Posted on 08/24/2004 8:43:29 PM PDT by Jen
An open letter to Senator John F. Kerry:
My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year and the recovery is terribly painful. Then she developed staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same scar makes me cringe.
That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now in my heart. The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold blooded killers, torturers and rapists of the like of the Nazi SS or the Taliban?
Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers and all the other heroes. That was why we volunteered. But for political expediency, you, John Kerry, have rewritten history again. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, you testified before Congress in 1971 in these exact words about incidents you supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets:
"They personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals, turned up the power, cut off limbs, blowed up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."
I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people. We built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food and clothing and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids; our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.
My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced unprincipled liar and a disgrace. You have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans!
Sure, there were a couple of bad-apples, but I saw none and I saw it all. And if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least, report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar!
Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass charactar, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over, daily, in all aspects of my life.
Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and you totally dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President, who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot.
I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard (just as did our President) and I am as proud of her as I am of my own son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.
Senator Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human Rights Bill, HR2883 in 2001 after it passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribes people in Vietnam died since then who could otherwise have been saved. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/Pow Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW's, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the United States to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry?
Simple, your first cousin, C. Steward Forbes, CEO of Colliers, International recently signed a contract with Hanoi that is worth billions of dollars for Colliers International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam.
"Hanoi John" now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service. But to me, you are a phony, opportunistic hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine, all that's coming out is horse manure and you are spreading it everywhere!
Medals do not make a man. Morals do!
Don Bendell - Cannon City, Colorado......PLEASE FORWARD TO ALL ON YOUR E-MAIL LIST, THANKS!
I have been on that street!
My blood is boiling too, Victoria! I'm going to work from the office a few days a week starting Thursday - those lefty reporters better watch out! ;-)
I bet you have, Chieftain! Isn't that a great photo?
Woohoo! Good for you, Jen.
Thanks for what YOU are doing to help the Swifties! And thanks for serving in the Marine Corps. Nice to meet you.
You're welcome.
So true. Thanks for your comments.
Oooooh! Something to share with my lefty co-workers (journalists)! Thanks. Saving and printing now.
I appreciate the bump.
Hi there young one and welcome to FR. Young FReepers give me hope for the future of our country! :)
I've had over 300 hit on the website & about 40 positive replies since I started posting this Campaign Button this evening...
Yes, very powerful.
this tidbit about John Kerry's cousin is in an old American Spectator article at the beginning of Clintons term when he pushed to normalize relations with Vietnam- I will have to go find it- anyone have it handy ??
Kerry is lower than worm s**t. Everything about him is phony. He wants to make Viet Nam his only issue. Good. Viet Nam will destroy him. These honorable vets will once again defend America. They have long memories.
Thanks for the post.
I hold many hard-line republican beliefs, yet I am just as concerned by George Bush as I am with John Kerry.
This was a powerful letter detailing the important legacy of the thousands of Vietnam veterans who served with honor. I do not believe John Kerry to be a great man - far from it.
However, when I see General Anthony Zinni on TV saying that Iraq war was not an urgent matter, I mistrust our current president as well. General Zinni, an absolutely legendary Marine, echoes the opinion of many Americans that the Iraq was, while it may have been inevitable, was not urgent.
The attacks of 2001 posed our current president with a challenge completely unique in US history. His urgency to enter the war can be seen as a reaction to those attacks or an outgrowth of his personal ideology of pre-emptive strikes, democracy by force, etc...
Was anyone else disturbed to see so much growth in the size of our government? The tax cuts we so prize are going to disappear if we invest in 'shadow governments' and new beaureaus in the cabinet...
I am proud to say that I believe in a strong military, a strong stance of leadership, and a smaller government. As a result, I wish I didn't have to choose between these candidates. I just don't trust either of them at all.
HR2883 of the 107th Congress (2001-2002) was The Intelligence authorization bill. However HR2368 was the Vietnam Human Rights Bill, as was HR2833. The later was the one passed by 410-1. the one being Congressman Paul. Congress Oxley later said he would have voted for the bill if not "unavoidably absent" when the vote was held
I've found in the Congressional Record indications that someone put a "secret hold" on the bill, and discussions of the bill to grant favored or "normalized" trade relations with Vietnam. Kerry spoke strongly in favor of that, inspite of the fact that the NVA newspaper had commented favorabily on the 9-11 attack, basically saying we deserved it. Kerry argued that that was the "hardliners" and that we needed to give VN the trade concessions to encourage dialog and stregthen the "softliners". (Which, IMHO, is pure BS, the NVA Army newspape is not going to print anything which is in disagreement with the highested levels of the communist Party and government.) There was some kind of Switheroo, whereby Hiltlery became the presiding officer of the Senate, and involving Kerry "suggesting the asbsence of a quorun, an then as teh roll was called another unanamous consent request to suspend the quorum call, which they did, with Hillarry being the one to say "without objection". There was much discussion of a Vietnames fish from the Mekong that was/is being sold in the US as "Catfish" even though it is a different genus and species.
Kerry and McCain waved the Bloody Shirt of their service in Vietnam, in support of normalizing relations, what was once called "Most Favored Nation" status.
The Chair was switched via that same switheroo manuever several times.
Little Tommy Daschle drug out the old saw about how trade with a dictatorship would result in "democratic ideas" flowing in with the trade. (Worked real well in China,hasn't it?)
Normalization of trade was approved 88-12.
I guess one can infer that the secret hold on the Vietnam Human Rights Act was Kerry's, but it could have as well been McCains.
I couldn't tell if the hold was released once Kerry and McCain got the goodies for the Peoples Republic of Vietnam. Eventually it probably was, since the bill got as far as a conference committe. I could find no record of the Senate's amendments, but they must be out there somewhere.
Yes. This issue predated his presidential campaign be several years. Kerry acted as a roadblock to any official investigations on POW/MIA issues. According to POW/MIA Families Against John Kerry:
John Kerry abandoned our husbands, sons, fathers, and brothers in favor of trade and normalization of relations with Vietnam. His actions paved the way for the further abandonment of POWs and MIAs from World War II, the Korean War, and the Cold War.John Kerry, as chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs, ordered the destruction of committee documents, blocked avenues of investigation, and misrepresented progress on the POW/MIA issue to justify lifting of the trade embargo against Vietnam.
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