Posted on 06/04/2004 2:35:30 AM PDT by kattracks
CNSNews.com) - Newly released FBI files reveal that presumed Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry attended a second meeting with North Vietnamese communists in Paris in the early 1970s. Kerry has previously admitted to meeting only once with the North Vietnamese delegations in 1970.
According to the FBI files, Kerry met with representatives from the North Vietnamese government in Paris in 1971 in an effort to secure the release of captured American prisoners of war. Kerry has previously acknowledged meeting "both delegations" of Vietnamese communists in Paris in 1970, but has said nothing of the 1971 meeting.
Researcher and author Jerry Corsi, who began studying the anti-war movement in the early 1970s, believes Kerry is hiding key aspects about his anti-war past from the public as he seeks the presidency.
"Kerry has admitted to one meeting with Madam Binh. Now we have reason to believe there was a second [meeting], so let's press them to admit the second [meeting]," Corsi told CNSNews.com.
"Kerry needs to explain to the American people why he directly went into negotiations with communists," Corsi added. Corsi has written an essay on Kerry's dealings with the Vietemese communists on the Internet site, WinterSoldier.com.
According to Gerald Nicosia, a Kerry supporter and the author of the book Home to War: A History of the Vietnam Veterans' Movement, Kerry's second visit to Paris to meet with emissaries of the North Vietnamese communist government is documented in redacted FBI files from the era.
"The [FBI] files record that Kerry made a second trip to Paris that summer (1971) to learn how the North Vietnamese might release prisoners," Nicosia wrote in an essay in the Los Angeles Times on May 23.
"After deciding not to run [for Congress] in 1970, he and his new wife, Julia Thorne, traveled to France in May to meet Madame Nguyen Thi Binh and other Viet Cong and Communist Vietnamese representatives to the Paris peace talks, a trip he now calls a 'fact-finding mission,"' Nicosia wrote.
Nicosia noted that, "Kerry had tried to distinguish between his own trips to meet with the Vietnamese in Paris, which he considered necessary to fight through the lies of his own government, and actual negotiations with the enemy, which Kerry knew were illegal."
Kerry told the New York Times on April 24 that his first meeting with the Vietnamese communists in 1970 was "not a big deal."
''People were dropping in (at the Paris Peace Talks). It was a regular sort of deal," Kerry explained to the New York Times .
But Corsi believes it was a very big deal.
"You had (Former Nixon aide) Henry Kissinger there (in Paris) trying to negotiate formally with the Paris peace delegation and then these guys (from Vietnam Veterans Against the War) are off on their own side show, establishing back channels to the Vietnamese communists; all of this is against the law," Corsi said, referring to U.S. code 18 U.S.C. 953, which declares it illegal for a U.S. citizen to go abroad and negotiate with a foreign power.
"Exactly who was Kerry ... to have arranged these trips? He had to be in discussion with some link with the communist party of Vietnam in order to establish these trips and meetings," Corsi explained.
Kerry also may have had plans to go to South Vietnam in 1971, according to a June 16, 1971 article in the communist Daily World newspaper.
"Former Navy Lt. John Kerry is planning a three-week trip to South Vietnam in July to report on 'what is really happening' to the GI's there, he told newsmen here," read the article, written by the Daily World's Ted Pearson. Kerry was attending an event in Chicago with Jesse Jackson, who at the time was head of the organization, Operation Bread Basket.
It is unclear whether Kerry ever made the trip to South Vietnam in 1971 and Kerry's campaign did not return several phone calls seeking comment for this article.
Nicosia has criticized Kerry in the past for not being more open about his anti-war past.
"I am in kind of an awkward position here. I am a Kerry supporter and I certainly don't want to do anything that hurts him. On the other hand, my number one allegiance is to truth. So I am going to go with where the facts are, and John is going to have to deal with that," Nicosia told CNSNews.com back in March when the contents of the FBI files became public and caused Kerry to revise his past statements on a series of issues dealing with his past.
"I am having some problems with the things he is saying right now, which are not matching up with accuracy," Nicosia said in March.
"I think [Kerry] may be worried or the people around him may be worried that his association with VVAW (Vietnam Veterans Against the War) is a very negative thing and they want John to back away from it," he added.
Kerry's anti-war activism and his meetings with the communists had a big impact, according to Corsi.
"Vietnamese communists would not have won the war without John Kerry. They were cultivating his protest activity with the VVAW," Corsi said.
Corsi said the Vietnamese communists have shown their gratitude to Kerry by displaying a photo of him at Ho Chi Minh City's Protestors Hall of the War Remnants Museum. The photo of fellow anti-war activist and actress Jane Fonda also appears in the Women's Museum in Saigon.
"As soon as [Kerry] came onto the seen, [the Vietnamese communists] latched on to him like bees on to honey. [The communists] said 'This is a guy who tells our story, it will undermine the sympathy for the war in America,'" Corsi added.
See Related Articles:
Kerry's Meeting With Communists Violated US Law, Says Author
Communists Infiltrated Kerry's Anti-War Group, Historian Says
Kerry Still Backpedaling on Presence at 1971 Anti-War Meetings
Kerry Lying About Anti-War Past, Supporter Alleges
E-mail a news tip to Marc Morano.
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Ya' know, I'm beginning to think kerry may not be honest. I was willing to believe the first time he met with enemy, perhaps he was seeking medical help for one of his wounds, and just wandered in, dazed and confused and bleeding profusely from the pencil wound to the thigh. But twice? C'mon. The enemy cannot possibly have emergency rooms THAT good. Hmmmmmmmmmm....
Eaters of the Dead - Bump!
free dixie,sw
Thanks for the ping!
If Hillary joins the Kerry ticket as VP, I'd hate to be Kerry's life insurer. Tey-rey-za may as well start shopping for a younger kept man.
Not particularly. Did my typing look surprised?
but MANY here are eternally surprised by the hateful ARROGANCE & DISHONORABLENESS of the LEFT!
free dixie,sw
bump
Ping
bump
Exactly! For the mush minded fence sitters, this will be spun as he was only trying to "free the POWs" and end the war". It won't lose him any votes, those who would be offended by all this weren't going to vote for him in the first place.
Am seriously beginning to wonder if the libs are the new Communist Party.
I think Hillary is keeping her options open. I still think she'll run this year, but if things start to look very negative she can always wait until later and let Kerry go down in flames. Obviously she can't afford to let him win, in either case.
Waiting until 2008 is a big risk. Can she keep control of the party that long without a power base? Can Terry McAuliffe survive another election fiasco? Can she be sure of winning back her senate seat in 2006 if Giuliani runs against her?
The negative news against Kerry is mostly coming from her camp. But so is the negative news against Bush. If she can get Bush's numbers down low enough, she will run this year.
Great plug!
" The time line link is excellent. It also demonstrates without question that Kerry was part of VVAW at least until April 1972.
Kerry's knowledge of French would have made him an excellent interlocuter between the Vietnamese Communists and the VVAW. There is obviously more to this story and Kerry's involvement with the US Communist party. He had unusual access in Paris for a 27 year old recently discharged veteran"
You make excellent points.
I am reading the new book on Kerry- " John F. Kerry. The Complete Biography By The Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best." It's loaded with previously unknown info on Kerry-which is probably why the fossil media has totally ignored it.
Anyway, Kerry's mother, Rosemary was born in Paris and lived most of her adult life in France and Europe, with just a short respite in the US , from 1941 to 1954.
Kerry's mother and her family lived full time in France-they did not just occasionally summer there, as is the common perception.
Kerry already had an established political and family beachhead in Paris-courtesy of his mother's side.
As an aside, Kerry's mother and her family spoke with French accents,Kerry's paternal grandparents spoke with Austrian accents like Arnold and yet Kerry thought he was Irish.
I hope the GOP's operations research folks are scouring Kerry's particapation in the VVAW and his travels and speeches on behalf of one of the most radical organizations in America at the time and even now. There were joint fund raising events sponsored by Fonda for the VVAW and the Black Panthers. More than likely, the VVAW worked with the US Communist Party judging by Kerry's picture being included several times in the Daily Worker. I assume more will come out after the Dem convention and closer to the election. Presumably, the GOP is holding the good stuff until later.
Gosh, who would have thunk it?
Kerry met with commies before he met with commies and after he met with commies he met with commies...
LOL
Good post.
(secret tughrik ping)
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