to believe the sweet-sounding, well-dressed liars pushing mainstream DNC PR ~ mostly AP and Reuters newswires, hooked up to the DNC war room ~ fed to America's "hometown" papers and "local" TV news, infecting hearts and minds around the world, 24/7.

Enough!

Bless you.

Excerpts from Stolen Valor: How The Vietnam Generation Was Robbed Of its Heroes And its History ~ by B.G. Burkett & Glenna Whitley:

* Part I - Rambo and the Bogus War Heroes
* Part II - Welcome Home, Babykiller
* Part III - Will the Real Vietnam Vet Stand Up?
* Part VI - The VVA - The Vietnam Victims of America

"John Kerry defended Hubbard, citing the confession as proof of Hubbard's integrity."

Here's more on Kerry and Hubbard from Gerald Nicosia's Home to War, Crown Publishers, 2001. I strongly recommend this book. The author is proud of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement and included much that John Kerry may wish were not available. There are many details of the RAW demonstration at Valley Forge, Winter Soldier, and Dewey Canyon III. Kerry was far more than an incidental participant. The book is heavily footnoted and Kerry's interviews with the author are meticulously cited

p.128

Just when it seemed the tension could get no greater, another bombshell was dropped in the veterans’ midst. John Kerry got a call from Lawrence Spivak, the longtime host of Meet the Press, informing him that Al Hubbard had lied to the American public about his rank, and probably about where he had served as well. Spivak demanded to know if VVAW had known in advance of Al’s deception. Kerry swore that they had all taken Al’s word on faith, but Spivak remained agitated, arguing that the integrity of the show had been compromised. The fact that Hubbard had been a sergeant, not a captain, though it had little bearing on what he had witnessed (especially since the government could not definitively say he had never been in Vietnam), nevertheless cast doubt on the credibility of every member of VVAW. It thrust the whole organization into a defensive posture.

Kerry attacked Hubbard mercilessly in front of the other leaders of the organization. According to Mike Oliver, Kerry was deeply embarrassed, feeling that Hubbard had discredited everything they had said to the American people on Meet the Press, which had been such a tremendous opportunity to publicize their cause. Of course, as Oliver also notes, Kerry ‘had all these political aspirations’ and going on national television had been ‘a big, big step’ toward getting himself elected to public office. The last thing Kerry had wanted was to appear to the American people as a fraud, even if only by association…”

p. 211

“In St. Louis in July [1971], two months after Dewey Canyon III, VVAW held its most turbulent national meeting to date. Many remember it as the meeting where John Kerry and Al Hubbard went head to head. Kerry made a long speech punctuated at frequent intervals by the demand: ‘Who is Al Hubbard?’ Voicing his opposition to Hubbard’s various political and social agendas, Kerry even challenged Hubbard to prove he was a Vietnam veteran. Feeling supplanted, and weakened politically by the impending resignation of arch supporter Mike Oliver (who was about to leave for California as a field organizer), Hubbard ‘freaked out,’ screaming insults at Kerry from the opposite end of the hall. Each time Kerry would denounce his authenticity, Hubbard would bounce up out of his chair, holding his back and grimacing, as if in great pain, and at one point he even pulled up his shirt to exhibit his scar.

For a minute it seemed as if Hubbard might have to be restrained to keep from coming to blows with Kerry, but then Kerry played his trump card: he resigned from the executive committee himself. Most of the other coordinators were flabbergasted, though many had seen it coming, suspecting that once John’s political career had gotten in gear he would move on to bigger and better things. In Oliver’s words, Kerry ‘came, he saw, he conquered, and he split!’ Kerry’s resignation made room for Hubbard to stay on as a national coordinator; but Al’s credibility was by now so badly damaged that he could no longer provide the strong leadership the organization needed in this pivotal time. Moreover, Hubbard suffered an attack of stomach ulcers shortly after the meeting.”

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