Setting Straight Kerry’s War Record (Admiral Zumwalt on Kerry)

New York Sun ^ | February 27, 2004 | Thomas Lipscomb

[Clodia Pulcher]

"Admiral Elmo Zumwalt, told me — 30 years ago when he was still CNO —that during his own command of U.S. naval forces in Vietnam, just prior to his anointment as CNO, young Kerry had created great problems for him and the other top brass,by killing so many non-combatant civilians and going after other non-military targets.‘We had virtually to straitjacket him to keep him under control,’"

[Williams]

I'm really facinated by this. It seems totally unlikely to me that Kerry was a unique concern of Admiral Zumwalt. Also no reason to believe Kerry committed atrocities on such a grand scale. No evidence that anyone knew he existed, removed or even reprimanded him.

If the story's true then it's amazing. The best I can imagine is that Zumwalt MIGHT have commented on Kerry AFTER Kerry was leading VVAW or after he became a Senator. But I'm finding it hard to believe that in 2 months of combat Kerry became a notorious war criminal.

[PISANO]

If this is true then Zumwalt was a WAR CRIMINAL also. His DUTY would have been to remove KERRY from command and court-martial him. I find this article to be a gross exaggeration or an outright lie.

[American_Centurion]

I'm beginning to get the idea that the whole "Bush was AWOL" story was really a set-up of Kerry.<don tinfoil>

1. Bush has released a virtual avalanche of records from his Military service.

2. We know the clintons don't want a Dem in the WH come 2008 campaign so shillary can run without and encumbent opponent.

Conclusion clinton & co. raise a stink about "Bush was AWOL" in order to later put pressure on Kerry for release of his records, which will destroy him. </tinfoil>

[Clodia Pulcher]

Too bad you can't read... I clearly stated the article raises the question why Zumwalt didn't do something.

[Z-28]

Seymour Hersh & the My Lai Massacre, etc., etc.

"After serving as Eugene McCarthy's Press Secretary, Seymour Hersh (disgusted by McCarthy's dithering over Civil Rights), pursued a career in journalism.

His first big story concerned an American soldier on trial for wartime atrocities. He called the man's defense lawyer and, deliberately inflating the number, asked whether it was true that his client had killed 127 people. The shocked lawyer indignantly replied that his client had killed only 109.

Hersh's investigation led him to the story of the My Lai Massacre - a scoop which won him a Pulitzer Prize in 1970." (1.)

Hersh tried his proven New York Times-style left-wing underhanded journalisn tactics again druring the first Gulf War in 1991, accussing General Barry McCaffrey of atrocoties on the "Highway of Death" leading back to Baghdad from Kuwiat City. The US Army exonerated General McCaffrey in oll the numberous investigations conducted, and Seymour crawled back into his hole.

Until 2003, when he tried it all again by accussing the US Rangers (and US Army) of attrocoties during a secret airborne operation in Iraq.

I guess old dogs really can't learn new tricks.

Endnotes:
(1.) http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:e1Fk5Uv1eJ0J:www.anecdotage.com/index.php%3Faid%3D9681+My+Lai+Seymour&hl=en&lr=lang_ar|lang_en|lang_es&ie=UTF-8

Hersh, Seymour (1937- ) American journalist

[doug from upland]

Just amazing!!!

[Kadric]

This could explain the true reason Kerry only spent 4 months in country.

[kabar]

I agree that this story sounds apocryphal. Moreover, Kerry has participated with Zumwalt in dedicating a monument to the role of Swift boats and Zumwalt defended Kerry in 1996 during his campaign against Bill Weld.

The following important article from the October 10, 1996 South Coast Today by an AP writer suggests that Zumwalt wanted to recommend Kerry for the Navy Cross, but "it would take too long":

Kerry assails columnist who questioned war service By Glen Johnson, Associated Press writer

BOSTON -- Stung by a column questioning the circumstances of his greatest war triumph, Sen. John F. Kerry gathered his commanders and crew from Vietnam yesterday to rebuff what several called an assault on his integrity.

Mr. Kerry, visibly angered, recounted how he chased down a Viet Cong soldier in February 1969 and killed him as he was just about to fire a rocket into Mr. Kerry's Swift boat. The action earned him the Silver Star, the country's third highest honor for bravery.

The critical column, however, quoted the boat's forward gunner as saying Sen. Kerry actually finished off the soldier after the gunner wounded him.

Yesterday, the gunner, Tom Belodeau of Dracut, stood beside Sen. Kerry and said he had been misquoted. "This man was not lying on the ground. This man was more than capable of destroying that boat and everybody on it. Sen. Kerry did not give him that opportunity," Mr. Belodeau said.

Mr. Belodeau did concede that he may have wounded the Viet Cong soldier with a burst from his own gun, but he said Sen. Kerry did more than just finish him off. The columnist, an economics writer David Warsh for a Boston newspaper, noted that such a "coup de grace" would have been considered a war crime.

"The soldier that Sen. John Kerry shot was standing on both feet with a loaded rocket launcher, about to fire it on the boat from which (Mr. Kerry) had just left, which still had four men aboard," Mr. Belodeau said.

The Democrat also describes it as a defining period in his life, since he came home opposed to the war and began his public life as co-founder of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

The most celebrated moment came on Feb. 28, 1969. A three-boat flotilla Mr. Kerry was commanding on a river in South Vietnam came under fire and Sen. Kerry took his boat directly into it. By the end, a Viet Cong soldier was dead and Sen. Kerry was carrying an enemy rocket launcher with a rocket still loaded in the chamber.

In the column, Mr. Warsh quotes Mr. Belodeau as saying in the course of their interview, "You know, I shot that guy. ... When I hit him, he went down and got up again. When Kerry hit him, he stayed down." Gov. Weld received educational and medical deferments from serving in Vietnam, something Sen. Kerry has never directly challenged. But Mr. Kerry was clearly insulted over having a segment of his service questioned.

Sen. Kerry's staff arranged a news conference at the Courageous Sailing Center in the Charlestown Navy Yard. It also flew in several people who attested to Sen. Kerry's character and his version of events.

They were retired Admiral E.R. Zumwalt Jr., who commanded U.S. naval forces in Vietnam; retired Capt. George Elliott, Kerry's commander at the time of the shooting; retired Cmdr. Adrian Longsdale, who commanded shoreline operations at the time; and Mr. Belodeau, an electrician who is currently working in Michigan.

Also participating by phone from San Francisco was Michael Medeiros, who was the rear gunner on the Swift boat. Tom Vallely, a former Marine and Sen. Kerry's close friend, introduced each speaker.

Mr. Zumwalt, with two Navy ships and the USS Constitution anchored over his shoulder, said he remembered only two such incidents from Vietnam and one of them was Sen. Kerry's.

Mr. Zumwalt also said he wanted to recommend Sen. Kerry for an even higher medal, the Navy Cross, but approval would have taken too long. Instead, he personally approved a Silver Star and sped along the award to improve morale at a time his sailors were taking heavy casualties.

"To me it was such a terrible insult, such an absolutely outrageous misinterpretation of the facts, that I felt it was important to be here," Mr. Zumwalt said. "A wartime commander has a lifetime responsibility to look out for the guys under him." ,

Mr. Medeiros, who was chasing after Sen. Kerry and the fleeing soldier, said he did not see Sen. Kerry kill him but had no doubt that the senator did so.

"The only one that was there was Senator Kerry," he said.

Sen. Kerry said his reaction to the column had nothing to do with the latest poll findings.

"This is not about Bill Weld," he said. "This is about my honor, this is about the honor of my crew and this is about the honor of those who served. ... This is just wrong. This is not the way to conduct American politics."

This is an interesting press report. What is instructive here is that we have an MO of exactly how Kerry will counter any attacks against his war record. The Weld campaign tried to raise it and this was Kerry's response. I also find it interesting that Kerry states he co-founded VVAW in 1970, which actually began in 1967.

[Jan Hus]

I see Kerry running around in a Leather Flight Jacket with some organisational emblem.If memory serves me right that is organisational property that is restricted for issue to Airedales and on some exceptions to the Brass.He sure did not pick-up the jacket back in his Viet Nam days since the item was not available in IV CORP.I suspect that he got the jacket as a "brownnose" gift on some boondoggle like Clinton the "Great Stainmaker" when he was down in Norfolk ("$hit City").
How was the expended item accounted for when he got it? Who authorized him the issue? Did he reimburse the Navy for the jacket?

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

Thanks for the link. i didn't quite know what to think on this story, whether it was some sort of rationalisation, or criticism of Kerry, it was a bit confusing, shouldn't post before sufficient coffee.

It is time to question Kerry's combat record, and see if his former shipmates will talk about it. After all, he's accused them of being war criminals by his own statements.

[Clodia Pulcher]

Very interesting stuff... nice to see the Kerry backstory in place and how it was played.

I appreciate the brief and the work it took to pull it together.

Maybe we are learning more about Zumwalt from this than Kerry.

The object was raising the question

[sphinx]

I'm beginning to get the idea that the whole "Bush was AWOL" story was really a set-up of Kerry.

Loose lips .... Now you've gone and blown Michael Moore's cover. Years of work down the drain.

[kabar]

Agree. The GOP has to be careful how it plays the issue. I believe that surrogates should press Kerry for the release of his wartime records without questioning his exploits directly.

I think Zumwalt got to know Kerry after he became a Senator. Zumwalt had his own political ambitions so he was just spouting the party line in support of Kerry and his naval service. As a former naval officer who served in Vietnam 1967-68, I can understand Zumwalt wanting to support a comrade in arms, especially one who was now a senator. I doubt Zumwalt was that acquainted with Kerry's antiwar activities and associations.

At least now we know why Kerry believes he is insulated from any attack on his war record. But you can bet he is not releasing his service record because there is stuff he doesn't want made public.

[DustyMoment]

Not true. I was in the Navy when Zumwalt was appointed by Nixon as the CNO. "Zoomie" was appointed CNO in 1968.

[DustyMoment]

The K-K relationship would not have developed until after Kerry ended his Navy career and became politically active. They just didn't run in the same circles prior to that time.

[kabar]

Zumwalt was Commander of U.S. Naval Forces in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970, and CNO from 1970-4.

[American_Centurion]

Please, never use loose lips, Michael Moore and blown in anything addressed to me again!

Ick! I have to take a shower now.

[DustyMoment]

You are correct. I stand corrected.

But I was still in the Navy when he was appointed. I wasn't wrong about that!

:-)

[kabar]

I left the USN in 1972. I remember the famous Z-Grams and various changes that Zumwalt tried to put in place. Almost all of them were overturned once he left.

[Calvinist_Dark_Lord]

"I committed the same kinds of atrocities as thousands of others," he said, "in that I shot in free-fire zones, fired .50-caliber machine bullets, used harass-and-interdiction fire, joined in search-and-destroy missions and burned villages." -- John "F'n" Kerry

This is something else that's bothered me since the first i've heard it. Nothing to see here.

• FREE FIRE ZONES are areas that have been declared hostile, and anyone or anything moving is considered a combatant, and subject to fire. ~no war crime there.
• 50-Cal Machine gun: Perhaps it's changed since my time in the military, but IIRC, Use of the 50 Cal. was a violation of the Geneva Convention ONLY against human targets, (i.e., charging forces, men running away, etc). Weapons positions and structures were fair game.
• H&I Fire: Used to prevent the free movement of Logistics and Enemy Combatants. ~Nothing there.
• Search and Destroy missions: Seek to deny logistics and infastructure to Enemy Forces. ~Nothing there.

It enrages me to think that this guy can make such a statement, thinking that the general public (the real audience, cause much of congress served and knows what those terms really mean), and smear the reputation of every soldier, sailor, airman, and marine in any war or conflict in our history. He should have been taken to task right then and there.

So, no, Kerry didn't colaborate Zumwalt's statement, he admitted what Zumwalt and other commanders would have expected him to do in a combat zone. In short, Kerry said NOHING, and his admission is a non-admission, to cover his gigilo @$$