Posted on 08/27/2004 12:24:06 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
What if both sides are right? That thought comes to mind repeatedly as I try to hash out the battle between veterans who attack John Kerry's Vietnam combat record and those who defend it.
Out of the fog of war, politics and old memories, long ago events have become the focus of an ugly election year mud fight as a group of swift boat veterans and others contend that Kerry didn't deserve the Silver Star, Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts he was awarded for various actions.
Watching and reading the various conflicting accounts of what happened or didn't happen, of how brave Kerry was or wasn't and how much he was hurt or not hurt, I'm struck by one consistency: how his crews and others who were closest in proximity to Kerry give the most support to Kerry's side of the stories.
A striking example emerged at the newspaper where I work when Chicago Tribune metropolitan editor, William Rood, who was another swift boat commander in the operation that led to Kerry's Silver Star Medal, broke a 35-year silence to support the official account of Kerry's heroics in leading a 1969 attack against an enemy ambush along the Dong Cung River.
"The critics have taken pains to say they're not trying to cast doubts on the merit of what others did, but their version of events has splashed doubt on all of us," he wrote in an essay published in Sunday's Tribune. "It's gotten harder and harder for those of us who were there to listen to accounts we know to be untrue, especially when they come from people who were not there."
Indeed, even those who were present at the actions in question came away with differing accounts of details, such as whether there was hostile fire or not, whether Kerry was hurt by enemy fire or fragments from his own grenade launcher.
But anyone who knows the courage it took to ride those 51-foot aluminum swift boats up and down the rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta would have a hard time arguing that it did not take tremendous courage simply to report for duty every day.
As President Bush said on Monday, distancing himself from the Kerry attacks, "I think Sen. Kerry served admirably and he ought to be proud of his record."
So why are we chewing over a 30-year-old war when we should be hashing out more current issues — like the current Iraq war?
The easiest answer is that it's a slow August for news between political conventions. It's the "silly season" in newsroom lingo, although this story offers little to laugh at.
And, of course, Kerry brought this dust storm on himself by making his war record a central theme in his campaign. In a crowded Democratic field, his dimming chances in Iowa reignited after Jim Rassman, a Republican whose life Kerry saved in Vietnam, reappeared in Kerry's life to endorse him at a campaign rally.
But, "politics ain't beanbag," as Chicago writer Finley Peter Dunne's Mr. Dooley famously said.
Inevitably Kerry's longtime adversaries would come up with ways to turn his lemonade into a big fat lemon, which is not an easy task in defense of a president whose own history with the Texas Air National Guard has raised questions.
I suspect the real quarrel of Kerry's critics is not with his war record but with his post-combat peace movement record.
He was a prominent leader in protests by the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. He recounted stories before Congress in 1971 that he'd heard of American soldiers who "had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads ... "
He also said he had "committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers ... "
A lot of Vietnam veterans felt betrayed by Kerry's testimony, although I've talked to others who were grateful that he was exposing national leaders who the vets felt had betrayed them.
Kerry more recently has acknowledged that some of those horror stories were later discredited, but he has not backed away from his central message that it was not the soldiers but the nation's Vietnam-era leaders who should be held accountable for the war's atrocities.
He has a point.
As we later learned, projects such as the Phoenix counterinsurgency program authorized the use of brutal terrorist tactics against enemy combatants and sometimes civilians who got in our way in Vietnam's "free fire zones."
Such are the ugly memories that make Vietnam a hot, divisive topic that will haunt our baby boomer generation as long as we walk the Earth.
Why are we re-fighting Vietnam? Because its questions remain unsettled in our national conscience.
Now Kerry's big battle will involve turning the debate around from what he did during the war to what he can do to avoid more wars like it.
Page is a Pulitzer Prize-winning syndicated columnist specializing in urban issues. He is based in Washington, D.C. (cpage@tribune.com)
Kerry is committing Nuancicide, and this moron can't save him.
He has the media on his side... during the GOP Convention the only stories will be the protests and the return of AWOL... without any new evidence or anything.
Well, then we'll just have to correct the lies and point out that those nuts are Kerry supporters (I hope they get a lot of coverage).
I have had my tagline since Steyn gave me the idea....I like my AWOL comment!
LOL
Kerry's "cleverness" is killing his campaign.
Cutting through the media bias will be pretty tough, I hope it happens though.
Kerry's supporters have drank from polluted waters... whatever that means.
This is very telling.
The media is starting to realize that they can't just keep calling the Swifties liers...and hope this will go away.
Now they have to find someway to say that maybe the Kerry group just has a different vision.
Right off the bat...the guy writes about...
'What if they are both right'....
Playing that whole nuance garbage.
The media is coming to grips...Thanks to Kerry changing his tune on Cambodia in 68 and the First Purple Heart...that the Swifties have some truth and evidence.
The wheels are coming off....and they are looking for some spin whole that they can all hide out in.
It won't matter that the media will try and change the story during the convention. Ignoring it for a week won't kill it. Because the Swifties have even more ads coming.
ALSO, Kerry has kept this thing in the spotlight...he made a mess of it this week...he is trying to make the Swifties a campaign issue. And that may carry it all the way through next week.
He would not denounce all 527s...and no matter how hard he tries to pin this stuff on Bush....it won't work..because Bush denounced them...Kerry did not.
Due to the fact that they will be hammering Kerry's SENATE RECORD at the convention....
I am certain Kerry will lose it and start screaming about the Swift Ads next week. A try to take the attention off his Senate Record...and it will blow up in his face even more.
And the Swifties were in the press today..and will be tommorow (which carries it through the weekend) saying that Bush can't shut them up. Which is starting to lend to the fact that they are not a Bush organized group.
If you would like to help the Swift Boat Vets ( as I have, and I urge all to do-- even a few dollars will help ) kindly click on this logo:
If, perchance, the top "click the pic" link is not visible, click here:
-John Kerry- some selected, informative links...--
Judge for yourself- see the SwiftVet ads here:
***And the Swifties were in the press today..and will be tommorow (which carries it through the weekend) saying that Bush can't shut them up. Which is starting to lend
to the fact that they are not a Bush organized group.***
And don't think Bush didn't know this.
The media can not continue to tie this around Bush's neck to make political points for Kerry.
JfK has been boxed in and has only one opportunity to salvage his credibility. I do not think he can ever do it. His only effective option is to sign the 180 form, get his actual Navy records out to the public forum and discuss everything about his Vietnam Odyssey, his antiwar and his Senatorial records, IOW, to find some truth in his life. IMO, JfK will never be able to admit that he was wrong and w/o that he must not be considered for any leadership role in this country and should try to be honorable and remove himself from Public life.
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