Fred Barnes: The Bloody Shirt Is Back (Did you know John Kerry served in Vietnam?)

The Weekly Standard ^ | August 30, 2004 | Fred Barnes

[ClancyJ]

Another thanks for your service there. Keep us informed as you can.

[SittinYonder]

Did you know John Kerry served in Vietnam? That's right - received three purple hearts!

[Chuzzlewit]

in 3 weeks time- after GWB's convention bounce, you will see the people on DU wringing their hands, that it is all over, and they picked the wrong guy--and they should have gone with Dean...

that is, if you could stomach DU, which I certainly can not.

[sarasmom]

Great to see that you can come around!
Amelia, it is not a partisan political thing, it is a blood debt, that the Viet Nam vets will extract from Kerry.

It has everything to do with a special kind of honor among veterans.
It is impossible to explain to anyone who has not lived it. Understanding is only acquired by true osmosis.
It is not a partisan political "thing".
Call it kharma, omerta, justice, vengeance or whatever you want, it is long overdue, and impossible to silence/stop.
It is human, and has to do with honor.

[SittinYonder]

I hope you're right. While everything seems to be going our way to clear-thinking, reasonable people who pay attention to what's going on, I'm worried a plurality of the voters will not be clear-thinking, reasonable people who pay attention to what's going on. I'm worried the swiftvet ads might backfire. People who only half-listen to the news are going to think "republican attack machine" and go with kerry.

[JasonC]

The special secret way to get to Kerry is to let him reveal his own space bending arrogance. Which isn't all that hard - one only needs to look at him funny and suggest mildly that he does not walk on water.

Think people. He is perfectly willing to file a lawsuit to try to shut up a group of US veterans 3 months before a presidential election, as a nominee and a senator. How is he going to act with the entire US government at his beck and call, under real opposition, if actually entrusted with such an office?

And the Dems shriek about the Patriot Act. They've called their commander in chief Hitler, run Goebbel's worthy hit pieces as "documentaries", and the President has calmly let them rant. What would Kerry do, if the same were thrown at him, and he had an FBI, IRS, and yes also a Patriot Act at his disposal? Anybody like the Swifties chances at the freedom of press treatment Moore and company got from Bush, in that scenario?

[cartoonistx]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Bump!

[SBprone]

"In 1960, John F. Kennedy didn't hide his World War II record as commander of PT-109, but he didn't talk it up either. When asked about being a hero, he mocked the idea and said it stemmed from having his boat shot out from under him."

The original JFK had enough class to know that losing one's boat is not a cool thing for a Navy skipper to do. And he knew that millions of American Navy vets knew it too. They may have cut him some slack because of his self-effacing comments about it. He got political mileage out of PT109 but he didn't shout about it from the rooftops like the new JFK does with his Vietnam service.

[tiki]

I'm glad the Swifties spoke up but I don't think we should let this take the focus off of SKerry's Senatorial record. He needs to be hit with both barrels simultaneously.

[dk/coro]

So true. I returned to Travis AFB at the end of an in- country tour in mid '67.

I will never forget it. My family was there -- including a daughter I had never seen. HOWEVER, this greeting was the exception. I clearly remember that a large majority of the troops were left to fend for themselves -- no family there; no expedited transportation; and no homecoming, AT ALL.

The memory of that sad day has had a lasting effect upon me. And, never as a Nation, should we treat our veterans in such a cavalier manner. Never again !!

Thank you very much for letting me get this off my chest.

[DeweyCA]

My dad earned a medal for bravery in WWII. He NEVER talked about it. Finally, a famiily-reunion booklet (he had 7 brothers) was produced about the lives of all 8 of the brothers, including my dad, and it was only then that I learned the facts about his bravery and getting the medal. Humble good brave man. That was my dad. Not a pompous BSer like Kerry.

[tiki]

My dad never talked about his medals. I never saw them until after he died.

I know a lot of Vietnam vets and only one of them talks and he's BSer from way back.

[Al Simmons]

The Kool-Aid drinkers better start getting some of that
REAL STRONG 'Jim Jones Mix' - cause they'll be slitting
their wrists before long. The cat is out of the bag.

History shall record the day that 250 highly decorated
Veterans came out of obscurity in their middle/golden
years, and heroically, at great risk to their
reputations and good names, did their country a greater
service than when they fought and bled in distant rice
paddies.

Every single Vet who was spat on and called a 'baby
killer' upon his return from 'Nam has been waiting for
35 years to get back at the single man most responsible
for fostering that climate of shameful hatred.

Payback is a BITCH, Johnny-boy.

[Paul_B]

Excellent piece. Perceptive and circumspect. This should appeal to both conservos and middle grounders.

[maryz]

It's a bulwark against attacks on his weak record on defense and national security as a U.S. senator since 1985. In an era of terrorist attacks, his votes to cut intelligence spending, indeed his overall dovishness, are liabilities.

What??? But I distinctly heard Kerry tell Chris Wallace on FNS a few weeks ago that he had a strong record voting for the military and for intelligence funding. Surely Kerry wouldn't lie -- he was in Vietnam, you know!

Chris didn't call him on it -- but I think he was as taken aback as I was; he was probably prepared for Kerry to defend his voting record, not outright deny it.

[maryz]

"He volunteered to go to Vietnam." How do we know this?

As I recall, he chose the Navy when his draft board turned down his request for a deferment at a time when the Army was doing all the heavy lifting in Vietnam. Probably just a coincidence . . .

[maryz]

Kristol's comment flows from the same insight that underlies Tyrrell's analysis of the situation:

So what really explains the rancor arising in this election year? Why is it that the Democrats cannot get over their hurt feelings about the final tally in the Sunshine State? My explanation is counseled by the historic record. The two branches of the most political generation of the twentieth century, the 1960s generation, are now in the fullness of middle age. They were on opposite sides of the barricades in 1968 and so they are today -- though the barricades have been replaced by party lines. John François Kerry, the Clintons, Dr. Howard Dean and other leading Democrats were Coat and Tie Radicals in 1968, radicals adhering to a leftist agenda while favoring the ambiguity of a coat and tie to preserve what Bill Clinton famously called "political viability." In 1968, George W. Bush and many of his cabinet members were Penny-Loafer Conservatives. They wanted nothing to do with protests and communes.

Immediately after the 1960s and throughout the 1970s, during which 1960s themes resonated, the contemporary wisdom held that 1960s youth culture was radical. Actually it was split. In 1972 the youth vote went against the radical George McGovern and for President Nixon. Support for the Vietnam War endured almost to the end. While protesting youth such as Kerry and the Clintons were smiled upon by the media despite the social pathologies that attended their lifestyle, for instance drugs and sexually transmitted diseases, the young conservatives developed their own distinctive point of view.

Sixties to the Finish.

[Pharmboy]

Dwight Eisenhower, Teddy Roosevelt, Andrew Jackson, William Henry Harrison, and the five ex-Union officers in the Civil War who became president benefited politically from their participation and leadership in a war. Most of them, in fact, were famous for their wartime service.

Geez, Fred, I think you forgot a biggie here. General Washington served also, and even he didn't wear it on his sleeve.

[Right_in_Virginia]

BTTT