Posted on 08/31/2004 11:37:18 AM PDT by 68skylark
ON THE BAY HAP RIVER, Vietnam (AP) -- The 50-foot Swift boats were easy targets as they plowed through the waterways of the Mekong Delta in packs of three or four, making big waves and thunderous noise when approaching. Former Viet Cong soldier Duong Hoang Sinh remembers them well -- the one time he tangled with three Swift boats, the Americans killed all of the insurgents in his unit except for two.
``It was very fierce fighting,'' said Sinh, 52, who lost his left eye during the war and still has shrapnel embedded in his arm. ``Each side tried to eliminate the other.''
Sinh and John Kerry, the U.S. Democratic presidential nominee, were fighting along the Dong Cung canal around roughly the same time 35 years ago in early 1969, experiencing the intensity of war along these muddy waters, but from opposite sides.
Although Sinh had never heard of Kerry, he has a strong opinion about the debate surrounding the candidate's Vietnam War record as a U.S. Navy Swift boat commander: Kerry must have had guts to troll the Mekong Delta's spider web of rivers and narrow canals knowing that Viet Cong like himself were waiting to pick him off.
``Kerry served in Vietnam and he was awarded the medal for his bravery,'' Sinh said. ``He deserves the medal.''
The memories of the Swift boat battles in these waters are now being sharply scrutinized under the divisive lens of the U.S. presidential election, where Kerry's actions under fire have been disputed by a group of veterans.
As a Navy lieutenant, Kerry commanded two Swift boat units, PCF-44 and PCF-94, in Vietnam in late 1968 and early 1969. He was awarded three Purple Hearts, a Silver Star and a Bronze Star.
Kerry's actions in several of those instances -- including a March 13, 1969 incident when he rescued U.S. Army Special Forces Lt. Jim Rassmann under enemy fire; a February 28, 1969 incident when he chased and killed a Viet Cong fighter; and a December 1968 incident when he was wounded -- have been challenged in a series of television ads aired by the group Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
They claim he did not come under heavy enemy fire as his medal citations state. But other veterans of the ``brown water navy'' who witnessed the fighting, along with Navy documents from that time, have backed Kerry's version of events.
The Associated Press took a boat tour along the same rivers and canals of the Mekong Delta that served as a battleground for Kerry. The people who live here now have worked hard to put the fighting behind them, but the memories persist.
When Kerry and Sinh plied these muddy waterways, mangroves grew thick on both sides of the Bay Hap River, forming a bushy shield of impenetrable green. It was perfect cover for Viet Cong guerillas who laid waiting to ambush the clunky U.S. Swift boats.
Sinh recalled one morning in February 1969 when he and six other insurgents watched silently from their hiding spot in the thick forest that grew along the banks of the Dong Cung canal, about 7.5 kilometers, or 4.7 miles, off the Bay Hap River in Vietnam's southernmost province of Ca Mau.
When the U.S. Navy boats rumbled into view, the Viet Cong were in for a shock as the Americans began firing on them. Sinh recalled his comrade got off one good shot from a B-40 rocket launcher, blasting a hole in the side of one vessel. But it wasn't enough. The Americans charged, unloading a hail of bullets, and Sinh realized this was not a fight his unit could win.
``We got more fire from the American soldiers after that. We tried to fight back, but decided to flee,'' he said.
He believes the Americans must have had intelligence about the planned ambush that day because the three U.S. boats fired first. Five of his comrades died, including his buddy who fired the crippling blast. Sinh escaped by fleeing into the dense forest.
He said it was the first and last time he fired at Swift boats along the waterways where he grew up. Not long after, he was sent away from his family in Dong Cung village to fight elsewhere, which is why he remembers the date so well. His village was renamed Tran Thoi after the war. To Sinh and those who still live along the Mekong Delta, the controversy over Kerry's tour of duty in Vietnam is dumbfounding. Since the war ended in 1975, they have reveled in peace and more recently, economic growth.
``I think it's American politics,'' said Nguyen Van Khoai, 61, a former Viet Cong soldier who attacked American troops along the water but never fought directly against the Swift boats. ``On any side, a soldier who made an outstanding feat is given a medal -- but maybe some people try to think otherwise.''
The area that once crawled with Viet Cong has changed. The thick mangrove forests that lined both sides of the Bay Hap River, Dong Cung canal and other tributaries are mostly gone. Some canals just wide enough for the U.S. Navy boats to pass through are double in size today.
Many more thatch houses are perched on stilts along the water's edge and small speed boats now zoom past. Shrimp farms litter the landscape where forests once grew, and the names of many wartime canals and villages have been changed.
Cai Nuoc village where Kerry put in on March 13, 1969 -- the day for which he was awarded his third Purple Heart and a Bronze Star for rescuing Rassmann -- has ballooned into a district. Cafes abound along the water here as well as shops selling a wide variety of wares, including shiny bathroom tile. A thriving floating market also bustles where mounds of ripe rambutan, pomelo and bananas form a rainbow of color.
But much also remains the same. The water is still dotted with children splashing and men checking fishing nets attached to crude sticks poking out of the river. The smell of diesel fuel and smoke is in the air and stinging downpours still come in the afternoon.
Many of the residents here in the Mekong Delta have never heard of Kerry. They do, however, remember the Swift boats and the Americans who roared by aboard them.
``I was very scared when I heard the American boats coming up the canal, so I had to hide in my back yard,'' said Phu Thi Nguyet, 60, who has lived along the Dong Cung canal since 1960.
For those who have followed the debate, the Kerry controversy is confusing.
``It's very strange in a way. It's just a small thing, but they have made it into a big deal,'' said Lam The Hung, 42, a native of Cai Nuoc village who now serves as a provincial official in Ca Mau. ``The fact that one soldier rescued another -- that happened thousands of times among the Vietnamese, so I don't understand.''
Hung said he's also puzzled by the uproar over Kerry's decision to join the anti-war movement upon returning home. He said Kerry's actions proved he learned a lot during his time in Vietnam and that he wanted to keep other Americans from dying here.
``When they went home, they knew the nature of the war and the people here were innocent and they knew it was nonsense to wage war here,'' said Hung, whose two older brothers joined the Viet Cong and laid mines in the rivers where the Swift boats operated.
And while Kerry may be worried about veterans' support in America, Sinh said he would vote any day for his former enemy over President Bush. In the veteran's opinion, Kerry's experience along these rivers fighting Viet Cong might keep him from sending other young Americans to invade countries.
``He knew the suffering and how much misery it brought to the people of Vietnam -- he knew the cruelty of war,'' Sinh said. ``So, I don't think he would go to war again if he's elected.''
VIET CONG FOR KERRY !
...and, knowing the NYT, Greg's nickname is "Fudge"!
Must be part of the new 527: "Viet Cong Veterans for Kerry"
This AP story has to be a 'plant'. You can't get the MSM interested in cross-checking the simplest facts of Kerry's service in Vietnam, yet they'll send their Saigon bureau chief on a boatride up some godforsaken river in the Delta.
If they have to go 10,000 miles to find a story to buttress Kerry's accounting of events, you know he's in real big trouble.
There's a Vietnamese phrase for this insane story: "Beau coup, number, 10 dinky-dow"...me thinks the story author ate a bit too much Vietnamese nook maum!
And another thing pisses me off about this. Notice how the author says that once we pulled out, Vietnam has been a place of peace and growth? It's a horrible communist tyranny, fer cryin' out loud. Millions died from the rise of communism in this part of the world! It wasn't just sweetness and light one those evil Americans pulled out.
This whole article is pro-communist propaganda. No wonder the writer supports Kerry.
This article is unreal.
NY Slimes goes to their communist heros to get the real story.
Gotta be the Onion.
"The 50-foot Swift boats were easy targets as they plowed through the waterways of the Mekong Delta in packs of three or four, making big waves and thunderous noise when approaching. Former Viet Cong soldier Duong Hoang Sinh remembers them well... "
So what - did Kerry's group run across the VC version of F Troop ?
Nobody and nothing hit ?
I've come back to this article three times and still can't believe this made it to print. Exactly what is the dem party paying for souls these days.
You can shove this story up the RATS bung hol channel.
Viet Cong Vietnamese: "Kerry Deserves A Medal"
Vietnamese-Americans: "Kerry Is A 'Phan Boi' (Traitor)"
Well, well. More proof that you can count on Kerry shills to enlist the testimony of the VC and NVA in his political campaign.
But my wife, who grew up not 50 feet from the Mekong (and was later arrested in Ca Mau for trying to escape the commies as a "boat person") remembers things a little differently. So do her friends and family.
Yes, the Navy was fierce aginst the Viet Cong, and that's precisely what the South Vietnamese wanted. But American personnel weren't feared by the locals for the most part, either then or now. My wife recalls being led home at the hand of a kindly Navy guy when she was lost as a toddler (they docked boats near her house). Her entire family remains grateful to this day for America's help in their struggle against the communists (even though they remain saddened and profoundly affected by the ultimate loss).
I'm happy this NYT reporter was able to find a few VC to interview. In my wife's old neighborhood, they are reviled and despised to this very moment. But they do still have the guns. One pays them deference, they have the power.
And Mr. Sinh and Mr. Hung are both egregious liars: while they might indeed have received their VC service medals, the 200,000 ARVN who died in Vietnam did not. Hanoi has not and will not disburse one penny to maintain the thousands of overgrown and undocumented ARVN burial grounds all over the South.
Bingo!
There has been economic growth recently, primarily due to a grudging introduction of capitalism. Vietnam now has the worst of all economic worlds: Communist totalitarianism and industrial sweatshops.
My daughter visited Vietnam recently. South Vietnam is a beautiful place and is developing a tourist industry. Most of the visitors are German. At the time she was there, the government was busy cracking down on rebellious villages, something not seen on the local news in Vietnam or the U.S.
Next thing you know, these guys will be standing next to the Kerry Krew!
Not much, they come cheap.
So this old VC saw Kerry in action, personally? Amazing.
Last week the AP was saying that the other Swifties on the other boats couldn't know what was going on, because they were not on Kerry's very boat. Now it's good enough to have been in the jungle when unknown Swift boats came in range.
It's just the sleazy and transparent duplicity of a disgusting Vietcong traitor.
He claims "anyone" including Kerry deserves a medal. But if he said that about the 200,000 ARVN soldiers killed in Vietnam, Hanoi would take away his pension and his box full of shiny communist medals.
Even today, the South is much more prosperous and capitalistic then the North.
The question we should ask is why does the NY Times and the press HATE America and what we did in Viet Nam? Why the liberal love Communism more than Freedom? And Why they never talk about LBJ and who he escalated and lied about the war?
Hey Sinh ...my little commie yellow brother....we slogged the same ground....
Sorry I me and my bros...missed you 35 yrs ago....
You likie missah Kerrry so muchie...you keep him....ok? no charge....
Don't bring him back.....if nothing else he will make some salt water croc velly happy...
He would also make a nice volunteer for the farm....you guys made out of Dong Tam
imo
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