Posted on 03/11/2004 8:26:56 PM PST by Hon
Actually, it is mostly a picture book. There is an introduction penned by DT and GB, who are respectively Kerry's best friend and soon to be brother-in-law, David Thorne and longtime friend and documentary maker, George Butler. (Butler did a documentary of the event as well, and the book includes a lot of stills from that.)
In fact, apart from a carefully edited (no talk about raping or cutting off of ears) version of Kerry's speech to the Senate, his only contribution is the Epiloque--which I am posting for you here.
Bear in mind that this book has been so effectively suppressed by the Kerry machine that the Library Of Congress doesn't even have its two copies and it is selling for upwards of $1,500.
Epilogue
And so a New Soldier has returned to America, to a nation torn apart by the killing we were asked to do. But, unlike veterans of other wars and some of this one, the New Soldier does not accept the old myths.
We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the "greater glory of the United States." We will not accept the rhetoric. We will not readily join the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars-in fact, we will find it hard to join anything at all and when we do, we will demand relevancy such as other organizations have recently been unable to provide. We will not take solace from the creation of monuments or the naming of parks after a select few of the thousands of dead Americans and Vietnamese. We will not uphold traditions which decorously memorialize that which was base and grim.
It is from these things the New Soldier is asking America to turn. We are asking America to turn from false glory, hollow victory, fabricated foreign threats, fear which threatens us as a nation, shallow pride which feeds off fear, and mostly from the promises which have proven so deceiving these past ten years.
For many of us there is little to remember but the promises and, most poignantly, the loss of the symbols of those promises -- of John and Robert Kennedy, of Martin Luther King, Jr., of Medgar Evers, of Fred Hampton and Malcolm X, of Allison Krause, Sandy Scheuer, Jeffrey Miller, and William Schroeder from Kent State and Philip Gibbs and James Green from Jackson State; the loss, too, of friends, of Richard Pershing, Peter Johnson, Johnny White, Don Droz, and the other 53,000 Americans who have lost their lives in this degrading and immoral war. The promises of peace candidates who were not peacemakers; of civil rights laws which were not enforced; of educational and medical aid which was downgraded in priority below bombs and guns; of equal opportunity while Mexican-Americans and blacks were drafted in numbers disproportionate to their representation in this country and then made up casualties in even greater disproportion.
I think that, more than anything, the New Soldier is trying to point out how there are two Americas -- the one the speeches are about and the one we really are. Rhetoric has blinded us so much that we are unable to see the realities which exist in this country.
We were sent to Vietnam to kill Communism. But we found instead that we were killing women and children. We knew the saying "War is hell" and we knew also that wars take their toll in civilian casualties. In Vietnam, though, the "greatest soldiers in the world," better armed and better equipped than the opposition, unleashed the power of the greatest technology in the world against thatch huts and mud paths. In the process we created a nation of refugees, bomb craters, amputees, orphans, widows, and prostitutes, and we gave new meaning to the words of the Roman historian Tacitus: "Where they made a desert they called it peace."
The New Soldier has come back determined to make changes without making the world more unjust in the effort to make it just. We have come back determined that human will can control technology and that there is greater dignity and power in human spirit than we have yet been willing to grant ourselves. In Vietnam we made it particularly easy to deny that spirit. We extended an indifference which has too often been part of this country's history and made it easy for men to deal in abstractions. "Oriental human beings" -- "gooks" -- "body count" -- "Nape" -- "Waste 'em" -- "free-fire zone" -- "lf they're dead, they're VC" -- the abstractions took command from the commanders themselves and we realized too late that we were the prisoners of our own neglect and callowness.
By discussing crimes committed in war, the New Soldier is trying to break through the callowness and end the neglect. Regardless of whether crimes have been committed in other wars or even by the other side in this one, America must understand how our participation in Vietnam and the methods and motives used by American fighting men are part of a continuing national moral standard. As New Soldiers we are seeking to elevate that standard as well as to demonstrate where it has been part of a significant illusion. Individuals are trying, by denying themselves the luxury of forgetting about their acts, to spare others the agony of having to commit them at some time in the future.
This is not to say that all soldiers have departed Vietnam with the same feelings about their military service. Certainly not all veterans of this war are New Soldiers. Not all want to be or even understand what many of their veteran contemporaries are trying to say.
Even among the New Soldiers, in our hatred for the war and our drive for change, there is a wide divergence on approaches to change, or, for that matter, on what causes the need for change. I know that my own views do not necessarily represent the feelings of some Vietnam Veterans Against The War. But among all there is an intense and deep-rooted agreement that America has lost sight, hopefully only temporarily, of much that we knew as our greatness.
The New Soldier does not have all the answers. We do not even pretend to. Unquestionably we lack some of the depth of experience from which to provide guidelines for many policy questions. We are aware also of all the traditional arguments -- that those in power have access to information, that America can do no wrong, that America has particular interests which it must safeguard, and so on. In reality, however, there is a big difference between these arguments and what happens to the people involved. In the end, the abstractions never convey the reality of human life.
To be sure, those who make the decisions experience special interest pressures which others, not directly involved in the decision-making process, will not feel. Consequently, those on the outside of the power spectrum find it easier to prescribe solutions for the myriad problems we confront today. In their simplicity these solutions sometimes ignore reality. But more often they cut to the quick of the problem and those on the outside of the power structure show in the absoluteness of their criticisms and demands more wisdom, more moral strength, more compassion, and far more willingness to consider what effect the prescribed solution will have on people -- not the people whose security and social welfare is already guaranteed, but those thousands who are literally and figuratively "in the street."
I myself went into the service with very little awareness of the people in the streets. I accepted then and still accept the idea of service to one's country. But because of all that I saw in Vietnam, the treatment of civilians, the ravaging of their countryside, the needless, useless deaths, the deception and duplicity of our policy, I changed. Traditional assumptions and expectations simply were not enough. I still want to serve my country. I am still willing to pick up arms and defend it -- die for it, if necessary. Now, however, I will not go blindly because my government says that I must go. I will not go unless we can make real our promises of self-determination and justice at home. I will not go unless the threat is a real one and we all know it to be so. I will not go unless the people of this country decide for themselves that we must all of us go.
J.K.Preachy, ain't he?
Believe it or not, it comes out to a little more than a dollar a word--when it sells for $1,500. Of course the photos are nice too.
| Used Books: 1 - 6 of 6 | |||
| Click on the price to find out more about a book | |||
| # | Bookseller | Notes | Price |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Odyssey Bookshop via Abebooks |
Publisher: Collier, 1971; Very good in wraps. Some edgeware. Upper 1 inch corner of back cover is creased. First Collier edition. | $600.00 |
| 2 | OUTOFPRINT.COM via Abebooks |
Publisher: NY: Collier Books, 1971; Soft Cover. Very Good Plus. 1st Softcover. 11x8". Edited by David Thorne & George Butler. 174pp. Packed with numerous b/w photos. Includes excerpts from Kerry's statement before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, April 22, 1971, and an Epilogue by J.K. Some edgewear. | $600.00 |
| 3 | Jack Long Books via Abebooks |
Publisher: NY, NY: MacMillan Co. 1971; Cloth. Good/Good. First Edition. Ex-Library. 4to - over 9 3/4 " - 12" tall. CLEAN AND SOUND COPY. Standard library and discard markings, black & white photography throughout, library had pasted the Mylar dust jacket down to the end papers-removing this left dried glue and some paper residue, light wear and some discoloring at the top and bottom of the DJ spine, light wear at the DJ corners, rear DJ panel and spine is lightly wrinkled, 174 pp. NO ... | $800.50 |
| 4 | Matthew Raptis & Co., Booksellers via Abebooks |
Publisher: NY: MacMilllan (1971); First Edition. Near fine in a very good plus jacket. A beautiful copy of this title that is becoming increasingly scarce, especially in this form. | $950.00 |
| 5 | Alibris [United States] |
New York Macmillan 1971 First Edition Hard Cover A good to very good copy in a jacket with small chips and tears, hardly noticeable under archival cover. Keywords: Military Military | $1,499.95 |
| 6 | Dundee Books via Abebooks |
Publisher: New York: Macmillan, 1971; Hard Cover. First Edition. A good to very good copy in a jacket with small chips and tears, hardly noticeable under archival cover | $1,500.00 |
| ( All matching books shown ) | |||
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I'd think there would be lots of cussing if his words were accurately OCR'd.
But there might be political ramifications to Kerry if he went after anyone who posted his book on copyright violations. Wouldn't he be admitting that he actually wrote what ever is in that book? It would be rather difficult for him to prevent his book from being posted to foreign websites.
As true as this is, could there be a way around it?
1. Kerry might be subject to a lot of negative press if he went after someone posting his book.
2. If I had good images, I would be willing to post an excerpt--say 10% or so of the book...
3. This is more work, but parodies have a special place in copyright law. An available parody of The New Soldier might sell better than the unavailable original.
Printed or digital? Digital images can be fixed pretty easily.
Kerry Doesn't Like Monuments - Except To Himself
February 27, 2004 | Compiled
Posted on 02/27/2004 2:48:57 PM EST by Hon
We all know that John Kerry likes to take both sides of every issue whenever possible, so it should be no surprise to learn that while he is out speaking before the American Legion and VFW and other veterans groups, trying to win their votes, he mocked groups in his (suppressed) book The New Soldier:
And so a New Soldier has returned to America, to a nation torn apart by the killing we were asked to do. But, unlike veterans of other wars and some of this one, the New Soldier does not accept the old myths. We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the "greater glory of the United States. We will not accept the rhetoric.
We will not readily join the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars—in fact, we will find it hard to join anything at all and when we do, we will demand relevancy such as other organizations have recently been unable to provide.
And speaking of flip-flops, the next paragraphs of “The New Soldier” give Kerry’s thoughts on monuments to our honored dead:
We will not take solace from the creation of monuments or the naming of parks after a select few of the thousands of dead Americans and Vietnamese. We will not uphold traditions which decorously memorialize that which was base and grim. It is from these things the New Soldier is asking America to turn.
And yet John Kerry has never been reluctant to build monuments to himself. One wall of his Senate Office is a shrine to his heroic four months on a Swift boat in Vietnam:
At the Office
Family Photos, Power Walls, Art and other Objects
August 8, 2002-Eric M. Appleman
Sen. John Kerry: The wall to the right of the door in the reception area of Sen. Kerry's office is devoted to his Vietnam experiences. Immediately by the door is large color photograph taken in 1969 on the Mekong Delta in Vietnam showing Kerry and crewmates Tom Belodeau, Michael Medeiros, Del Sandusky, and Gene Thorson (not in the photo is David Alston).
A large model of the Kerry commanded, is situated by this wall in a glass case--according to the label it is a U.S. Navy Swift Boat MKI, PCF-94. [PCF stands for "Patrol Craft Fast"].
http://www.gwu.edu/~action/2004/art/office.html
Moreover, one of the few legislative feats John Kerry has to show for all of his years in the Senate is a memorial to Swift boat members (like himself of course):
PCF 1
At the Navy Yards in Washington D. C.
Following the U.S. withdrawal from southeast Asia, many of the PCFs were left in country for the Vietnamese or were sent to the Phillipines and Thailand. Sanders said that for almost 10 years he and Senator Kerry had inquired about the fate of the swift boats that remained stateside, before PCF-1 and 2 were discovered in Panama.
A recent Congressinal bill authorized the perservation and public display of the boats. After the boats were brought to the Little Creek Naval Amphibious Base from Panama, Sailors and civilian personnel at Training command, U.S. Atlantic Fleet overhauled the boats and prepared them for their next, albeit last assignment. Several veterans, including Kerry and Sanders, joined with active-duty Sailors to make the two-day cruise to the Washington Navy Yard from Norfolk.
For many at the transfer ceremony, Kerry summed up the feelings of the day. "We've come here today with respect and with love, to complete the last river run," Kerry said.
"We've brought our memories and those dearest to us, in order to put in a place of honored history a remarkable vessel of the United States Navy."
PCF-1 will be placed on permanent display ashore, along with other Navy Museum artifacts aboard the Washington Navy Yard.
So it turns out that John Kerry has no problem in upholding traditions which "decorously memorialize that which was base and grim"--as long as it promotes his career.
Congressman Billybob
bump
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