McCain: Hanoi Hilton Jailers Used Kerry Speech Against Us

Newsmax.com

[airforcevet]

Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004 6:28 p.m. EDT

McCain: Hanoi Hilton Jailers Used Kerry Speech Against Us

Sen. John McCain attacked a group of Vietnam veterans on Thursday for their appearance in a campaign ad condemning Sen. John Kerry for betraying his fellow soldiers, calling the commercial "dishonest and dishonorable."

But McCain himself complained about Kerry-led anti-war protests when he was released from the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" 31 years ago.

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In piece he wrote for the May 14, 1973, issue of U.S. News & World Report, the POW-turned-senator charged that testimony by Kerry and others before J. William Fulbright's Senate Foreign Relations Committee was "the most effective propaganda [my North Vietnamese captors] had to use against us."

"They used Senator Fulbright a great deal," McCain wrote - a reference to Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony that U.S. soldiers were committing war crimes in Vietnam as a matter of course.

He said Kerry political ally Sen. Ted Kennedy was "quoted again and again" by his jailers at the Hanoi Hilton.

"Clark Clifford was another [North Vietnamese] favorite," McCain told U.S. News, "right after he had been Secretary of Defense under President Johnson."

"When Ramsey Clark came over [my jailers] thought that was a great coup for their cause," he recalled. Months earlier, Sen. Kerry had appeared with Clark at the April 1971 Washington, D.C., anti-war protest that showcased his testimony before the Fulbright Committee.

"All through this period," McCain told U.S. News, his captors were "bombarding us with anti-war quotes from people in high places back in Washington. This was the most effective propaganda they had to use against us."

McCain biographer Paul Alexander chronicled the Arizona Republican's anger toward Kerry during their early careers in the Senate together.

"For many years McCain held Kerry's actions against him because, while McCain was a POW in the Hanoi Hilton, Kerry was organizing veterans back home in the U.S. to protest the war."

In his 2002 book, "Man of the People: The Life of John McCain," Alexander says that the two Vietnam vets finally reconciled in the early 1990s after having "a long - and at times emotional - conversation about Vietnam" during a mutual trip to Kuwait.

Later, Kerry sought to minimize the rift, telling Alexander: "Our differences occurred when we were kids, or at least close to being kids. It was a long time ago, and we both came back and realized that there were a lot of difficulties in the prosecution of that war."

[Old Sarge]

But McCain himself complained about Kerry-led anti-war protests when he was released from the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" 31 years ago.

But hey, what's a few years of prison and torture, between Socialist brothers? Bygones...

[Conspiracy Guy]

McCain is a weenie.

Leaving on His Jet Plane


JohnDenver

All his records sealed, he’s ready to go.
He’s flipped and flopped, as we well know.
But we must now wake up,
And say goodbye.
Now the light is shining,
It’s a new morn.
His bus is waiting,
He’s holding corn.



Already he’s so funny,
I could cry.


So wave bye, don’t look at me,
Turn around and really flee.
Told you that, you really need to go.



He’s leaving, on his jet plane.
We all hope, he won’t be back again.
Oh John, we wish you’d go.



There’s so many times, he’s lied, we found.
We all just wish, he would leave town.
The words he says, they don’t mean a thing.
Everything he says, a lie to you.
As he flips and flops a time or two.
When he leaves town, much sunshine it will bring.



So wave bye, don’t look at me,
Turn now and really flee.
Told him that, he really needs to go.



We all hope, he won’t be back again.
Oh John, we wish you’d go.

Now the time has passed we’re tired of you.
Please be gone we won’t miss you.
We’ll hold the door, you get on your way.
Think about the time will come.
You will see that you are dumb.



We’ll recall the day we got to say.



So wave bye, don’t look at me,
Turn now and really flee.
Told him that, he really needs to go.



He’s leaving, on his jet plane.
We all hope, he won’t be back again.
Oh John, we wish you’d go.




Conspiracy Guy aka DIF 8/6/2004

[Cathy]

Barf-o-rama

McCain has lost it.

[Rakkasan1]

time makes the memory fade. I'll go with what he said in 1971, not yesterday.

[Viet-Boat-Rider]

NEWS FLASH TEREZZZZZZA IS REALLY DUSTIN HOFFMAN - KERRY IDENTIFIED AS BEING IN GAY MARRIAGE!

[tiamat]

Ya know?

That's the big deal I have against McCain.

He OUGHT to be furious.

He ought to be sabotaging Kerry at every turn.

for McCain , it's PERSONAL.

ANY man with a pair WOULD be.

If nothing else, than to prevent what happened to McCain from happening to a younger brother.

And yet, McCain's not doing it.


I WANT to sympathize with the guy . He paid CASH.

I just can't.

[Zeppelin]

i agree. just PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE, if you quote Janet Reno, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE ..... do NOT post a picture.

that is all.

[wasp69]

I wouldn't have had an emotional conversation with JF'nK, I probably would have broke his damn neck. How in the world you could get along with scum like kerry and kennedy after all of that is waayyy beyond me.

[Looper]

I've always supported Bush over McCain and think that McCain grandstands too much. But I think he's right that ads about conduct 30+ years should have no place in this campaign. I just wish the press would carry on the same way when moveon and the NAACP run ads that are far worse.

And you're out of line to call someone who's served his country in the manner in which he has a "weenie."

[elbucko]

LO...friggin'..L

That McCain RINO is really funny. Made my day. Thanks

[AFPhys]

I'm glad NewsMax is on this part of the story. Re: McCain ---

Weekend News Today -Feb 20,2004 -- A former Vietnam POW is alleging that his Hanoi captors specifically cited Sen. John Kerry's 1971 anti-war testimony to Congress as they brutally tortured him to get him to turn on his fellow GIs. One-time Navy pilot Paul Galanti was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966 and spent seven years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton. He told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that he learned of Kerry's April 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while being tortured by his Hanoi Hilton guards.

According to the Times, "during torture sessions, [Galanti] said, his captors cited the antiwar speeches as 'an example of why we should cross over to [their] side.'"

In his account to the Senate, Kerry accused U.S. soldiers of routinely committing rapes, beheadings, mutilations and all manner of atrocities against the Vietnamese people.

Galanti told the Times that Kerry's decision to publicly allege that U.S. soldiers were war criminals "jeopardize[d] those still in battle or in the hands of the enemy." Because he did, Galanti said, "John Kerry was a traitor to the men he served with." "The Viet Cong didn't think they had to win the war on the battlefield," the ex-POW said, "because thanks to these protesters they were going to win it on the streets of San Francisco and Washington."

Although Galanti's fellow POW, Sen. John McCain, has been silent in recent years about the damage Sen. Kerry caused as a leader of the radical group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, in 1973 McCain told U.S. News & World Report that throughout his imprisonment, his North Vietnamese captors were "bombarding us with anti-war quotes from people in high places back in Washington." "This was the most effective propaganda they had to use against us," the Arizona Republican explained.

But Galanti is the first POW to say that his Hanoi Hilton guards expressly invoked Sen. Kerry's words during their brutal torture sessions. In his comments to the Times, he accused the Democratic presidential front-runner of having blood on his hands, contending, "The Vietnam memorial has thousands of additional names due to John Kerry and others like him."

In a follow-up interview with Fox News Channel's John Gibson, Galanti said he'll take his story directly to the American people if the press fails to expose the truth about candidate Kerry.

"Let me tell you one thing. It looks like John Kerry is going to get the nomination," he told Gibson. "If he does, I'm going to come out of the woodwork, and there's a whole bunch of us [who feel] the same way."

I remember that story McCain told years ago. I remember clearly reading it. I'm wondering why HE's changed his tune.

[newzhawk]

Just saw McCain this past Tuesday - I was curious how he would act as an advocate of Bush- he was funny and convincing that Bush was better suited for office than Kerry but with not many specifics. He snaps too easily- someone questioned him about Health Care and "waaah what are we going to do about health care"(a democrat amongst many Republicans mind you) and " what about REAL campaign finance reform" and he got his wierd bitterness going on. Then went on about how we "were a partisan crowd" and would have to accept bitartisanship-- huh?

[Conspiracy Guy]

Kerry made his Viet Nam service an issue. It is about all he says. Since he made his heroism an issue, it is subject to scrutiny of others for historical accuracy. He will not release his records even though Bush did.

And you're out of line to call someone who's served his country in the manner in which he has a "weenie."

I am not questioning his sacrifice and service. I am questioning his current behavior. Being a veteran is not a permanent pass to do as you want without consequence. Or am I expected to vote for Kerry because he went to Nam. I was in the USAF 72-76 and didn't go to Nam. But that was the USAF's choice and not mine. Am I less patriotic than Kerry or McCain? Should I sue the USAF for keeping me stateside.

In closing I'll call McCain a weenie when he acts like one.

Regards

[lonevoice]

McCain, unlike Kerry, earned respect for the price he paid for his honorable service to our nation. But the man is frankly unstable (perhaps because of his service) and getting worse. I can honor his military service and sacrifice, while acknowledging that it doesn't entitle him to a permanent spotlight on history's stage. I understand the political reasons he was chosen for prominence at the upcoming RNC convention, but he doesn't deserve it.

[Christian4Bush]

Being a veteran is not a permanent pass to do as you want without consequence.

BUMP that. That goes for Kerry as well as for McCain.

Besides, if Kerry doesn't make his time of service, honorable and/or not that it was, the centerpiece of his campaign, none of this is even an issue.

The fact that he flip-flops all over the place doesn't help him either...especially on the issue of President Bush's service in the TXNG.

By the way, if John Edwards issues a challenge about those who want to know John Kerry, spending 3 minutes with those who served with him 30 years ago, then what's his problem--when a 1 minute ad (time economy), with those who DID serve with him, for him, and over him, airs?

Inquiring FReepers want to know. At least, this one does.

[Zeppelin]

MAN! that is totally uncalled for! i'd rather see CHENEY's head on that!

still cant decide if Reno is the girliest man or the manliest girl ive ever seen. i'm thinking the latter. we should ask the Governator. he knows all about girlie men.

[Conspiracy Guy]

Here is Kerry's whole Viet Nam story.

First Down Kerry




This is how I flew above, the jungles there in Nam.
I held the skid and fired my gun, bam bam bam bam bam.
We approached the landing zone, I was the first man down.
“First Down Kerry”, I was called, Air Cav had come to town.
I designed the Huey, the Cobra, the Jolly Green.
Still I went to fight VC, I was a lean machine.
Swift boats, choppers, bombers too, ah yes I did it all.
For four months I was busy, but still I took the call.
I served with honor, brave, and true, saved so many men.
Viet Nam is safer now, I would go back again.

Conspiracy Guy aka DIF 8/5/2004