One point that hasn't been addressed in great detail...Perhaps the most effective defense Kerry has offered are the apparent inconsistencies between some the the current statements by the Swifties, as opposed to what they said and wrote on his fitreps and award citations, as wel as their statements defendign him during campaing in the 90's..Oddly enough, it's not really an inconsistancy, though it's understandable why the Swifties aren't eager to say..At the time of Kerry's 4 months in Nam, everyone knew the war was over...Nixon was elected on a platform to end the war..and the mood of the country was easy to assess.. the US would NOT do what was necesaary to win militarily..I was never there..I was based in Spain from 68-72..but have considerable aneoctal evidence for my thesis..witht he war winding down, most commanders wer willing, nay eager, to do the one thing they could do for the troops and junior officers in their command..hand out medals and commendations..let a guy punch his ticket, dress up his resume a little..heck..you were asking men to live and die, in hellacious conditions, to at best, get a stalemate, a draw, so why not let them get a few rewards....I believe the militray did do a study of the frequency of awards in the last year of the VN war...it wasn't well publizied, becuase everyone in the service benefitted..I'm not saying, nor that awardswere handed out en masse that weren't truly earned..rather that more likely the porcedures to investigate the awards, when submitted, were lax, and often they weren't knocked down to a lower award, as the military normally does..and the Swifites probably,and understandably don't want to offer this as an explanation; but ironically, neither does theKerry camp want to see it used, becuase it would denigrate ALL of Kerry's awards.
Your "grade inflation" suggestion is an interesting one. The only problem is if Kerry lied to self inflate his grades.
Tonk..would you want to opine on my post 47?..Didn't want my comments misconstrued..regards..
The New Soldier by John Kerry and Vietnam Veterans Against the War
FREE Download of The New Soldier by John Kerry
and and Vietnam Veterans Against the War
Print and distibute the book that John Kerry "forgets" to mention!
The one book he refuses to bring up.
"honor" John Kerry
Help America know what a "hero" he was at the Winter Soldier
scam he and Jane Fonda pulled on the USA when he came home.
Make sure Kerry "fans" get their copy!
http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier%20Inro.pdf
http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier.pdf
http://nomayo.mu.nu/archives/New%20Soldier%20Epilogue.pdf
"Phony Vietnam veterans alleged in books
Guenter Lewy's 1978 book America in Vietnam (pages 316-317) and B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley's Stolen Valor (Verity Press, Inc., Dallas, Texas)(pages 113, 131-137) contain similar information about alleged flaws in Lane's book. Neither book, however, refutes any of the testimony given during the Winter Soldier Investigation.
Lawyer and leftist activist Mark Lane was one of the organizers of Winter Soldier. In 1970, Lane had published a book called Conversations With Americans purporting to be interviews with Vietnam veterans about war crimes, containing Vietnam tales of atrocities. Reporter Neil Sheehan showed some interviewed in Lane's book had never served in Vietnam and others had not been in the situations they described. Lane admitted he did not check military records, as confirmation of details was not relevant. Lane later confirmed these militarty records.
The following are often falsely listed as being participants in Winter Soldier, but were actually in Lane's book instead. This confusion is probably due to Stolen Valor having an explanation of Lane's history within the section on Winter Soldier.
Chuck Onan, stock room clerk in Beaufort, S.C.
Michael Schneider, deserted in Europe and deserted again in the USA.
Terry Whitmore, was in an unpopulated area of Vietnam.
Garry Gianninoto, medical corpsman at battalion headquarters.
VVAW leader and Winter Soldier co-organizer Al Hubbard lied about being an officer, and sustaining war injuries - but he never testified at Winter Soldier .
According to the investigative work of Burkett, Lewy and others, there were many imposters, liars, and plain nutjobs who infiltrated the ranks of the anti-war movement, and, in some cases, testified to war crimes and atrocities that never occurred in order to get attention, sympathy, and, in one documented case, medals and honors."
http://www.worldhistory.com/wiki/W/Winter-Soldier-Investigation.htm