Posted on 08/18/2004 12:01:33 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
— An intense dislike of U.S. Sen. John Kerry was an almost visible emotion that swept through the Aqua Turf Club Tuesday night at a benefit dinner sponsored by the Vietnam Veterans for the Truth.
About 100 guests paid $150 to attend the prime rib dinner and hear a number of speakers call Kerry a dishonest politician who had lied about his medals and war record and had falsely accused American soldiers of atrocities to help launch his political career.
Before the dinner began, Jerome R. Corsi signed a number of copies of the book "Unfit For Command" that he co-wrote with John J. O'Neill — who could not attend because of other commitments.
Corsi, who calls himself a researcher and professional writer, said the book is an account by more than 60 men who served on the same kind of swift boat Kerry commanded in Vietnam for four months in 1968. Corsi said he wrote the final chapters, which challenge assertions by Kerry about Vietnam atrocities — allegations that the author said, "falsely dishonored all who served there." He said he edited the rest of the book, which was written by O'Neill.
Corsi said challenging the book because the men it quotes did not serve on the same boat with Kerry is like saying men who did not ride in the same tank with Gen. George Patton didn't serve with him.
"They were in identical boats, near him. They ate with him, slept near him and got to know him. And most of them dislike him intensely, and there is much evidence to prove that at least two of the Purple Hearts he got from self inflicted wounds were minor in nature. And the wounds — received when Kerry threw a grenade too near himself and was hit with some shrapnel — were not inflicted under enemy fire, a requirement for receiving a Purple Heart."
As to the fellow sailor Kerry rescued as he was drowning — a member of his famous "band of brothers" — Corsi said Kerry took his boat out of the line of fire during the incident and only returned after fire subsided. That is when the evidence shows he fished the man out of the water, he said.
Kerry has never produced a single affidavit or other piece of evidence to back his claims of Vietnam atrocities, Corsi said. And Kerry's oft-repeated statement that his memory was seared on Christmas Day in 1968 because then-President Nixon ordered him to cross the Vietnam border into Cambodia is typical of his falsehoods and embellishments, Corsi said, since Nixon did not become president until January of the following year.
Kerry has since changed his original story and said his Cambodian foray came about later than he had originally remembered.
Corsi said the book is well researched and came about only because of Kerry's presidential candidacy. And he insists it had nothing to do with the current administration.
"We were never in contact with the Bush-Cheney team or any member of the current administration," he said. "We were not paid a penny by any Republican and did this book on our own because so many Vietnam veterans — including O'Neill, who took over command of Kerry's swift boat after he departed — are outraged at what this man had done."
Corsi said he is being paid a percentage of the book's profits, but O'Neill is giving all of his to various veterans' charities.
"This book is not about George Bush," he said. "It is about John Kerry and the fact that he is unfit to be our commander in chief."
Jeffrey M. Epstein, media relations director for Vietnam Veterans for the Truth, said O'Neill would probably have voted for any other Democrat except Kerry. "This book and indeed, this organization would probably have never happened if he had not been nominated," he said. President Larry Bailey, a retired Navy captain, agreed.
Former U.S. Attorney Dexter Lehtinen — with his wife, U.S. Rep. Lleana Ros-Lehtinen of Miami at his side — spoke of waking up in a hospital ship off Vietnam in 1971 after three days of unconsciousness. He had been severely wounded in action, his jaws were wired shut and his left cheekbone was missing,
He said the first thing he heard shortly thereafter was Kerry's testimony before Congress.
"I remember lying there in disbelief as I learned how Kerry told the world that I served in an army reminiscent of Genghis Khan's, that officers like me routinely let their men plunder villagers and rape villagers at will."
Those charges are unsupported and false, he said, and he believes such a man cannot be allowed to be president of the United States.
Kerry Denies Hiding War Records - Mr. Sandusky said it doesn't surprise him that Mr. Kerry may have forgotten where he was then because, like many serving in Vietnam, they didn't want to think about Christmas. "We didn't know where we were at for Christmas," he said. "If [Mr. Kerry] said it, I believe it. I've known John Kerry for 35 years, and he's never lied to me."
[O'NEILL: He was down at SaDec (SaDec Province, in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam), Pat. In his biography entitled "Tour of Duty," all of a sudden, instead of being in Cambodia on December the 25th and 25th - as he had said more than 50 times in articles, and on the floor of the Senate - all of a sudden in his biography "Tour of Duty," he is 55 miles away, at a base, safely ensconsed in a base, writing a letter about sugar plums dancing in his head.] Source
"I've known John Kerry for 35 years, and he's never lied to me."
This is too rich.
I wonder . . . it would be interesting for them to try at least to file a suit to have those purple hearts rescinded as an insult and affront to all those that were genuinely earned. Would at least make great press for a while.
I wonder what became of those DNC lawyers that were going after O'Neill and his boys. Haven't heard much about them in the past few days. They must have had something more important to do. Maybe a plumbing job in St. Louis came up.
"seared into his memory" ...
You mean you never caught him in a lie, don't you, Mr. Sandusky?
And, btw, Mr. Sandusky, I haven't known you for 35 years and already I don't trust a word you say.
"I remember lying there in disbelief as I learned how Kerry told the world that I served in an army reminiscent of Genghis Khan's, that officers like me routinely let their men plunder villagers and rape villagers at will."
This is the timebomb that the left is really trying to defuse. It isn't the lying Senator Ketchup did about his exploits that they care about, it's the lying he did about the atrocities, the treason Hanoi JANE committed cavorting with the North Vietnamese during the war, and the murderous bombings committed by Hitlery Rotten Klintoon's friends with the Weatherman Underground. This numbskull Kerry, in trying to pass himself as Sgt. York, has reopened the bitterness and pain of the Vietnam vets being called babykillers and worse by the left when they returned. The more the Swift Vets expose Kerry, the more that the focus shifts from the medals to what he said in front of the Senate, on the Cavett show, and with the VVAW, the more other extremes of the '60s and '70s anti-war movement come flooding back. This time, it isn't going to be an unpopular war and a compliant media that allow the anti-American vermin to slip away to murder Brinks truck drivers, make exercise videos, and become US Senators. No, this time, the people who were directly hurt by it all the first time around, and the people who weren't in the war, but saw their country racked by violent protests and bombings, and saw patriotism become a dirty word, they aren't going to let it happen again.
"Every testimony by North Vietnamese generals in the postwar years has affirmed that they knew they could not defeat the United States on the battlefield, and that they counted on the division of our people at home to win the war for them. The Vietcong forces we were fighting in South Vietnam were destroyed in 1968. In other words, most of the war and most of the casualties in the war occurred because the dictatorship of North Vietnam counted on the fact Americans would give up the battle rather than pay the price necessary to win it. This is what happened. The blood of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese, and tens of thousands of Americans, is on the hands of the anti-war activists who prolonged the struggle and gave victory to the Communists."
Could you comment on this reality and how you think it applies to the role of John Kerry?***
Obviously,that man is incapable of figuring out the difference between a lie and the truth.But then,he's been Kerry's friend for 35 years.
And I still have my lists and old newspaper clippings of just WHO were the active participants.
I'm sending the link to O'Reilly. Not that he'll ever read it.
Ha! He should, he's mentioned in it!
Thanks. I hope a lot of people read this.
In 1972 there was no way you could isolate yourself from the all inclusive Vietnam War struggle of both sides. I remember it being called the first TV war. While in high school, I watched everyday everything about Vietnam from the tet in '68 to sKerry in '71. It was easy as pie to tune in and immediately know what side of the war was being discussed by the simply assessing the hair style of the commentators. Not only did we either protest or celebrate, we had to look the part. The rarity was the long hair rooting for the military or the crewcut rooting for a pullout.
In the midst of this mess, along comes John Kerry. Uniform wearing long hair that spoke so slow with articulated vision so as to be spell binding. His message was unbelievably horrible which added to the suspense of his slow speech technic.
And being 1 year away from my 18th birthday and brand new draft card, I knew I had a big decision coming up. VVAW and Kerry made it a little easier for me to rasie my hand for the USMC, because I hated what the VVAW was saying, and I detested Kerry's America bashing while in Uniform. (I don't think we called it America bashing back then, but it fits).
33 years ago I said 'Up Yours' John Kerry. Today, it's 'Screw you' John Kerry. The msg has't changed.
Leave to a tennis pro to write the best essay yet on the Swifties/Kerry imbroglio.
- Selwyn Duke lives in Westchester County, New York. He is a tennis professional, internet entrepreneur, and writer whose works have appeared on various sites on the Internet, including Intellectual Conservative and Mensnet. Selwyn has traveled extensively in his life, visiting exotic locales such as India, Morocco, and Algeria, and quite a number of other countries while playing the international tennis circuit and going abroad for other purposes. A large number of his works can be found at his site: www.SelwynDuke.com. http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/duke
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