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John Kerry to Vietnam: 'Send Me'?
townhall.com ^ | 8/26/04 | Larry Elder

Posted on 08/25/2004 10:11:22 PM PDT by kattracks

"During the Vietnam War," said former President Bill Clinton at the Democratic National Convention, "many young men -- including the current president, the vice president and me -- could have gone to Vietnam but didn't. John Kerry came from a privileged background and could have avoided it too. Instead he said, 'Send me.' When they sent those swift-boats up the river in Vietnam, and told them their job was to draw hostile fire -- to show the American flag and bait the enemy to come out and fight -- John Kerry said, 'Send me.'"

From the beginning, the Kerry campaign said to voters: Vote for me because I volunteered to go to Vietnam, faced hostile fire and came back a decorated war hero.

John O'Neill, who took over Kerry's swift-boat after Kerry left Vietnam, and co-author of the new book, "Unfit for Command," questions whether Kerry's attitude toward Vietnam was, indeed, "Send me":

John Kerry has often implied that he volunteered for the military right after college. But Kerry petitioned his draft board for a student deferment. At Yale, Kerry's antiwar political views were well known. He . . . used his commencement address in 1966 to criticize the foreign policy of President Lyndon Johnson, especially with regard to Vietnam. When he approached his draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy. . . . The top choice was the Navy Reserves where the duty commitment was shorter and a larger proportion of the period could be served stateside on inactive duty.

John Kerry's service record indicates that on February 18, 1966, he enlisted in the United States Naval Reserves, status 'inactive,' not in the U.S. Navy. These details are conveniently left out of all pro-Kerry biographies. Douglas Brinkley records that Kerry entered Officer Candidate School in Newport, Rhode Island; however, again he fails to note that Kerry was seeking to be an officer of the U.S. Naval Reserves.

The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth -- consisting of some 250 Democrats and Republicans -- now run ads attacking Kerry's record. They accuse Kerry, among other things, of lying repeatedly about being in Cambodia on Christmas 1968. Kerry said, "I have that memory which is seared -- seared -- in me." In 1979, Kerry wrote,

I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies who were drunk and celebrating Christmas. The absurdity of almost being killed by our own allies in a country in which president Nixon claimed there were no American troops was very real.

Steve Gardner, who served as Kerry's gunnery mate for most of Kerry's four-month stint in Vietnam, says that Kerry was never in Cambodia, and was over 50 miles away on that Christmas. The Kerry campaign now acknowledges that, no, on Christmas 1968, Nixon was not president. And, no, Kerry actually went to Cambodia in January 1969. But, no, Special Operations sent Kerry to Cambodia on a "top secret" mission, for which no paperwork exists to corroborate Kerry's presence. Convenient.

The Democrats' new-found affection for a commander-in-chief with military experience simply boggles the mind. In 1992, Bill Clinton -- who, let's say, finessed his way out of the draft after receiving his draft notice -- ran against George Herbert Walker Bush. President Bush-41 received a Distinguished Flying Cross for heroism and extraordinary achievement in aerial flight as pilot of a torpedo plane, who, although his plane was hit and set afire, continued his plunge toward the target and scored damaging bomb hits before bailing out of the plane. At 19, Bush was the youngest Navy pilot, at that time, during WWII. In 1996, President Clinton then ran against Bob Dole, who nearly lost his life from wounds he sustained during the 1944 invasion of Italy. Dole received two Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star.

Where were the we-need-a-president-with-military-experience Democrats then?

Former presidential contender Bob Dole said,

I respect (Kerry's) record, but three Purple Hearts -- he never bled that I know of. They were all superficial wounds. As far as I know, he never spent one day in the hospital, I don't think he draws any disability pay. He doesn't have any disability. And he's boasting about three Purple Hearts, when you think of some of the people who really got shot up in Vietnam. . . . Maybe he should apologize to all the other two-and-a-half million veterans who served. He wasn't the only one who was in Vietnam. I think Senator Kerry needs to talk about his Senate record, which is pretty thin. That's probably why he's talking about his war record, which is pretty confused.

"I'm John Kerry, and I'm reporting for duty," said Kerry, during his speech at the Democratic National Convention. Again, from the very beginning, Kerry made his service in Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign. And to this, the Swift Boat Veterans now say, "Bring it on."



TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: kerry; kerrylies; larryelder; sbv; swiftboatveterans; swiftboatvets

1 posted on 08/25/2004 10:11:22 PM PDT by kattracks
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To: kattracks
John Kerry has often implied that he volunteered for the military right after college. But Kerry petitioned his draft board for a student deferment. At Yale, Kerry's antiwar political views were well known. He . . . used his commencement address in 1966 to criticize the foreign policy of President Lyndon Johnson, especially with regard to Vietnam. When he approached his draft board for permission to study for a year in Paris, the draft board refused and Kerry decided to enlist in the Navy. . . . The top choice was the Navy Reserves where the duty commitment was shorter and a larger proportion of the period could be served stateside on inactive duty.

This part of kerry's history has recieved almost zero coverage. I am constantly shouting it from the rooftops.

2 posted on 08/25/2004 10:24:49 PM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: Irish Eyes
I'll join you. His applying for the Navy reserves is no different from the president's joining the NG. At that time the reserves and NG seemed to be choices that had low probablity of being sent to Vietnam...Kerry had bad luck.
3 posted on 08/25/2004 10:39:01 PM PDT by lainde (Heads up...We're coming and we've got tongue blades!!)
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To: kattracks
Ramsey Clark to Join Panel for Saddam’s Defense

arabnews press release 25 August 2004


NOTE :
Ramsey Clark is pictured below with Kerry and
Vietnam phony vet Al Hubbard
Who was head of the
Vietnam Veterans Against the War movement.




NEW:
FReeper smith288 has an online version of
Kerry's "The New Soldier"
You can read it without downloading pdf files!
CLICK HERE


From Kerry's "The New Soldier":
Al Hubbard Sgt., 22 Troop Carrier Squadron Aug. ’65-June ’66

Emotions: Walking down the flight line at Saigon past stacks of aluminum cases containing American bodies and past stacks of aluminum luggage containing American currency. Seeing the tight, sad face of an Airman loading the bodies aboard a dirty Air Force Transport and the wide smiling face of a stewardess greeting the passengers aboard a clean Pan American Clipper Jet. Hearing a Vietnamese beg you to leave his country and an American colonel tells you to bomb his country. Hearing a Vietnamese invite you to live in his home, after the war and an American explain why you can’t live in his block, after the war. Flying over barren, brown, safe American held terrain and over lush, green unsafe enemy terrain. Feeling happy to be leaving a country in which you do not belong and sad to be returning to a country in which you are not allowed to belong. Sacrificing a portion of your consciousness so you won’t have to deal with being there and building mental blocks so you won’t have to deal with having been there.

- Al Hubbard, proven fraud who never set foot in Viet Nam. The only Vietnamese he ever met was when he was collaborating with the North Vietnamese in Paris
on the American Communist Party's nickel.
John Kerry's explanation: "He (Hubbard) simply exaggarated his particular position.
But nobody knew it at the time. And those things happen."

The New Soldier, (46 pages)
By John Kerry
and Vietnam Veterans
Against the War

PART I (pdf file)
PART II (pdf file)
PART III (pdf file)

Kerry hopes everyone
in the USA gets this book!

NEW:
“Without question,
we were held captive longer
because of the anti-war people,
the Kerrys, the Fondas and Haydens,
the names we knew over there -
they encouraged the enemy to hang on.”
Excerpt from “Stolen Honor” website
- Leo Thorsness
Former Vietnam POW
CLICK HERE




Send this url for the online version

http://ejsmithweb.com/fr/newsoldier/

Send this url for the Stolen Honor website

http://www.stolenhonor.com/


Print this out (46 pages) and disribute it,
especially to the liberals you know.

Copy and paste the links to everyone you know.

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



4 posted on 08/25/2004 10:39:54 PM PDT by 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub (Hanoi Jane and Hanoi Kerry sitting in a tree, sitting in a tree F-R-E-N-C-H-I-N-G)
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To: lainde

He did not just say "Send Me" he first asked for a deferment. No one ever mentions that.


5 posted on 08/25/2004 11:08:29 PM PDT by Irish Eyes
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To: Irish Eyes; lainde
I'll join also.

I would ask who, in the mid '60's looked forward to recieving their draft notice?

There is no dishonor in selecting an alternative service (National Guard etc.) prior to being drafted.

The problem arises when the Kerry's of this world denigrate those that did and intimate they are somehow less in stature, as Americans, than those that did not so choose.

Many have become aware, that for a Democrat Party member to have fled to Canada, lied about their personal status and otherwise used people and officials to get out of serving their country, are given a free pass.

This regurgitation of Vietnam will serve to make many more aware of this double standard and reject it. The lies to the contrary be damned.

6 posted on 08/26/2004 4:00:55 AM PDT by G.Mason (A war mongering, red white and blue, military industrial complex, Al Qaeda incinerating American.)
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