The next layer of the Onion is the noted liason interaction regarding POW investigations and Kerry's schmoozing with Vietnamese Government officials.
Kerry reassuring the Vietnamese Gov that their will not be any further investigations coming from the Senate...issue will simply fade away with U.S. Media going eleswhere for a story.
John Kerry: The Chameleon Senator By Ted Sampley
U.S. Veteran Dispatch October-December 1996 Issue :
In 1991, the United States Senate created the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs to examine the possibility that U.S. POW/MIAs might still be held by the Vietnamese. As chairman of the Select Committee, Kerry proved himself to be a masterful chameleon portraying to the public at large what appeared to be an unbiased approach to resolving the POW/MIA issue. But, in reality, no one in the United States Senate pushed harder to bury the POW/MIA issue, the last obstacle preventing normalization of relations with Hanoi, than John Forbes Kerry. (Remember the middle name "Forbes").
In fact, his first act as chairman was to travel to Southeast Asia, where during a stopover in Bangkok, Thailand, he lectured the U.S. Chamber of Commerce there on the importance of lifting the trade embargo and normalizing relations with Vietnam. During the entire life of the Senate Select Committee, Kerry never missed a chance to propaganderize and distort the facts in favor of Hanoi.
Sydney H. Schanberg, associate editor and columnist for New York Newsday and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist veteran of the Indochina War whose book, The Death and Life of Dith Pran, became the subject of the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields, chronicled some of Kerry's more blatant pro-Hanoi biases in several of his columns.
In a Nov. 21, 1993 column, Schanberg wrote, "Highly credible information has been surfacing in recent days which indicates that the headlines you have been reading about a 'breakthrough' in Hanoi's cooperation on the POW/MIA issue are part of a carefully scripted performance. The apparent purpose is to move toward normalization of relations with Hanoi.
"Sen. John F. Kerry, chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, is one of the key figures pushing for normalization. Kerry is currently on a visit to Vietnam where he has been doing two things: (1) praising the Vietnamese effusively for granting access to their war archives and (2) telling the press that there's no believable evidence to back up the stories of live POWs still being held. "Ironically, that very kind of live-POW evidence has been brought to Kerry's own committee on a regular basis over the past year, and he has repeatedly sought to impeach its value. Moreover, Kerry and his allies on the committee - such as Sens. John McCain, Nancy Kassebaum and Tom Daschle - have worked to block much of this evidence from being made public."
In December of 1992, not long after Kerry was quoted in the world press stating "President Bush should reward Vietnam within a month for its increased cooperation in accounting for American MIAs," Vietnam announced it had granted Colliers International, based in Boston, Massachusetts, a contract worth billions
Note...John McCain appears in the mix,
his recent defense of Kerry's record.
Is John McCain nervous about something?.....could a Kerry investigation lead to his doorstep?
Remember the media recently..prior to the Dem ticket selection for veep.
John McCain openly talking to Kerry repeatedly..then visits.
Did media ask the right question/maintain the theme..both Kerry /McCain wanted...ie McCain as a possible veep.
A usefull slight of hand...as Kerry and McCain both obtained *Pledges from each other concerning past *Closet Skeletons.
I'm thinking so....if Kerry was caught talking to McCain discretely..the media would be salivating....it needed to be done in the open.
So far..little coverage has occured in regards to Kerry's overseas -restore relationship with Vietnam junket.
why?