Kerry's Veteran Organizer Joe Bangert Sang For The Enemy

Compiled | March 7, 2004 | Hon

[Hon]

Joe Bangert has been a friend and supporter of John Kerry for many years. He was in the Vietnam Veterans Against The War (VVAW) with Kerry.

He was with Kerry when he spoke from the same stage as Jane Fonda at Valley Forge in the culmination of the four day Operation RAW rally:

"[Kerry] was our ragtag commander at Valley Forge," says veterans organizer Joe Bangert. Source

Bangert was with Kerry at the Winter Soldier Investigation in Detroit where he gave this testimony which was later submitted into the Congressional record and included in then included Kerry's suppressed book "The New Soldier".

When Kerry turned to running for office, Bangert was there. He helped Kerry during his Senate campaign in 1984, for instance:

US Senate candidate John Kerry is flanked by fellow Vietnam veterans in front of the State House on September 12, 1984, as he receives their endorsement. Speaking is Joe Bangert, US Marine Sergeant and helicopter gunner. Source

So of course when Kerry decided to run for the Presidency, Bangert was there again with him by his side:

Bangert among group in New Hampshire stumping for senator

Joe Bangert attended a great party in New Hampshire Tuesday night - the victory rally for Massachusetts Senator John Kerry, whose presidential campaign got a boost with a win in the nation's first primary.

Bangert, a longtime Kerry friend and supporter, was in the Granite State working at the Kerry Headquarters as part of Veterans for Kerry.

Bangert was busy "working the phones," calling veterans and their families. It was a tough job at times, because voters were becoming somewhat jaded. "The poor people from New Hampshire, they've been courted" by all the campaigns," he said. "You'll call someone and they'll say, 'This is the eighteenth call I've gotten today.'" But his status as a veteran reaching out to a fellow veteran helped a lot, he said. "There is a connection immediately."

Bangert, who served as a Marine in Vietnam, first met Kerry shortly after he came home in 1970 and joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War, of which Kerry was a prominent member. The group marched to Valley Forge in September of that year, and Kerry spoke at the event. Bangert was impressed, and years later, in 1984, worked on Kerry's campaign.

Many veterans are drawn to Kerry - who served two tours of duty in Vietnam - because of his military service, said Bangert. Veterans, Bangert said, have been an untapped political resource. "Veterans account for 19 percent of the population, and they've never been mobilized," Bangert said.

Major America Veterans for John Kerry
Kerry's Veterans Brigade

Support the Troops - My Son and Daughter are TROOPS
They want a Commander-In-Chief they can be PROUD of -
a combat VETERAN with the COURAGE to stand up for what he believes!!!
BRING ON THE CHICKENHAWKS -
BRING IT ON
OUT THE DOOR IN 2004!!! Source

And Bangert was with Kerry on the stage when he celebrated his break through victory in New Hampshire:

Joe Bangert of Brewster can be seen directly behind Teresa Heinz Kerry in this photo from CNN of the Kerry camp celebrating John Kerry's victory in the New Hampshire primary. Bangert, like Kerry a Vietnam veteran, was in New Hampshire for five days working on Kerry's campaign. Source

One wonders then how many veterans know the other side of Joe Bangert. The one that got up on a stage with Pete Seeger last year at Joe's Pub in New York to sing the Viet Cong's Anthem and to sing the praises of Ho Chi Minh.

Songs Performed at Joe's Pub
Click on highlighted song titles for mp3s.

PETE SEEGER Give Peace A Chance (Lennon) Somewhere Over the Rainbow (Harburg) Take it from Dr. King  (Seeger)
JOE BANGERT Ballad of Ho Chi Minh (MacColl) Giai Phong Mien Nam (Luu Huu Phuoc)

When Vietnam veteran Joe Bangert took the stage, he announced he'd been waiting to perform the "Ballad of Ho Chi Minh" for 30 years. He gave an acappella reading of Ewan MacColl's ode to the president of North Vietnam, and everyone joined in on the familiar refrain. As they marched down the Ho Chi Minh trail, soldiers sang a tune less familiar to western audiences, "Giai Phong Mien Nam." Bangert, who lived in Vietman for several years in the '90s, sang the song in its original Vietnamese.

Source

It's not the first time that Bangert has sung these songs for an audience. He sang them for the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese representatives when he visited them (probably with John Kerry) in France in 1971.

From the Peggy Seeger (sister of Pete) website:

Dear Sister Peggy,

Greetings from Cape Cod! My name is Joe Bangert, and I eyed your name on the email list from an email I received today from a mutual friend- Barbara Dane- and was motivated to introduce myself to you and tell you- apart from my love of both you and your brother's musical and artistic contributions to at least three generations of my family- how gratified I am to share with you my deep admiration of Ewan's 'Ballad of Ho Chi Minh'.

Sure I learned it by heart- after returning home from my stint as a door gunner on a Marine helicopter in Quang Tri, Viet Nam circa 1969. Six months later I upped and joined the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), and later met Barbara in Paris at the World Assembly for the Peace and Independence of the Indochinese Peoples at Versailles. We had a great banquet with the diplomatic delegations of both the DRVN and the PRGSVN and later some music began- Barbara sang the 'Song of the Coats' and the only song the young boisterous delegation from the USA could all agree on singing together by heart when asked to sing 'an American worker's song' was "Mercedes Benz" by Janis Joplin.

Barbara then asked me to join her on the stage- for I had boldly decided to wear a close fitting shirt which had emblazened on the front of it- the flag of the National Liberation Front of south Viet Nam. It was then that I belted out both "We Will Liberate the South" (Giai Phong Mien Nam) the national anthem of the NLF in Vietnamese- for I am a linguist- and ended that portion of the show with the Ballad of Uncle Ho. It was a show stopper to say these least

Since then I have sang Ewan's delightful song over one thousand times indeed- and when I was working back in Viet Nam, in Ha Noi from 1992-1997 I had the occasion to sing it and teach it to virtually thousands upon thousands of younger Vietnamese boys and girls-I always give Ewan the credit for penning it.

I just wanted you to know that this song rocks even in 2002~!

Best Regards,

Joe Bangert

Source

For those of you who might not be familiar with the National Anthem of the Viet Cong, here are a few lyrics from "Giai Phong Mien Nam":

A good chance for the country has come
Dawn is lighting up everywhere
And our task is to build a more beautiful country

--by Huynh Minh Sieng.

And here is the start of the song, "The Ballad Of Ho Chin Minh":

Now Ho Chi Minh went to the mountains
And he trained a determined band
Heroes all, sworn to liberate the Indo-Chinese people
Drive invaders from the land.

--by Ewan MacColl

Again, I wonder how many veterans know that Joe Bangert gave aid and comfort to the enemy during a shooting war. And that he is so proud of it.

[mountaineer]

That Joe Bangert sang the praises of the murderous reprobate Ho Chi Minh is enough for me. He's a traitor - which, I guess, makes him John Kerry's kind of guy.

[Tommie Paine]

you have a book?
hasinhut

[IronHand]

Whatever Bangert's political views are - and I don't agree with him as far as his affection for Hanoi Jane or many other things, he was shot down twice in Indian Country where Charlie was running the show. He made a lot of red meat from the door gun position on a Marine chopper before - during - and after those shoot downs. Bangert also saved American lives under fire. Again, whatever his political views are he is an American and entitled to bull dung opinions from time to time or all the time. You threatened to murder a Real combat vet by pushing him out of a chopper at 5,000 feet? How many helpless gooks that were hog tied did you throw out of choppers anyway? Someone can probably help you. Not to grow a set of balls which you obviously lack and are over compensating for, but maybe we can get the Doc to sew a plastic set on you.

[Capt JMBjr]

Sir, corpsman Joe Bangert is not uncle of “Traitor Joe”.I can say that with absolute certainty, because I am corpsman Joe’s son former Marine Corps Capt.Joe Bangert jr.The rest is accurate to a point.The story about the nurses has some validity to it ,but as they say there was a lot more to it as was told to me by my father.Mainly just wanted to get the facts straight about family relationships.