Posted on 03/25/2004 8:12:06 AM PST by Hon
As many here might recall, I have been posting about John Kerry's meetings with the Vietcong and North Vietnamese since early February. I found a photograph in Staciewicz's book, Winter Soldier, which shows the VVAW meeting with the delegations of the enemy in March of 1971:
First peace meeting between VVAW and the NLF, Paris, 1971
And I knew from Kerry's own testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he had also gone to Paris and met with these groups.
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.
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 unilaterallyand, 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.
But I had no idea that Kerry had gone to Paris and met with the enemy's delegations so early.
Today's Boston Globe finally addressed the elephant in the living room and did some actual reporting on this subject. They found that Kerry went to Paris almost a year before his group, the VVAW, did (and two years before Jane Fonda went to meet the enemy in Hanoi).
Kerry went there on his honeymoon:
Kerry spoke of meeting negotiators on Vietnam
WASHINGTON -- In a question-and-answer session before a Senate committee in 1971, John F. Kerry, who was a leading antiwar activist at the time, asserted that 200,000 Vietnamese per year were being "murdered by the United States of America" and said he had gone to Paris and "talked with both delegations at the peace talks" and met with communist representatives.
Kerry, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, yesterday confirmed through a spokesman that he did go to Paris and talked privately with a leading communist representative. But the spokesman played down the extent of Kerry's role and said Kerry did not engage in negotiations...
Kerry's speech before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on April 22, 1971, is one of the best-known moments of his life when he was involved in Vietnam Veterans Against the War. In that speech, Kerry asked: "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?"
But the follow-up session of questions and answers, made public at the time in the official proceedings of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has received little mainstream notice until now.
When Kerry was asked by committee chairman Senator J. William Fulbright how he proposed to end the war, the former Navy lieutenant said it should be ended immediately and mentioned his involvement in peace talks in Paris.
"I have been to Paris," Kerry said. "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 . . . ."
The latter was a reference to a communist group based in South Vietnam. Historian Stanley Karnow, author of "Vietnam: A History," described the Provisional Revolutionary Government as "an arm of the North Vietnamese government." Madam Nguyen Thi Binh was a leader of the group and had a list of peace-talk points, including the suggestion that US prisoners of war would be released when American forces withdrew.
After their May 1970 marriage, Kerry traveled to Paris with his wife, Julia Thorne, on a private trip, Meehan said. Kerry did not go to Paris with the intention of meeting with participants in the peace talks or involving himself in the negotiations, Meehan added, saying that while there Kerry had his brief meeting with Binh, which included members of both delegations to the peace talks.
Julia Thorne and John Kerry in 1972
In the Boston Globe story, Kerry's staff attempts to diminish Kerry's trip by saying that he did not "negotiate" with the Viet Cong and NVM. But Kerry himself admits he negotiated in his sworn Senate testimony less than a year later.
Indeed, it was the first thing brought up in Kerry's testimony, after he finished his prepared statement. He was asked his advice, which was basically--accept the terms of the Vietcong as presented to me by their Foreign Minister Madam Binh. He reiterated this several times over the rest of his lengthy comments to the Senate.
In the subsequent months after meeting with the Vietcong and NVM, Kerry was a major propagandist for the so-called "People's Peace Treaty." His group, the VVAW had signed it--in a ceremony--and Kerry promoted it at every opportunity. This "treaty" incorporated every one of the Vietcong's points.
Kerry demanded that the US sign on to the very same terms. In fact, he told this to the Senate on April 18, 1971.
Here are all eight of Madam Binh's points (Binh was the Foreign Minister for the Vietcong) spelled out in the "People's Peace Treaty" that Kerry and the VVAW and signed, and which they demanded the US sign with North Vietnam and the National Liberation Front:
Joint Treaty of Peace
Between the People of The United States of America, South Vietnam and North Vietnam
Preamble
Be it known that the American people and the Vietnamese people are not enemies. The war is carried out in the names of the people of the United States and South Vietnam, but without our consent. It destroys the land and people of Vietnam. It drains America of its resources, its youth, and its honor.
We hereby agree to end the war on the following terms, so that both peoples can live under the joy of independence and can devote themselves to building a society based on human equality and respect for the earth. In rejecting the war we also reject all forms of racism and discrimination against people based on color, class, sex, national origin, and ethnic grouping which form the basis of the war policies, past and present, of the United States government.
Terms of Peace Treaty
- The Americans agree to immediate and total withdrawal from Vietnam, and publicly to set the date by which all U.S. military forces will be removed.
- The Vietnamese pledge that as soon as the U. S. government publicly sets a date for total withdrawal: they will enter discussions to secure the release of all American prisoners, including pilots captured while bombing North Vietnam.
- There will be an immediate cease-fire between U. S. forces and those led by the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam.
- They will enter discussions on the procedures to guarantee the safety of all withdrawing troops.
- The Americans pledge to end the imposition of Thieu-Ky-Khiem on the people of South Vietnam in order to insure their right to self-determination and so that all political prisoners can be released.
- The Vietnamese pledge to form a provisional coalition government to organize democratic elections. All parties agree to respect the results of elections in which all South Vietnamese can participate freely without the presence of any foreign troops.
- The South Vietnamese pledge to enter discussion of procedures to guarantee the safety and political freedom of those South Vietnamese who have collaborated with the U. S. or with U. S. -supported regimes.
- The Americans and Vietnamese agree to respect the independence, peace and neutrality of Laos and Cambodia in accord with the 1954 and 1962 Geneva Conventions and not to interfere in the internal affairs of these two countries.
- Upon these points of agreement, we pledge to end the war and resolve all other questions in the spirit of self-determination and mutual respect for the independence and political freedom of the people of Vietnam and the United States.
Pledge
By ratifying this agreement, we pledge to take whatever actions are appropriate to implement the terms of the People to people Treaty and to insure its acceptance by the government of the United States.
Indeed, there may be a tie between Kerry's statement before the Senate committee and the interest of the FBI in his activities. One FBI report provided to the Globe by Nicosia shows that the government was monitoring whether Kerry planned to go to Paris again. Kerry was "planning to travel to Paris, France . . . for talks with North Vietnamese peace delegation," said the report, dated Nov. 11, 1971.
What is hilarious is that Nicosia doesn't even mention Kerry having gone to Paris in his book, Home To War. He is now finding all kinds of interesting things he forgot to mention.
Kerry's statement dealt with the question of whether he was trying to negotiate in Paris as a private citizen and was thus on that "borderline" of what was allowable. A US law forbids citizens from negotiating with foreign governments on matters such as peace treaties. Meehan said Kerry was not negotiating. "Senator Kerry had no role whatsoever in the Paris peace talks or negotiations," Meehan said in his statement. "He did not engage in any negotiations and did not attend any session of the talks. Prior to his Senate testimony, he went to Paris on a private trip, where he had one brief meeting with Madam Binh and others. In an effort to find facts, he learned the status of the peace talks from their point of view and about any progress in resolving the conflict, particularly as it related to the fate of the POWs."
If you scroll up and read my excerpts from Kerry's testimony, you can see that he is clear that he negotiated. He said that Senator Eugene McCarthy (who had run for President in the previous elections), had set the precedent for negotiating with the enemy.
Kerry seems to have forgotten that he wasn't a Senator in 1970. He was simply a private citizen who had spent about four months in Vietnam.
I HATE TREE HUGGING HIPPIES!!!
When Meehan tries to spin why Kerry was in Paris, i.e., "After their May 1970 marriage, Kerry traveled to Paris with his wife, Julia Thorne, on a private trip, Meehan said. Kerry did not go to Paris with the intention of meeting with participants in the peace talks or involving himself in the negotiations., I wonder if this was just another spin job in terms of when Kerry was actually there. Maybe he was there at the same time as the VVAW and Fonda in March 1971. Kerry testified before Congress in April 1971.
Do we really know when Kerry was in Paris on his honeymoon aside from the Meehan statement, which leads us to conclude that it was in May 1970?
John Kerry's maternal grandfather, James Grant Forbes, was born in Shanghai, China, where the Forbes family of Boston accumulated a fortune in the opium and China trade
Ya gotta scroll down the page some to find it, it is under a heading called "Kerry".
After their May 1970 marriage, Kerry traveled to Paris with his wife, Julia Thorne, on a private trip, Meehan said. Kerry did not go to Paris with the intention of meeting with participants in the peace talks or involving himself in the negotiations, Meehan added, saying that while there Kerry had his brief meeting with Binh, which included members of both delegations to the peace talks.
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