Anti-war veterans recall Kerry's service to peace movement (Missouri Chapter of VVAW)

St. Louis Post-Dispatch ^ | March 27th, 2004 | Alex Primm

[Sabertooth]

John Kerry spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War, addressed a crowd at fund-raising dinner in St. Louis in 1971.

Thirty-three years ago we hung together, a bunch of guys with mixed feelings about our service in Vietnam.

Most of us were just draftees, though a few had actually enlisted to secure a choice in specialty, usually out of fear the draft would result in training as an 11-Bravo, light weapons infantryman, a skill of limited use later on. Some came up through ROTC in college or Officer Candidate Schools.

[Sabertooth]

Another way to learn about Kerry is to hear what other vets say about him. The anti-war veterans' movement spread quickly friend-to-friend in the early 1970s. Kerry visited Missouri several times during that period to build support. During 1971, Kerry served as the national spokesman for a group known as Vietnam Veterans Against the War. St. Louis had an active chapter of the group.

Yet another account placing John Kerry at VVAW meetings in Missouri. I wonder if the author of this piece, Alex Primm, recalls Kerry being at the VVAW conference in Kansas City in November of 1971?

Darrell Barni, another retired grunt, now a carpenter, had a slightly different memory of the VVAW leader. "Kerry was just different. I first saw him at a peace fund-raiser at a local church. We were all wearing coats and ties for this event. Kerry came in wearing his combat fatigues. That was something new to us in St. Louis then. Just that said a lot. That VVAW was made up mainly of combat vets."

Who radicalized whom?

In recent weeks some have questioned VVAW's first national effort to expose controversial aspects of American policy in Vietnam. Known as the Winter Soldier Investigation, it was held at a Detroit motel in early 1971 and named to honor the spirit of Revolutionary War hero Thomas Paine's call to action.

The hearings resulted in a film which raised questions about basic military policies such as free-fire zones and Operation Phoenix. The policies both resulted in innocent civilian deaths and caused veterans to speak out and join others in the peace movement.

Well they're beating around all the right bushes.

Wonder if they'll make the connection between the VVAW's own Phoenix Project, the Senatorial assassination plot debated by the "anti-war" group in Kansas City in November of 1971, which was attended by VVAW leader John Kerry, despite his spotty recollections and changing stories to the contrary?

My own memories of Kerry go back to a meeting to plan the Washington demonstration in the spring of 1971. For six months we worked together and shared one strong characteristic all felt in VVAW. We suffered intense sorrow and anger. Most had friends killed for little purpose. We loved our country. We knew the war to be a terrible mistake based largely on lies. We wanted American involvement to end ASAP.

< -snip- >

...We met around the clock in a dim, smoky office in Manhattan for three days.

Kerry most wanted our protest be more than street theater for TV. He saw a major focus on vets going to Congress to lobby to withdraw our troops. Kerry had emerged as a new leader for peace

So, Kerry was a main proponent of expanding the goals of the VVAW for the Dewey Canyon III protests in Washington D.C. in April of 1971.

When did the Manhattan meetings take place, does anyone know?

When did Kerry meet with the North Vietnamese in Paris, on an ostensibly "private" trip there with his new wife?

Kerry spoke of meeting negotiators on Vietnam - Claimed US Was "Murdering" Vietnamese
			Posted by kattracks On 03/25/2004 2:29:29 AM PST with 80 comments Boston Globe ^ | 3/25/04 | Michael Kranish and Patrick Healy 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 the 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...

What was the degree of coordination orchestrated by Kerry with the North Vietnamese for the VVAW's own public sessions with them in Paris in March of '71, with the D.C. protests in April, and with his own Congressional testimony at that time?

[Sabertooth]

FYI

[madprof98]

One of the most active local vets and a 1967 Naval Academy graduate, Toby Hollander, also has a few doubts about Kerry's leadership. "I'm concerned he may not have a moral compass. Kerry was willing to support some conservative gimmicks such as the Patriot Act, the No Child Left Behind Act and NAFTA, then complains about them in his campaign now," says Hollander, an attorney presently working as a guardian ad litem for foster children in Portland, Maine.

Some of these guys seem to have a "moral compass" pointed straight to hell. Amazing that they don't see what a kindred spirit Kerry is.

[Tacis]

Clearly, enough doubt has been raised about Kerry's integrity and his service to our country to examine, in detail, his claims. Did he or did he not earn three Purple Hearts? Was he entitled to other military awards he says he has? Did he really pull some fast ones to evade the balance of his tour in Nam?

It is important that Kerry be given an opportunity to confirm his claims about his military service before futher suggestions that he is a lying coward. I think of the veterans who, for 60 years, have claimed to be Navy Seals and are not. It is natural to inflate one's military exploits even to the extent of buying medals and ribbons to support a lie.

It is essential that Kerry clear the air on these serious charges and make all his military records public, assuming he has nothing to hide and hasn't been lying all these years.

[FairWitness]

I thought about posting this "unpaid campaign commercial" (thank you CFR) but after reading it I didn't have the heart to touch it again. What a one-sided job!

[ottothedog]

The media is complete uninterested in Kerry's real Vietnam record. He testified before Congress that he participated in war crimes. I don't believe any reporter has asked him whether this is true or whether he was lying. The thing I would like all the Vietnam era war protester types like Kerry to have to answer for is the results in Vietnam/Cambodia of our pull out of S. Vietnam.

[U S Army EOD]

And while Kerry was discussing peace with the NVA they were planning the Easter Offensive in 1972.

[AgThorn]

...journey from enthusiastically volunteering for duty on the dangerous rivers of Vietnam to leading anti-war protests.

Volunteering? I thought for certain that he did everything possible to get out of the service, and when he couldn't he did everything possible to shorten his stay. Volunteering? The only volunteering I read from his record is to nominate himself on multiple occasions for the medals that lied to these same vets about throwing over the wall to the white house. This man is an opportunist through and through. His actions upon returning from VietNam can be directly blamed for the later success of the VietCong and the eventual slaughter of millions in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. If his kind is elected, similar 'retribution' will occur in the mid east and elsewhere.

We were all wearing coats and ties for this event. Kerry came in wearing his combat fatigues.

My father was in the navy, my son is in the navy ... what exactly are 'combat fatigues' for the Navy? I know the marines & Army have such regular garb (other son being in the Army) but I have never seen a Navy man so label any wardrobe that would be assigned to him. Someone explain. Could this also be just another example of Kerry's manipulative tendencies?

[MeekOneGOP]

Kerry 02-03-2004:
"For the second time this week a New England Patriot Won!"

Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry
(Click here or on the pic)

John Kerry's History Page
(Click here)

[VadeRetro]

I don't like the way VVAW radicals are described as "vets" or "other vets." They belong to a very distinct subset of the class.

[joesnuffy]

11-Bravo, light weapons infantryman, a skill of limited use later on.

Good thing the veterans of 1776, New Orleans, San Juan Hill, WWI, WWII, Korea, Vietnam, Desert Storm and The War on Terror dont feel that way...

Volunteers for the Infantry dont do so..to aquire 'skills usefull later on in life' but to save their country and their loved ones..

I humped the delta with the 9thID part of my tour with the Moblile Riverine Force...the part that got off the boats and into the swamp and jungle...

The 11Bravos I served with ..fought with...looked after were some of the finest human beings God ever put on this earth..

Kerry and his kind are the lowest of the low imo & not worthy to lick the water buffalo crap out of the lugs of their jungle boots

Kerry is a liar...and a coward...imo not worthy of the lowest office of this land let alone the highest

[joesnuffy]

Nothing works ever works perfectly...always plus and minuses

Free Fire Zones stopped the men and equipment flowing from the north to the south

Phoenix destroyed the VC regular infrasturcture
If a 12 yr old kid hits the clacker on a US made Claymore or plants one in the path of an oncoming USGI patrol...is he VC?

If his sister hides the devices and transports them after dark is she VC?

If grandma is a lookout for the VC letting them know which direction the US patrols are moving in..or when then said they would be back..is she? VC?

In a guerrilla war...you cannot afford to wait until someone points a rifle at you in order to justify shooting back...they hide...they plant command det booby traps..

In our AO they camoflauged 105mm arty rounds strung up in trees......by the time the ambush is sprung
the VC diddy ..they dont hang around to fight with bayonets...and 5 to 10 USGIs are dead or wounded...next day samie samie..hence...The Phoenix Program and Free Fire Zones..


I just love all the historical monday morning quaterbacks ...who never took one step in someones AO...judging them....even a year later let lone thirty years after the fact...

War Crimes...what a bunch of crap...our enemies just love Americans who buy into this...dont have the stomach to defend us against the kind of war our enemies are capable of...we werent fighting Europeons or the Battle of the Marne...

Lord how I wish it had been that clear cut...so I didnt have to hear the regurgitated crap of the left and the right...for the last 35 years...and with an idiot like Kerry around it will be another 35 yrs of the same revisionist commie history...

[Samwise]

"You could tell he had charisma even then,"

I have yet to see any of this so-called charisma. Please ping me when hi exhibits some.

[Robert_Paulson2]

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.

---

what'a wrong with you Saber?

SO WHAT!

to the democrats, THESE are resume enhancements, NOT disqualifyers or "negative" at ALL!

The people who support him, are like him.

Our nation is about 35 percent knee jerk communist, masquerading as democrats. In hard numbers we have the prospect of about one third of our nation's populace being communists. 98 million communist sympathetic friends, families and business owners... of course most of them are working as teachers, social workers or regular employees of the state, federal or local government, but THAT is another story.

Saving america would entail eradicating our own "terrorists", living amongst us. Tall order, and not much hope.

What can we do, really? Voting for bush is imperative, but what can we do about their entrenchment in EVERY area of life...

Fine Janet Jackson for her boobie?

talk about bigger fish to fry, and a whole lot of em too...

What can we do, really?

[Yaelle]

What was the degree of coordination orchestrated by Kerry with the North Vietnamese...

Saber, I am not able to answer your Q in full, above, but the first part of it I quoted made me think of something more general.

We all know that the VC was filling the anti-war folks full of brilliant propaganda "facts" about atrocities. Probably this propaganda came from the Soviets. They did a great job and it worked.

I was witness to their next hatchet job on the truth, in Europe before the fall of the USSR. When I went to college in France, I had many leftist German school buddies. They all read these Top Secret Truth Journals. They even had special "alternative" shops all over Western Germany where the youth could go to read the "truth" about world affairs. Everything sold their or published in those journals was pro-Soviet and anti-American. Boy, did they all give me grief over everything. They were convinced that America was the more evil of the two powers.

Year later, I was proved right: the Soviets had been filling the Western German youths' heads full of lies for all that time. They had fomented a HUGE rift between the young and the old German generations in the mid-70s to mid-80s. And their writings and "proof" seemed so true.

I am sure that a young John F. Kerry and his buds were sold the same bill of goods a decade earllier.

[nopardons]

Thanks for the ping! :-)

Kerry has charisma? Are these people that blind?

[GeronL]

whoa.

This article danced all around the flame, the socks were on fire.

[PRND21]

Is Kerry a distant, somewhat cold, New England preppie rich guy or deep down is Kerry a long-haired hippie who has way-out ideas about government?

Yes.

[windchime]

Bump!