Who Is Al Hubbard?

National Review ^ | June 1, 1971 | William Overend

[claudiustg]

---Al Hubbard is the executive director of the Vietnam Veterans against the War. I first met him the morning of April 21 at the VVAW "camp-in" on the Capitol Mall in Washington. He was sitting on a flatbed truck, explaining to a circle of six hundred or so members of his group that the Supreme Court had upheld the earlier ruling that the Veterans would not be allowed to sleep on the Mall that night. He was very calm and soft-spoken about it all, at one point interrupting himself to ask that volunteers take down a Vietcong flag someone had stuck in a tree. When he was finished talking, I went up to Hubbard and introduced myself and asked him about his service record, among other things. He said he had been an Air Force captain.

Actually, if I had watched Meet the Press the previous Sunday, I wouldn't have needed to ask that question at all. Hubbard had been introduced on that show by Lawrence E. Spivak as a former captain who had spent two years in Vietnam, and who had been decorated and injured in the process. The way it was later explained to me at the Washington "camp-in" was that Hubbard had been flying a transport plane into Danang one day in 1966 when he "caught some shrapnel in the spine."

That was April 21. On April 22, the story began to change. According to Frank Jordan, the Washington Bureau Chief of NBC News, NBC got a tip that Al Hubbard hadn't been an Air Force captain, but instead an Air Force sergeant. NBC reached Hubbard at a Washington hotel that night, asked Hubbard about the tip, and got a confession that, indeed, he had been lying about his rank. NBC broadcast that on its 11 P.M. news that night and also interviewed Hubbard on the Today Show the next morning. As NBC's Jordan remembers it, Hubbard explained he made up the business about having been an officer: "He was convinced no one would listen to a black man who was also an enlisted man."

Two weeks later, John Kerry, Yale's contribution to the VVAW, recalled that Today Show interview, citing it as proof of Hubbard's sincerity. "Al owned up to the rank question," said Kerry. "He thought it was time to tell the truth, and he did it because he thought it would be best for the organization." That, of course, neglects the fact that NBC had confronted Hubbard with its "tip" prior to the interview...

...And that about wrapped it up. The Pentagon had answered all my questions except the ones touching on Al Hubbard's medical records. Al Hubbard had the opportunity to defend himself. Instead he chose to make no comment, and I was left to draw my own conclusions.

So what to do? First, of course, report it for my employer, CBS News. But the story required a longer telling than broadcast time permits. As a liberal, it had occurred to me that raising questions about Al Hubbard might hurt the antiwar movement, but as a journalist, it didn't seem that that should be a factor. I was wrong. No one would touch the story. Not David Sanford of the New Republic; not any other editor of any liberal publication, I contacted.---

[claudiustg]

They lied and misled and the liberal press didn't cover it.

Note that I exerpted the first part of the article, then the last two paragraphs. It's worth reading the whole thing.

[x1stcav]

Just curious, but where is the b*st*rd today?

[claudiustg]

No idea.

[rineaux]

in cambodia preparing for the return of the most hol-e shiteye kerry.

[x1stcav]

That's a good place for him.

Then, and again, I have to reserve my most venomous rage for the leftists in the media and the demonrat party during that time that gave these losers such validity and credibility.

Are you listening Wayne Morris, Claiborne Pell, Ted Kennedy, Walter Cronkite, and you other leftwing a$$holes? (Morris and Pell may have a hard time hearing over the crackling of the flames).

[PhilDragoo]

[pacpam]

Why was Kerry untouchable? His bad behavior while still a reservist sounds like chargeable offenses, but he skated? Inquiring minds want to know.

[rineaux]

stabbed our vietnam vets...

but you have to excuse me because, as the media and my supporters have said, i was just the young tender age of 27 and should not be responsible for my actions at this young.

[Mike Darancette]

Hubbard was/is a poser.

[philman_36]

Search "Mayday Tribe".
A little history...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/local/2000/vietnam092799.htm
The Pentagon march was the culmination of five days of nationwide anti-draft protests organized by the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam -- "the Mobe." But a singular spark was provided by the Youth International Party (Yippies), a fringe group whose leaders, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin, had announced that they planned an "exorcism" of the Pentagon. They would encircle the building, chant incantations, "levitate" the structure and drive out the evil war spirits.
Snip...When the date for shutting down the government approached, the VVAW and most of the other protesters departed, leaving behind a hard core organized by the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice, and its more militant Mayday Tribe. The plan was to combine massive traffic disruptions with marches on the Pentagon, the Justice Department and the Capitol over three days.

Police and anti-war protesters scuffle at Dupont Circle as the "flower power" of the mid-60s turned into something more militant.

Sounds like the upcoming "protests" in NY are going to be a repeat performance.