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. 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."
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.
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
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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.
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.
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?
I have yet to see any of this so-called charisma. Please ping me when hi exhibits some.
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?
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.
This article danced all around the flame, the socks were on fire.
Yes.