Posted on 08/08/2004 12:04:09 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - The last time the Vietnam War loomed so large in a presidential election, it was 1972 and U.S. soldiers were still fighting in Southeast Asia.
But the war has taken center stage again as both parties seek the support of Vietnam veterans - turning to them as the emerging elder statesmen among U.S. war veterans.
At a conference this past week, on the 40th anniversary of the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution, the Vietnam Veterans of America urged its members to make their voices heard.
"This election is probably more important than any election for president since the Vietnam era," Navy veteran Ed Vick, recently retired chairman of advertising giant Young and Rubicam, told the roughly 550 veterans at the convention Wednesday. "We must vote."
For Vietnam veterans - many of whom once felt disconnected from mainstream politics and ostracized by other veteran groups - it’s surprising to be an important part of the 2004 presidential election.
"I had no idea I would be in the position I am now," said David Chung, a VVA member who said he returned from the war homeless. "A lot of people thought or hoped Vietnam would go away, but 30 years later it is at the center of things."
Many veterans see parallels between the current war in Iraq and the one they fought in. The enemy uses guerrilla tactics, casualties are mounting and public opinion is wavering.
Bill Chapman, a VVA member from Cocoa, Fla., remembers joining the Veterans of Foreign Wars when he returned from Vietnam and being told he didn’t fight in a real war.
"Back then, VFW, the American Legion really didn’t want anything to do with us," said Tom Meinhardt of Michigan. "Now they are begging us to join their outfits."
Democratic candidate John Kerry, a founding member of the VVA, is making his Vietnam experience a key part of his campaign, partly to highlight that President George W. Bush avoided serving in Vietnam. In response, conservative groups are bringing out veterans to question Kerry’s service.
That conflict sometimes evokes memories of the divisiveness that gripped the country during and after the Vietnam War, veterans said.
Many VVA members at the convention were hesitant to talk about the current political scene for fear of seeming to publicly endorse one candidate over another. Along with the group’s connection to Kerry, its members include officials of the Bush administration such as Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge, who also addressed delegates Wednesday.
Others, like Chung, hold a strong opinion that Kerry abandoned his comrades by returning home and opposing the war. The VVA said it never endorses a candidate.
Putting their war in the middle of an election battle threatens to fracture the group.
"It has caused some inner strife in the chapters," Chapman said. "You have die-hard Republicans, and you have Democrats, too, and it’s tearing some chapters apart like never before. After the election, we need to remember we will still be brothers."
The VVA is pressing the issue of Veterans Administration health care, hoping the political focus on their war and their members will translate into more money for what they say is an underfunded hospital system that denies benefits to 200,000 veterans because it runs out of money annually. It also wants to make sure the current crop of soldiers gets better government support.
Bump!
Kerry's World: Father Knows Best***As early as prep school, John Kerry showed signs that he shared his father's suspicions about America's cold war foreign policy. In a debate at St. Paul's in the late '50s, he argued that the United States should establish relations with Red China. During his junior year at Yale, he won a speech prize for an oration warning, "It is the specter of Western Imperialism that causes more fear among Africans and Asians than communism, and thus it is self-defeating." And, when he was tapped to deliver a graduation speech in 1966, he used the occasion to condemn U.S. involvement in Vietnam, intoning, "What was an excess of isolationism has become an excess of interventionism." ***
I am not eligible for membership in the VFW because of the time frame that I served in. Thats OK with me.
I never saw War in person, but I try to support our veterans all, even though many such as myself never actually saw conflict.
Membership to the VFW is open to those actually in a the area of operations,
as their name implies. Vietnam era service isn't enough.
The American Legion is open to all veterans.
The DAV limits membership to those who have a service related disability.
Each organization has it's own membership rules.
Here we go again, with the only advantage being that now we have those who were duped in the past and who now know better. We know the enemy for what they are.
IIRC he served in the Lebanon and Persian Gulf authorized campaigns.
http://www.vfw.org/pdf/eligibility.pdf
BTW, your tone of disrespect for other veterans is rather offensive.
If this is true, I just lost a lot of respect for both organizations and the WWII veterans running them at the time. Shame on them for leaving their fellow veterans out to dry. This just makes me mad.
I belong to the American legion and hav for a while , I dont recall any bias against Viet nam veterans in the organisation.
Could a writer by more obtuse? Duh, this has nothing to do with the votes of Vietnam vets and everything to do with the fact that Kerry thought portraying himself as a war hero would push him up in the polls.
Well, to every Bush fan's delight, it has backfired. The vets who are exposing him for the cowardly, Jane Fonda-conspiring, nitwit that he was/is are going to destroy his political career. The whole thing is precious.
I don't agree that this is Liberal vs Conservative. I believe that some very liberal Vietnam Vets, hate Kerry for how he smeared their reputations.
A person can be for abortion, for homosexual marriage and for entitlement programs, but very much against Kerry!
You should really learn to read before responding.
I posted the VFW elgibility requirements. I mentioned which my father met.
And you should learn to show other vets rather alot more respect while you are at it.
Do you remember the movie "A Time to Kill"; our vets are playing by the rules. As the infamous divorce lawyer said in the movie "cheat, cheat like hell"...and Bullock broke into psychiatrists office and got "the pics" of info that proved he had never found anyone insane during a trial, but had someone he had declared sane..locked up in his sanitorium declared insane. COOL....but I guess his records aren't where they can be photographed...too bad.
De'ja vue!
1971 - Kerry returned from Nam, dragged soldiers and veterans through the mud to gain national prominence.
2004 - Kerry runs for President, drags veterans through the mud adain to gain glory votes for what he did in 1971.
ONLY IN AMERICA and, of course, if you are a liberal can you get away with lying, war crimes and still become President.
It's true. The 'greatest generation' guys in the VFW ran me out of the VFW post in Louisville, KY when I came back in 1974. They claimed Vietnam was not a declared war and said the same thing about Korean War. I will never forget that night.
I had worked at the VFW post as a kid on BINGO nights and now I came back after 2 years in Vietnam and Thailand in my Marine Corps uniform and they told me I wasn't 'qualified' to join their club. They made some ugly comments about 'Nam vets. The VFW were proud of their WWII service and ashamed by the negativity generated by the Korean war vets (some were brainwashed POWS), as well as national shame and general disgrace extended on Vietnam veterans by the likes of Kerry and the VVAW.
Speaking of this matter. I think one of the reasons McCain said the Swifties were dishonorable, was that he has never realized the shame and disgrace extended to Vietnam Vets by Kerry. Remember, he was one of the few (him and the other POWS who actually came home) Vietnam vets who were actually welcomed home as heroes by the American public. Also, McCain was the son of an Admiral and connected to the high muckety-mucks. He never had to experience the rejection that many Vietnam vets felt when they applied for a job when they came home.
I'll be honest with you, and this is the first time I have publicly stated this: I was scheduled to be discharged in Nov 1974. I came home on regular leave from Japan after returning from Thailand and Vietnam, and that's when I received the cold shoulder from the VFW. I was afraid of what would happen when I was discharged and came home. I called HQMC while i was on leave and asked the MOS monitor if I re-enlisted, that I could be have my overseas tour extended for 2 years. He said it looked good, but I would have to officially request it when I returned back at my command in Japan. I went to the career planner and made it official. I re-enlisted for 6 years and stayed overseas for the next three years. I came to California in 1977 and two years later I was back overseas AGAIN.
Why am I telling you all this, now? Because I just NOW realized that I was really afraid of the rejection I felt in '74 becoming a PERMANENT reality. I knew if I stayed overseas, I could avoid it. I never felt rejection by the locals overseas for being a Vietnam vet. I was treated like any old GI there. I did a lot of drinking to kill the pain.
Wow, I never figgered I would come to this realization 12 years after my career eneded, typing out how I felt 20 years before that.
Does any of this make sense to any of you?
Semper Fidelis
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