Mark Alexander: Kerry's Quagmire

"Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclination, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence." --John Adams

There is a chronic state of superciliousness manifest in some members of Congress who are perennially re-elected by their loyal lemmings -- an unmitigated arrogance called "Potomac Mentation Syndrome" (PMS). Its primary symptom is the angry projection of invincibility by its victim, and John Kerry, who's been occupying a seat in the Senate for the last two decades, appears to have a terminal case.

Kerry, a privileged but neglected trust baby, hobnobbed with the rich and infamous Kennedy clan as a youngster and decided that one day, he wanted to follow in the footsteps of the original JFK. Fast forward 40 years, and, under the tutelage of his corpulent mentor, Teddy Kennedy, John F. Kerry is the Democrat presidential nominee.

Unfortunately for Kerry, he does not have the advantage of having JFK's old man, Joe, on his team. The elder Kennedy massaged the Navy's official record of Jack's PT-109 debacle and had his version of the story released to the media, creating an instant "hero" and paving the way for JFK's ascension through the House and Senate to the presidency.

Kerry, now gravely ill with PMS, thought he could ride high on his updated version of PT-109 and get away with it. But Ted Kennedy is no Joe Kennedy -- and Kerry, who built his whole campaign on a foundation of embellished wartime heroics, is now bogged down in his personal Vietnam quagmire. Indeed, Kerry assumed he was bulletproof, but he's taking far more hits now than he ever did in his abbreviated combat tour.

Last March, Demo National Committee loudmouth Terry McAuliffe (also in the tenacious grip of PMS) estimated that Kerry would have to win the hearts and minds of veterans in order to defeat George W. Bush. So he wrapped Kerry in his embellished war record and, a month later, took a cheap shot at President Bush, proclaiming that he was AWOL during his last year of service as an Air National Guard fighter pilot.

Right about now, McAuliffe and Kerry are wishing they'd never fired that shot. Much to their surprise, several Vietnam veterans groups had the audacity to take a gander at Kerry's service record -- both his record of "giving aid and comfort to the enemy" by slandering his fellow veterans while they were still fighting or captive in Vietnam, and his contrived record of heroic acts as evidenced by his impressive list of military decorations. By early May, those veterans were firing back at Kerry and his cadre.

Initially, Kerry took the defensive: "I think a lot of veterans are going to be very angry at a president who can't account for his own service in the National Guard...criticizing somebody who fought for their country and served." (Oops, another cheap shot at our National Guard and Reserve forces.)

Fortunately, President Bush can account for his service. He wanted to fly fighter jets, he earned his wings, and he logged many air defense hours in an F-102 Delta Dagger with the 147th Fighter Group and its subordinate 111th FIS, Texas ANG. Mr. Bush's unit was subject to rotation in Vietnam under the Palace Alert Program. In fact, 15 F-102 pilots were killed in Vietnam, but American involvement in that conflict was de-escalating by 1972, and Bush was honorably discharged from his service with the ANG.

Of course, as noted in The Patriot many times before, George Bush's most distinguished military service has been in his role as Commander-in-Chief since the 9/11 attack on our nation -- one of the most difficult and challenging periods for any president since World War II.

Implicit in Kerry's warning, however, is the notion that he, himself, volunteered for service in Vietnam. Remember Bill Clinton's repetitive "Send me" paean at the Demo Convention? Try again. Kerry's anti-military sentiments were well known when he was a student at Yale. After graduating, Kerry petitioned his draft board for a student deferment so he could study in -- where else? -- Paris. His deferment denied, Kerry then calculated that he could avoid Vietnam by joining the Naval Reserves, where he'd likely be able to serve stateside even if his unit was activated. Kerry's service record indicates that on 18 February 1966 he enlisted in the USNR under "inactive" status. This puts the lie to any assertion that Kerry "volunteered" for dangerous swift boat duty while George W. Bush somehow slunk off to fly fighter-jets.

As fate would have it, Kerry's reserve unit was activated, while the President's ANG unit remained stateside -- yet both circumstances were far beyond the control of these two junior officers. As for Kerry's choice of Swift Boats, he told the Boston Globe last year, "I didn't really want to get involved in the war. When I signed up for the swift boats, they had very little to do with the war. They were engaged in coastal patrolling...."

Unable to avoid service in Vietnam, Kerry, infatuated with JFK and his mythical PT-109 heroics, worked his way into an assignment as a swift boat skipper. In under four months in the coastal regions of Vietnam, Kerry managed to collect a Bronze Star with combat "V", a Silver Star and, of course, the requisite three Purple Hearts -- which got him a quick ticket home to launch his political career.

Regarding his Bronze Star Kerry claimed, at the Demo-confab, that he got the medal for actions on the night of 13 March 1969. It was then, he said, after a mine explosion and while under fire, that five swift boats in the patrol team fled the area while he kept his boat back to rescue Lt. James Rassmann. Kerry's campaign now admits that he fled while the other boats remained on station, and returned later to pull Rassmann out of the water -- the same Rassmann who'd been dumped into the water when Kerry's boat sped off.

Regarding his Silver Star (the nation's third-highest decoration after the Medal of Honor and Service Crosses), it was awarded for "gallantry" after Kerry's boat was fired on and his gunner fired back, wounding a young combatant on the shore. Kerry then beached his boat (a reckless dereliction of duty), chased the wounded VC around the corner of a hut, and shot him. Gallantry?

Further, Kerry's DD 214 Record of Transfer or Separation (posted on his website), lists a Silver Star with a combat "V" (for valor) -- but, according to the Navy Awards Manual, the "V" Combat Distinguishing Device is never awarded with the Silver Star. Stranger yet, Kerry's Silver Star has not one citation, but three -- each one a revision of the previous, and the last revision made more than 20 years after the first.

For an excellent analysis of these altered citations, visit http://kerry-04.org/war/citations.php and read the report by Henry Mark Holzer, Professor Emeritus at Brooklyn Law School, and Erika Holzer, a lawyer and co-author, with Professor Holzer, of Fake Warriors: Identifying, Exposing and Punishing Those Who Falsify Their Military Service. (A second edition is forthcoming with a new preface entitled "John Kerry: The Ultimate Fake Warrior.")

According to the Holzers, "John Kerry may soon learn that three citations for a single Silver Star is two too many."

One burning question yet to be answered is, who prepared the "Personal Award Recommendations" for these two decorations? In all probability, they were authored by Kerry himself -- whose embellishment of the details has now been questioned by credible witnesses.

As for those three Purple Hearts, this week, Kerry has backed off of his first medal claim that he was hit by hostile fire, because it was discovered that he wrote in his journal nine days after the incident in question, "We hadn't been shot at yet, and Americans at war who haven't been shot at are allowed to be cocky." Indeed, the injury in question (a small abrasion on his arm which was treated with the equivalent of Neosporin and a Band-Aid) was most likely self-inflicted, and Kerry's request for a Purple Heart was flatly rejected by both his treating physician and command -- until he re-applied through an alternate chain of command some weeks later.

The circumstances around his second and third Purple Hearts are equally questionable.

Remember those heroic images of John Kerry in Vietnam in the introductory preceding his big entry at the Demo-confab? Well, Kerry reenacted those scenes, which his subordinates filmed with his Super-8 hand-held movie camera. The book "Unfit For Command" notes,

Kerry would revisit ambush locations for reenacting combat scenes where he would portray the hero, catching it all on film. Kerry would take movies of himself walking around in combat gear, sometimes dressed as an infantryman walking resolutely through the terrain. He even filmed mock interviews of himself narrating his exploits. A joke circulated among Swiftees was that Kerry left Vietnam early not because he received three Purple Hearts, but because he'd recorded enough film of himself to take home for his planned political campaigns.

Indeed, a few years back, Kerry's hometown paper, The Boston Globe (far left of The New York Times) noted his Vietnam self-portraits "reveal something indelible about the man who shot them -- the...young man...so focused on his future ambitions that he would reenact the moment for film. It is as if he had cast himself in the sequel to the experience of his hero, John F. Kennedy, on the PT-109."

Indeed he had. Thomas Vallely, one of Kerry's closest political advisers, said in an interview last year, "John was thinking Camelot when he shot that film, absolutely."

There is plenty of additional evidence of Kerry's Vietnam fabrications, like his claimed exploits in Cambodia. "I remember spending Christmas Eve of 1968 five miles across the Cambodian border being shot at by our South Vietnamese allies.... 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." Of course, Kerry was, by all accounts, never anywhere near Cambodia, and Nixon wasn't even president in 1968. So much for that "memory that was seared, seared" into him.

The Kerry record is replete with examples of such "seared memories." For example, this past MLK Day, Kerry told a captive audience, "I remember well April, 1968 -- I was serving in Vietnam -- a place of violence -- when the news reports [of King's murder] reached me and my shipmates." Kerry wasn't even in Vietnam until November, 1968.

When Kerry returned stateside, he dedicated himself to slandering American military personnel still fighting -- and captive -- in Vietnam. In his 1971 congressional testimony, he claimed,

[American military personnel in Vietnam] personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, [blew] up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to...the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

After his testimony, he told the media, "There are all kinds of atrocities and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed...."

The consequences of Kerry's anti-American actions in 1971 were far-reaching. An upcoming documentary, "Stolen Honor," includes devastating testimony from former POWs about how Kerry's testimony was "thrown in their faces" as they were tortured by their captors. Or, as POW Paul Galanti says in a devastating new Swiftees' ad, "Kerry gave the enemy for free what we...took torture to try to avoid saying."

In his victory speech after the New Hampshire primary, Kerry said, "I pledge that those who wore the uniform of the United States of America will have a voice and a champion in the Oval Office." (Of course, they do now!) However, Kerry is trying to silence "those who wore the uniform of the United States of America" who are challenging his record. Kerry was able to muster 14 swift boat vets who support him. On the other hand, there are 254 swift boat veterans who say Kerry is a fraud and is "Unfit for Command." Do the math!

The pundits think the Swiftees will disappear in September, after the Republican convention. We think they will remain a factor until Kerry sets his military record straight -- which he won't.

It should be noted that The Patriot's position on Kerry's account of his service in Vietnam is tempered by the fact that our staff and National Advisory Committee rosters include many military veterans -- some of whom were decorated Vietnam vets and one of whom spent seven years as Ho Chi's guest in the Hanoi Hilton after his F-105 was shot down. He was subjected to all manner of torture while Kerry was busy accusing his "fellow veterans" of war crimes and meeting with VC Communists in Paris.

In every case, our colleagues, who came home with Purple Hearts, also brought home injuries that left them, in most cases, badly scarred and mutilated; some will limp to their grave. They don't wear those medals on their lapels and don't ask for privileged parking spaces. They love their nation and served their countrymen with dignity, humility and honor. They are, in short, great American Patriots.

John Kerry, on the other hand, is, at best, a phony and fraud. At worst, he is a traitor. Not only is he "Unfit for Command," but he should be prosecuted for "providing aid and comfort to the enemy in time of war" and disqualified for public office.

Please join more than 125,000 of your fellow Patriots who have already signed a letter asking that Kerry by held accountable for his actions. The Patriot will release this letter to the media in September, and though there would obviously be no action on this prosecution prior to Kerry's defeat in November (yes, we are confident he will be defeated), we believe he is not fit to serve in the Senate and should be removed. To sign the letter, visit http://patriotpetitions.us/kerry/

"[T]hree Purple Hearts? I mean, the first one whether he ought to have a Purple Heart. He got two in one day -- [Kerry] 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." --Retired Senator Bob Dole, who was severely wounded in action with the 10th Mountain Division in Italy during WW II

Mark Alexander is Executive Editor and Publisher of The Federalist Patriot, a Townhall.com member group.

Kerry embellished his After Action Reports to get medals that he didn’t deserve. He fabricated accusations when he came back from Vietnam when he spoke before the Senate Intelligence Committee when he said that his fellow Vietnam Veterans committed atrocities. He has never provided any proof that his accusations were true, and in fact now admits that his accusations were “over the top”. Over the top? They were untrue! And his falsifications harmed POW’s, their families, and Vietnam Veterans in general.

POW’s who were in North Vietnam prison camps when Kerry was telling his fabricated stories to the Senate and the American public to bolster his political ambitions were tortured and threatened to be placed on trial as “War Criminals”. POW’s were told by their captors “You will never go home” because of Kerry’s fabrications. Kerry’s untrue accusations are unforgivable.

General Vo Nguyen Gaip , the Commanding officer of the North Vietnamese Military and Bui Tin who served on the General Staff of the North Vietnam Army and received the unconditional surrender of South Vietnam on April 30, 1975 both claim that North Vietnam was poised to negotiate a surrender because of the Communist’s military failures during the 1968 Tet Offensive and thereafter. But because of the Anti-War movement in America (led by Jane Fonda and John Kerry) they felt that the Demonstrations “gave us confidence that we should hold on in the face of battlefield reverses."

America was kicking the Communist’s butt in every battle. General Westmoreland had the Communist’s number and was winning the war. America’s pullout of Vietnam was due to Kerry and his group of Demonstrators. Kerry’s ant-war activities played a very significant part in causing America to lose the war in Vietnam.

Because of John Kerry and others like him there are more names on the Vietnam Memorial in Washington D. C. than there otherwise would have been. There was also the slaughter of 3.5 million South Vietnamese, Laotians, and Cambodians when America pulled out that is significantly attributable to John Kerry and his now admittedly “over the top” accusations. John Kerry has blood dripping from his untrue accusations.

I had wondered where this was from - anyone able to find a video of this ?

"Meet The Press April 18, 1971:

SEN. KERRY: "There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers have committed in that I took part in shootings in free fire zones. I conducted harassment and interdiction fire. I used 50 caliber machine guns, which we were granted and ordered to use, which were our only weapon against people. I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down."

Good post. I agree with the sentiment of the post. I also signed the petition, although somewhat reluctantly.

I believe that Kerry is a disgrace as a man. I think what he did on his return is as despicable as can be attributed to an individual.

My reluctance has to do with my qualifications as a critic. Like Kerry, I was Navy (although closer to the time that G. W. Bush was flying). Like Kerry I was but a miniscule cog in a giant machine. Like Kerry I went where they sent me. Unlike Kerry, where they sent me was to a destroyer that spent most of its time in the Atlantic and Mediterranean (although it was an experience and gave me experiences for which I have spent the rest of my life thanking God.

I don't think this petition is going anywhere, yet I think it's important to make a statement. Harming others deliberately for self-promotion is wrong. Doing so with deliberate lies is despicable.

"...After graduating, Kerry petitioned his draft board for a student deferment so he could study in--where else?--Paris. His deferment denied, Kerry then calculated that he could avoid Vietnam by joining the Naval Reserves, where he'd likely be able to serve stateside even if his unit was activated. Kerry's service record indicates that on 18 February 1966 he enlisted in the USNR under ''inactive'' status. This puts the lie to any assertion that Kerry ''volunteered'' for dangerous swift boat duty while George W. Bush somehow slunk off to fly fighter-jets..."

Ah, yes zee French Mon-sewer Kerry

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.