The role of the individual in history

Federalist Patriot ^ | 27 September 2004 | Ann Coulter

[Pfesser]

"The Swift Boat Veterans for Truth show the role of the individual in history. It wasn't Republican strategists who finished Kerry off two months before the election; it was the American people. The Swift Boat veterans came along and kicked Kerry in the shins and no matter how much heat they took, they were brave and wouldn't give up. ... CBS was forced to run a fake story so early in the campaign that it was exposed as a fraud -- only because of the Swift Boat vets. These brave men, many of them decorated war heroes, have now not only won the election for Bush, they have ended Dan Rather's career. It's often said that we never lost a battle in Vietnam, but that the war was lost at home by a seditious media demoralizing the American people. Ironically, the leader of that effort was Rather's predecessor at CBS News, Walter Cronkite, president of the Ho Chi Minh Admiration Society. It was Cronkite who went on air and lied about the Tet offensive, claiming it was a defeat for the Americans. He told the American people the war was over and we had lost. Ronald Reagan said CBS News officials should have been tried for treason for those broadcasts. CBS has already lost one war for America. The Swift Boat Vets weren't going to let CBS lose another one."

[marty60]

Great job, ANN

[LouD]

As much as I love Ann, I have to disagree - We haven't finished off anyone yet. This race is not over, and this is no time to get complacent - or cause others to do so.

[MEG33]

http://www.anncoulter.org/

For those who wish to read the entire column.

[Pfesser]

Thanks.

[MEG33]

Rather isn't finished...he is finished as a credible source for news...The libs will still love him...His voice has been removed for promos on some affiliates and some have cancelled his newscast...His ratings dropped in New York...

He may not get the ax for awhile but his stonewalling made his continuing on as usual more difficult..."Mission Intoxication" is what Peggy Noonan called it..bringing down the President by influencing the election.

I do believe the pressure brought by the SwithBoat Veterans for Truth made them jump the gun...Had they held off broadcasting the piece...time would have been too short to debunk it.

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

you know the rules........

[theFIRMbss]

>you know the rules........

It looks like Ann's fans
are lying down on the job.
But Anna's ready . . .

[WilliamofCarmichael]

CBS has already lost one war for America.

Sounds extreme? On the one hand, yes. Because North Vietnamese General Giap praised the entire American press as his "most valuable guerrilla" not just CBS.

"If we've lost Walter Cronkite, we've lost the country," LBJ is reputed to have said after Tet, when the CBS anchor declared the war unwinnable. . . .

I remember. I see the same press today.

It is NOT a boring waste of time and the ramblings of demented old people stuck in the past. It's red flags waving and signalling as sure as Cronkite's eyebrows flashed and reinforced his verbal message: America, get out!

LBJ was spooked and began the process of ordering U.S. forces to stand down that streched slowly over a period of years and included Nixon. What was won in Vietnam in 1968 was immediately lost in Washington. IMO the North could have been forced to the peace table. Their post-war writings prove it, I believe. Millions of lives could have been saved.

Thanks, Walter.

This war today is for all the marbles. Many mainstream employees are traitors, they call it "being neutral."

[theFIRMbss]

>"If we've lost Walter Cronkite, we've lost the country," LBJ is reputed to have said after Tet . . .

If Cronkite was so
pivotal, then why didn't
some US black ops

mission just shoot him
with a Vietcong rifle?
No more bad news shows,

and the bad guy Reds
would get the blame for killing
a TV icon . . .

[WilliamofCarmichael]

Cronkite was not alone. You would have had to take out the entire mainstream media except for a couple here and there. I wasn't kidding about North Vietnamese Communist General Giap. He really did say that the American press was his "most valuable guerilla."

Time and U.S. News and World Report and the few conservative newspapers scattered around the country did a pretty good job.

LBJ was doomed even without Cronkite. The era's version of moveon.org was the underground newspapers like Berkeley Barb and East Village Other. The McCarthy wing of the Party was emerging strong. The "anti-war" radicals were going nuts on campuses. Civil rights radicals merged with "anti-war" radicals. Riots, curfews, and National Guard (and some regulars) patrolled cities. Ultra-liberal Democrat Party powerhouses like Fulbright were screaming about it being a "civil war."

Had it been Cronkite alone he would have been assassinated. It was LBJ's style. IMO.