Kerry Met With Viet Cong And North Vietnamese In Paris In 1971

Congressional Record ^ | March 6, 2004 | John F. Kerry

[Hon]

A couple of weeks ago I posted this thread about a photograph that I wound in a book about Kerry's group, the Vietnam Veterans Against The War:

Kerry's Group Met With The Viet Cong In Paris In 1971

The Vietnam Veterans Against The War (VVAW) sent their own delegation to Paris to meet with the representatives of the National Liberation Front (AKA Viet Cong) in 1971. At this time John Kerry was their spokesman and defacto leader.

This photograph is from the book "The Winter Soldiers", by Richard Stacewicz, page 284:

Caption: First peace meeting between VVAW and the NLF, Paris, 1971.

Since Stacewicz did not mention whether Kerry had attended this meeting and I did not see it mentioned anywhere else, I assumed he did not attend go on this trip.

I was wrong. Kerry did go to Paris. He did talk with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. In fact, he was quite proud about it. For it was the first thing that he brought up once he was done with his speech before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971:

LEGISLATIVE PROPOSALS RELATING TO THE WAR IN SOUTHEAST ASIA

THURSDAY, APRIL 22, 1971

UNITED STATES SENATE;
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN RELATIONS,
Washington, D.C.

The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 11:05 a.m., in Room 4221, New Senate Office Building, Senator J. W. Fulbright (Chairman) presiding.

Present: Senators Fulbright, Symington, Pell, Aiken, Case, and Javits.

Thank you. [Applause]

The CHAIRMAN. Mr. Kerry, it is quite evident from that demonstration that you are speaking not only for yourself but for all your associates, as you properly said in the beginning.

COMMENDATION OF WITNESS

You said you wished to communicate. I can't imagine anyone communicating more eloquently than you did. I think it is extremely helpful and beneficial to the committee and the country to have you make such a statement.

You said you had been awake all night. I can see that you spent that time very well indeed. [Laughter.]

Perhaps that was the better part, better that you should be awake than otherwise.

PROPOSALS BEFORE COMMITTEES

You have said that the question before this committee and the Congress is really how to end the war. The resolutions about which we have been hearing testimony during the past several days, the sponsors of which are some members of this committee, are seeking the most practical way that we can find and, I believe, to do it at the earliest opportunity that we can. That is the purpose of these hearings and that is why you were brought here.

You have been very eloquent about the reasons why we should proceed as quickly as possible. Are you familiar With some of the proposals before this committee?

Mr. KERRY. Yes, I am, Senator.

The CHAIRMAN. Do you support or do you have any particular views about any one of them you wish to give the committee?

Mr. KERRY. My feeling, Senator, is undoubtedly this Congress, and I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but I do not believe that this Congress will, in fact, end the war as we would like to, which is immediately and unilaterally and, therefore, if I were to speak I would say we would set a date and the date obviously would be the earliest possible date. But I would like to say, in answering that, that I do not believe it is necessary to stall any longer. I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government and of all eight of Madam Binh's points it has been stated time and time again, and was stated by Senator Vance Hartke when he returned from Paris, and it has been stated by many other officials of this Government, if the United States were to set a date for withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned.

I think this negates very clearly the argument of the President that we have to maintain a presence in Vietnam, to use as a negotiating block for the return of those prisoners. The setting of a date will accomplish that.

http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/index.php?topic=Testimony

[cake_crumb]

Sonofagun, you DID just sign up! You're so good and thorough and accurate, I never bothered to check your sign on name even though your screeneme was unfamiliar. Unfamiliar screennemes are common on a website with like 80,000 members.

You're FReeper material, through and through. And apparantly carrying a grudge as long standing as the rest of us whom Kerry directly or indirectly hurt.

I'm honored to have you here. Keep up the good work!

[Hon]

"He was one busy boy, Hanoi John was. I vote he had his own meth lab and private time travel machine."

Mind you, during his four months in Vietnam Kerry also walked off the Swift boats with other officers to go Saigon complain to the man in charge, Admiral Zumwalt.

And when that didn't get him out of harm's way, he went to the media to complain:

REPORTING OF VIETNAM WAR IN THE PRESS

Senator SYMINGTON. There has been considerable criticism of the war's reporting by the press and news media. What are your thoughts on that?

Mr. KERRY. On that I could definitely comment. I think the press has been extremely negligent in reporting. At one point and at the same time they have not been able to report because the Government of this country has not allowed them to. I went to Saigon to try to report. We were running missions in the Mekong Delta. We were running raids through these rivers on an operation called Sealord and we thought it was absurd.

We didn't have helicopter cover often. We seldom had jet aircraft cover. We were out of artillery range. We would go in with two quarter-inch aluminium hull boats and get shot at and never secure territory or anything except to quote Admiral Zumwalt to show the American flag and prove to the Vietcong they don't own the rivers. We found they did own them with 60 percent casualties and we thought this was absurd.

I went to Saigon, and told this to a member of the news bureau there and I said, "Look, you have got to tell the American people this story." The response was, "Well, I can't write that kind of thing. I can't criticize that much because if I do I would lose my accreditation, and we have to be very careful about just how much we say and when."

[PatrickHenry]

Kerry may be a low-life, a leftist, a traitor, a gigolo, and a few other things for which I can't find acceptable words, but this much can be said in his favor: he's an excellent choice to be the leader of his party.

[VadeRetro]

I think if Bush had negotiated a separate if non-binding peace with the enemy in a shootng war during his youthfully indiscreet days we'd be hearing it from Dan Rather and Peter Jennings every single night between now and November.

[cake_crumb]

"I keep watching for those.... not even the adoring press has use them????"

Either they can't get at them or don't care. I don't know if the images used in Kerry's ad - "Courage" I believe it's called - were real or reenactments. There are pics of him in the jungle carrying a gun - quite an achievement for a guy commanding a boat, but possible - and others of him in various poses in the jungle.

I can't believe that he got that many live photos in the bush during action in only 4 months. I don't believe the press cares. They're under orders from their DNC/DLC overseers to get Bush at any cost. Guess who's gonna pay the cost if a unbelievable creep like Kerry gets into the Oval Office?

[Hon]

"I think if Bush had negotiated a separate if non-binding peace with the enemy in a shootng war during his youthfully indiscreet days we'd be hearing it from Dan Rather and Peter Jennings every single night between now and November."

Of course you are right. And they wouldn't insist on seeing his dental records to prove Bush had been in Paris.

You can make this same point about almost anything Kerry has done. Can you imagine what the press would do if Bush was married to a woman who was funding the lunatic fringe right the way Teresa is funding the lunatic left?

The majority of the mainstream media are simply shills for or dupes of the Democrat Party. It's that simple.

Otherwise this material I am posting here, for instance, would have come out a long time ago. After all, the media has fawned for years over his appearance before the Senate.

[tgslTakoma]

On Thursday March 4th, during a live online discussion, David Broder was asked the following question. Note well his (non)answer:

Washington, D.C.: Sen. Kerry parades around former Sen. Max Cleland, who lost three limbs in an accident in Vietnam, like Jerry Lewis on a telethon so as to burnish his Vietnam combat credentials, yet he refuses to authorize the release of his records documenting his three Purple Heart earning flesh wounds.

When is the press going to put the pressure on Kerry that they put on President Bush about his Guard records?

After all, Kerry used those three Purple Hearts to get out of Vietnam after four short months -- leaving his 'band of brothers' to fight on without him.

David Broder: You imply something dishonorable about Sen. Kerry's war record. I know of nothing that supports that suspicion. Do you have any such evidence?

/end excerpt/

Mr. Broder, when will you and the rest of the "media" apply equal pressure on Kerry to release his military records, as you all did with Bush and his records?

The silence from the media speaks volumes.

[Just mythoughts]

"I can't believe that he got that many live photos in the bush during action in only 4 months. I don't believe the press cares. They're under orders from their DNC/DLC overseers to get Bush at any cost. Guess who's gonna pay the cost if a unbelievable creep like Kerry gets into the Oval Office?"

Apparently JFKerry had the foresight while in Vietnam to "film" reenactments of his gun battles, and has spent the rest of his life playing and replaying them.

Yes it does indeed seem really strange to get ones hands on a movie camera and film reenactments of your gun battles, while in battle.

??????mental????

[VadeRetro]

Can you imagine what the press would do if Bush was married to a woman who was funding the lunatic fringe right the way Teresa is funding the lunatic left?

I doubt if "tacit approval" would describe it accurately.

[VOA]

Did the buffoon have his mug pasted in to the group to make his antiwar significance seem greater?

I don't see Kerry in the photo...I don't think that one guy near the far end of the
the table on the right is him.

Maybe this is just documentary proof that Kerry's group was meeting with the North Viets.

[cake_crumb]

"I went to Saigon, and told this to a member of the news bureau there and I said, 'Look, you have got to tell the American people this story.' "

Good lord, if I knew about that, I'd forgotten it over the years among the tons of Kerry's other deeds. Just how much time did Kerry actually spend aboard that swift boat during that 4 month period?? Was it only the 10 minutes he needed to run the boat onshore, wait for his boys to incapacitate the enemy and then run ashore, off the guy and grab the gun and the glory??

This stuff is amazing! What's even MORE amazing is that nobody, NOBODY in the mainstream media is bothering to report it - while leftist rags like the Villiage Voice and the Boston Globe are....a fact that makes the Twilight Zone theme run through my head. Someone at the Villiage Voice must be either a Vietnam veteran or a close relative of one. The Boston Globe...well, he's obviously stepped on a lot of toes up there in Mass.

[chemicalman]

Did he mention that he was in Vietnam?..... North Vietnam?

This has to get out.

[Just mythoughts]

Ok these "films" are still in my mind.

There has to be a reason why they are so well know, and yet none have been shown publicly.

Are these films the key to why he won't release his military and health records?

[Hon]

"Just how much time did Kerry actually spend aboard that swift boat during that 4 month period?"

Well it is clear he made every precious moment count. Remember, Kerry got his first Purple Heart wound within 24 hours of arriving in Vietnam.

Which was a pretty neat trick in that according to most reports the Swift boats didn't start engaging in combat until two weeks later, when Zumwalt changed their mission.

[cake_crumb]

"??????mental????"

Probably. And definitely Evil - with a capital "E" as well. The foresight apparant in all of his actions for the past 30+ years shows that he is calculating, cunning and cold as a stone. I'm one of those who believes Kerry is far worse than even Billary. That is saying a lot.

He has not changed one iota from his pre- or immediate VVAW actions or statements. For instance, he still pushes the agenda of Hanoi at the cost of even human rights guarantees and has always wanted to turn the US military over to UN control. This clearly implies a strong, well thought out agenda at work and a personality dedicated to implimenting it despite the great cost in human suffering. This should tell us to be afraid. And to crush him, NOW. Whether what we have against Kerry is personal or not, he has to be stopped. It's beyond time for John F-ing Kerry to be held accountable for his actions.

[tgslTakoma]

Just remember there may be a longer story as to who he or she may be and the source and timng of the information.

(tin-foil thinking cap on ...)
Who would benefit from this information coming out now...? Hmmm... Hillary! That's it! Hon is Hillary! The plan is for Hon/Hillary to destroy Kerry's rep just in time for the Dem convention and for Hillary to "rescue" the Dem party from catastrophic implosion.
(This tin-foil hat is tight. Can I take it off now?)

[Grampa Dave]

Thanks for another great find.

Benedict Arnold Kerry is documented again re his anti America efforts after he left Nam.

[Lancey Howard]

Another BUMP for great freeping.

[Grampa Dave]

America can't afford a 9/10 Kerry after 9/11.

[Just mythoughts]

I agree JFKerry would disgrace this nation if he were to be elected.

I also see JFKerry to have been well protected all of his life. Always surrounded by what is similar to a "padded room".

JFKerry has brought himself front and center and with what is known about him as a person, he is not a stable person.

Peeling away the padding that has protected him, I believe will cause an explosion. His arrogance can last for so long as a defense.