In '72 speech, a different kind of Kerry. (** Criticized Nixon for seeking early return of POWs!!**)

The Dartmouth Online ^ | Friday, March 5, 2004 | By Matthew Kelly, The Dartmouth Staff

[VadeRetro]

The POWs and the VVAW-Fonda types were not on the same side. The more I think about it, the uglier it gets.

[U S Army EOD]

Kerry made the speech on 10 Jan 72. The North Vietnamese attacked in force during Easter of 72. The South Vietnamese were never given all the supplies they were promised. In fact we never even replentish all the ammunition they fired up in the 1972 Easter Offensive. I talked to one Vietnamese Captain I knew who was trying to hold a bridge just north of Saigon in 1975. He only had about 30 rounds of 5.56 mm ammunition for his entire company, not per man but for the entire company. We totally sold the Vietnamese out. We had promised them air support if they were attacked again. It never came.

[vbmoneyspender]

Alright. Then you explain to me what possible reason Kerry could have had for not wanting our POWS returned? The only explanation I can come up with is the one I posted, which, by the way, jibes with Kerry's strident opposition to the support America was giving to South Vietnam.

[ConservativeMan55]

lol

[pointsal]

HOW....WHERE ..... DID KERRY GET HIS OFFICER'S COMMISSION???

[U S Army EOD]

He felt like they were war criminals and should be kept in prison. That is what he was preaching on the campus. He could have cared less about giving Nixon a free hand. This was popular with the students at that time.

[VadeRetro]

Think "Cracker-Jack box!"

[cyncooper]

He felt like they were war criminals and should be kept in prison. That is what he was preaching on the campus.

Your post literally made me sick to my stomach.

I've said before and I'll say again, could it be some good will come of these revelations and some of the record set straight once and for all?

[squidly]

I'd like to see the actual quote somewhere. I don't really doubt that he said it, but an article that says that he said it, without a quote, isn't going to cut it.

[VadeRetro]

If he wants to deny it, let him. There should be a preponderance of evidence one way or another.

But he should be called upon to explain. Is it true? If it is, why was Nixon wrong to seek an early return of POWs?

[cyncooper]

Don't want you to miss this curious stance of Kerry's. Read posts for some offered rationale.

And it ain't pretty.

If he did oppose an early return of POWs, that is.

[U S Army EOD]

Well Jane Fonda and the likes certainly said it. In fact she said it right to the pilots' faces in Hanoi. I can't give you an actual quote from Kerry except from his testimony before congress of all the war crimes what we were committing on a daily bases. I feel sure that he included the pilots in this. Of course not all the guys in the prisons were pilots. I will try and do a little research for you and see if I can't find where he included the air campaign. I was there and lived through those times and was a lot closer to it in the EOD mode than most.

[cyncooper]

I was there and lived through those times and was a lot closer to it in the EOD mode than most.

Thank you for your service.

[GailA]

ping

[U S Army EOD]

Thanks for the thank you, but I am still serving and still after Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the other anti-American groups.

[Howlin]

Cyn, mountaineer had a link to an absolutely DEVASTATING article about Kerry and his "investigating committee" yesterday.

Mountaineer, do you still have that link?

[mountaineer]

This story really is worthy of your prodigious ping list.

Senator Covered Up Evidence of P.O.W.'s Left Behind: When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A., by Sydney H. Schanberg, published in the (seriously left wing) Village Voice. Here's an excerpt:

Senator John Kerry, a decorated battle veteran, was courageous as a navy lieutenant in the Vietnam War. But he was not so courageous more than two decades later, when he covered up voluminous evidence that a significant number of live American prisoners—perhaps hundreds—were never acknowledged or returned after the war-ending treaty was signed in January 1973.

The Massachusetts senator, now seeking the presidency, carried out this subterfuge a little over a decade ago— shredding documents, suppressing testimony, and sanitizing the committee's final report—when he was chairman of the Senate Select Committee on P.O.W./ M.I.A. Affairs. ...

What did Kerry do in furtherance of the cover-up? An overview would include the following: He allied himself with those carrying it out by treating the Pentagon and other prisoner debunkers as partners in the investigation instead of the targets they were supposed to be. In short, he did their bidding. When Defense Department officials were coming to testify, Kerry would have his staff director, Frances Zwenig, meet with them to "script" the hearings—as detailed in an internal Zwenig memo leaked by others. Zwenig also advised North Vietnamese officials on how to state their case. Further, Kerry never pushed or put up a fight to get key government documents unclassified; he just rolled over, no matter how obvious it was that the documents contained confirming data about prisoners. Moreover, after promising to turn over all committee records to the National Archives when the panel concluded its work, the senator destroyed crucial intelligence information the staff had gathered—to to keep the documents from becoming public. He refused to subpoena past presidents and other key witnesses. ...

[Howlin]

I was stunned when I read that thing yesterday. Just floored. He did everything he could to STOP that investigation.

Do you think we could post that whole thing as a thread, because I would sure like to use the ping list on that one.

It's as involved and articulate article as I have read about J.F. Kerry.

Want to post it?

[mountaineer]

Sure, I'll do it now.

[Howlin]

I'll be on the lookout for it!