Posted on 08/27/2004 3:43:42 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
Twice in 33 years, John O'Neill looked up from a hospital bed and saw John Kerry on television. Both times, he was stirred to action.
In 1971, while recovering from leg surgery, O'Neill watched his fellow Vietnam veteran tell a Senate committee that U.S. soldiers had admitted committing war crimes there.
Infuriated, O'Neill debated Kerry on national television. He accused him of libel and of spreading "the big lie."
This year, in intensive care after donating a kidney to his wife, O'Neill watched on television as John Kerry emerged as the leading Democratic presidential candidate.
This time, O'Neill wrote a best- selling book that helped unleash a national furor.
Co-written with Jerome R. Corsi, "Unfit for Command" has rallied Vietnam veterans who question Kerry's heroism, deplore his anti-war activism and want to deny him the presidency.
"He criminalized the Vietnam War and made all of us criminals," O'Neill said in an Associated Press interview.
Critics have rebutted O'Neill and Corsi's accusations and charged that the campaign surrounding the book is orchestrated by President Bush's people. They dismiss O'Neill as a Republican stooge, citing his donations to GOP candidates and his law firm's ties to Republicans.
But Gerry Birnberg, chairman of the Harris County Democratic Committee in Houston, has known O'Neill for more than 20 years, and while he believes O'Neill is wrong about Kerry, he does not see a Republican plot. O'Neill simply "has intense personal antipathy" for Kerry, he says.
Things Kerry did and said in 1971 "stick in John's craw," he says.
Both Kerry and O'Neill were decorated in Vietnam - the Navy says O'Neill received three Bronze Stars - and both commanded swift boat No. 94 at different times.
But Kerry is a product of Yale; O'Neill, of the U.S. Naval Academy, where his father (a retired rear admiral), two brothers and 15 other relatives had graduated. Kerry spent 10 months in Vietnam, including six on a frigate offshore; O'Neill was there for 18.
Returning from Vietnam, Kerry got an early discharge to run for Congress and joined the anti-war movement. O'Neill came back to work for the Naval Reserve Officers' Training Corps at the College of Holy Cross.
Hospitalized for an injury exacerbated in Vietnam, O'Neill watched Kerry tell the Senate Foreign Relations Committee the war was foolhardy and recount stories by other veterans about how they had "raped, cut off ears, cut off heads."
O'Neill believed in the war effort, thought immediate withdrawal would abandon prisoners of war and was outraged by Kerry's war crime reports.
When the Foreign Relations Committee didn't respond to his offer to rebut Kerry, he contacted Bruce Kesler, an ex-Marine who had written a New York Times op-ed piece supporting the war.
Kesler invited him to a Washington news conference for the new Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace.
O'Neill was "a young guy like ourselves, very sweet and straight, a Midwestern sort of guy . . . ," Kesler recalls. "He had one suit, which was going out of style even then, a blue-and-white seersucker. And he wore white socks."
That day, O'Neill gave a speech that drew notice from the Nixon administration, which was alarmed by Kerry's increasing star power.
Kerry "was very articulate, a credible leader of the opposition. He forced us to create a counterfoil," Nixon aide Chuck Colson once said, reported Joe Klein in The New Yorker. "We found a vet named John O'Neill and formed a group called Vietnam Veterans for a Just Peace. We had O'Neill meet the president, and we did everything we could do to boost his group."
Kesler and O'Neill deny the White House instigated their effort. Kesler says Nixon might have exploited his group but didn't create or fund it.
O'Neill visited Nixon for an hour. He remembers they talked of Vietnam, Kerry and politics. He also recalls Nixon's awkward pause when O'Neill said he supported Hubert Humphrey in 1968.
Two weeks after meeting Nixon, O'Neill debated Kerry on "The Dick Cavett Show."
"You obviously are quite good on the polished rhetoric, but I did serve in the same place you did . . . and I never saw anything," O'Neill said, "and I would like you to tell me about the war crimes you saw committed there, and also why you didn't do some thing about them."
Kerry insisted there were violations of the Geneva Conventions and said O'Neill's group should be named "Vietnam Veterans for a Continued War."
After a speaking tour and appearance at the 1972 Republican National Convention, O'Neill entered the University of Texas law school, graduated first in his class and served as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist. He married, had two children and practiced law, often pressing security fraud cases against brokerages.
He describes his political involvement as minimal. He says he voted for Al Gore in 2000, has given $7,000 to Republicans in recent years but also $20,000 to Democratic candidates for Houston mayor and councilman.
But at age 58, he has joined the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth effort to derail the candidacy of the man he debated at age 25.
Copyright 2004 cleveland.com. All Rights Reserved.
A base contract (enlistment) in the military is typically for 6 years. Of that period, 2, 3, 4, or all of the years may be served on active duty. When someone completes their term of active duty, they are almost automatically transferred to the reserves. That reserve service may either be in the active reserves or the inactive reserves. Assuming Kerry had served 4 years of active duty service, he, most likely, would have been transferred to the inactive reserves.
Inactive reserves is just that - inactive. There are no drills, no weekends, no two weeks active duty each year; it is simply an informal association between the individual and the association until the initial term of the contract (6 years) expires. At that time, a discharge is formally issued and the contract is completed unless the individual re-enlists. The time between the end of active duty and issuance of the discharge (assuming they are not simultaneous events) is called a separation.
As a result of the way the contract structures work, the discrepancy between Kerry's separation and issuance of his discharge is troubling. IF he had re-enlisted in the reserves for another period of time, that would explain the discrepancy but, as I understand it. he did not re-enlist. Therefore, the discrepancy is troubling.
FYI, the way that the military has worked in the past in time of national crisis is this - The first responders are the active duty military. Second to be called up are the active reserves. Third in the hierarchy are the inactive reserves. Fourth (if it gest to that) would be a draft.
Hope this helps answer the questions. The journalist used terms incorrectly and created the confusion.
I knew there was something like that but I didn't want to go out on a limb and say so, because I was not at all sure. Thanks for the clarification.
See? How much did we hear about O'Neill donating a kidney to his wife in the media? Of course, they would say it is a personal thing. But.
All assumptions aside Kerry did not serve any of these. Not his full tour of duty in Vietnam nor his full commitment as A Naval Reserve Officer and definitely not his reserve duty.
And Kerry meeting with his VVAW group in (where was it?) Indiana, I think, to discuss killing seven US senators, isn't important? Huh????
Report from FBI files of that era.
We know he didn't show up for duty - work - on the senate floor.
LOL
Yup. Carter squashed it. Let Kerry off from the crimes which if it were me and you, we'd be under the jail!
Now, getting back to the nitty-gritty. You can see I'm old enough, by the way I talk. This evening on Fox, Larry Sabato, PHD, Political Science Professor, said that the 1971 testimony has festered inside many veterans for all of these years. And they're just not going to take it anymore. When asked if this part of the SBVT Ads was okay for RNC campaigners to go after, he replied yes. Said, it is on record and it happened.
I met these type of hero's in many different Bar's in the late 70's early 80's. Just like his band of brother's from the VVAW they were all full of Sh*t.
I only imbibe at home now! LOL
O'Neill and the other Swift Boat Vets For Truth deserve another medal for standing up and speaking the truth about kerry even though they knew the smears and lies they would get from The RATs and their media lapdogs. Molly ivens can call the vets liars over and over, but any rational person can look at the evidence and see kerry and his paid stooges are the liars.
While polls are not indicative of the real pulse of America just take a look at all the polls that were reported before the Swiftees posted their first ad!
Well, I am sorry that I am unable to tell your age, but, you seem pretty groovy to me.
I to heard Mr Sabato disucss that very issue. I do hope someone was listening took that to heart. I think it should be used, and perhaps next week while at the convetion.
Good idea and it it can't come from the gov't because anti-gov't anti- Americans would tie it all to political motivation. The burden turned opportunity is a Citizens homeland medal drafted and prepared by citizens and crafted very well in this Country to precisely honor the endurring strength of these guys we have the honor to share the Country with.
Well then, you probably also heard that the veterans wives and kids are coming out against John Kerry. We should encourage all of them, everyone who was hurt by this gigalo, kerry, to come and tell their story. We should help them overwhelm the airwaves with stories, like the one tonight, telling of kerry and his bunch, using the wife and kids by promising them something (got to find out what) and dragging them all the way to Paris for some kind of show and tell that kerry wanted to put on for the French. (Are we a bit involved with the french, are we?). Did you see how the journalist on the shows keep trying to cut our man off?
Hey, formermilitarychick, on one of my excursions around the net the other day, I found a site that told of how we were at the crux - nearly the top-apex - of winning the war in viet nam, told of how afraid the North v. cong was of our bombs and forces, and the telling came from archives dug up from that era that was paperwork between Russia and Communist North Viet Nam.
Sooooo .... you can guess what I am thinking right now. Like Ben Stein, the show host said over ten days ago; "because of John Kerry forcing us to leave early, he - it caused 500,000 deaths in Cambodia...." hmmmmm....
And notice how they try to make it seem like Kerry served 10 months in Nam. The truth is, he only served 4 months in combat. They don't like that factat all. it looks like he gamed the Hell out of the system to bug out early. It looks that way becuase it is that way.
Here's a story for you. After I separated from the Navy in '71, as a well-trained, experienced avionics technician, the best (and only) job I could get was in a grocery store. I kept wondering what was wrong with me - why I couldn't get a job with any career growth? Before I enlisted in the Navy, I couldn't get a decent job because I hadn't served in the military and, in those days, if you were of draft age, no one would hire you because they knew that the military was coming for you.
By the time I got out of the Navy, I couldn't get a decent job because I HAD served in the military. So, I drifted around for awhile trying to figure out what was wrong with me until I encountered the Vietnam Veterans Advisor column in Penthouse magazine (yes, I DID buy it for the articles - THIS one in particular). In this monthly column, I learned the story of a truck driver who applied to drive a delivery truck in New York City. He was told "Just because you drove a supply truck in Vietnam, what makes you think you're qualified to drive a delivery truck in New York City? Gee, that sounded exactly like some of the experiences I was having!!
Imagine my joy (and chgrin) to discover that it wasn't just me - there were other veterans facing the same problems. After 15 months of trying to fit back into a society that was almost universally rejecting me, I went back into the Navy to assess whether I wanted to make it a career (I didn't). As time went by, the activities of John Kerry and VVAW became more prominent and, slowly, we veterans began to connect the dots. The US had been duped by one well-spoken, highly trained, manipulative liar and con man into believing that the men and women of the best military in the world were committing atrocities in Vietnam on a daily basis? And what was their proof that he told the truth? Lo and behold, the Army thoughtfully provided them with one Lt. William Calley, official scapegoat for the My Lai massacre.
So, If Kerry said it happened and Calley was convicted of it, it must be true. Over a period of years, the tensions between Vietnam/Vietnam era veterans and the rest of American society subsided into an uneasy truce and were, eventually, forgotten; although smart veterans simply swept their experiences under the rug and only spoke of them with confidants.
But we never forgot John Kerry and Hanoi Jane; both of whom were held up to us as heroes for "stopping the war". We never forgot the betrayal by those who so hated the US and the military that they would do and say anything. John Kerry had such a burning desire to be like his heroes - the Kennedys - that he DID say and do anything to get to the Senate.
Well, the chickens are coming home to roost and John Kerry, the "war hero", can't handle it. If he can't handle the consequences of his own lies, what's he going to do when Kim Jong-Il rattles his nuclear saber at him, or Castro calls him a mass murderer? Will his protector, Kofi Annan come to his rescue? Will Hanoi Jane resurrect her anti-Americanism to come to his aid?
Kerry made his bed over 30 years ago and now, by his own doing, he's going to have to lay in it. A bed of thorns isn't very comfortable is it, John?
A big salute to you, DustyMoment. Years too late, I know, but America is proud of you. Your story left me speechless. Once again.
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