Kerry/Vietnam/Bob Smith/POW-MIA's

Fellow FReepers, I know this is technically a vanity, but my friend is the Chairman of the American Legion POW/MIA committee in our home state, and an associate FReeper at heart. He asked me to put this up for your consideration, and I know this subject has been disected here on FR:

Thursday night, during the debate, Sen. Kerry said he visited Mr. Putin in the former Soviet Union along with Sen. Bob Smith of New Hampshire.

This needs to be investigated as it leads into the most disgraceful events of Sen. Kerry's career.

In 1992, Mr. Kerry was the chairman of a Senate Select Committee on the POW/MIA issue. This issue was the main obstruction to the normalization of relations with Vietnam.

Many hearings were held and many prominent people gave testimony. The majority opinion was written by Chairman Kerry stating that there were no live prisoners, and that the issue was effectually over.

The minority opinion was written by Vice Chairman Bob Smith (Rep., NH) now retired. Mr. Smith wrote a scathing report stating that the Kerry report did not consider the tons of testimony given to the committee.

One year after President Clinton took office relations with Vietnam were re-established, based on the Kerry report. It was also rumored that John Kerry's cousin, J. Forbes, was appointed as the liason for American Corporations looking to open business' in Vietnam.

"McCain, as I understand it was on the committee, and is NOT loved by Vets."

McCain, like kerry, is touted as some "war hero" - I never understood why, unless shootdown and capture in and of themselves qualify as heroism. He had landed on the wrong carrier once, and crashed on his own. I am aware of nothing prior to capture being cited as heroism, so his heroism (if real) must have occurred while a prisoner, unless there is something I am unaware of prior to his capture. I also know that the code of conduct was rewritten largely as a result of McCains activities as a POW. To THIS Vietnam Veteran, McCain is no more heroic and honorable than kerry.

Here is some background info:

John McCain: The Manchurian Candidate
http://www.usvetdsp.com/mccainpic.htm

Why McCain defends Kerry
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39892

U.S. Sen. John McCain is no War Hero
http://www.namvets.com/Reading/john_mccain_is_no_war_hero.htm

A Presidential commission was appointed after the Vietnam War, in 1976, to reevaluate the code of 1955. After a study, the commission recommended a subtle revision to Article V which, in its original form, stated: "When questioned, should I become a prisoner of war, I am bound to only give name, rank, service number, and date of birth. I will evade answering further questions to the utmost of my ability. I will make no oral or written statements disloyal to my country and its allies or harmful to their cause." President Carter ordered the revision in 1977. The word "bound" was changed to "required" and the word "only" was deleted.
http://www.usvetdsp.com/mcianhro.htm

Meet John McCain:

He was shot down over Vietnam and held as a Prisoner of War for 5-1/2 years.

His then wife was a member of the National League of Families and she fought to make sure that John McCain came home.

John McCain claims that he was "broken" by the Vietnamese, yet he was accorded Soviet Surgeons to tend his wounds received in the shoot down of his aircraft, something not accorded other PoWs.

He was shot down 26 October 1967, and by 9 November 1967 he was giving interviews to foreign correspondents providing information on his prior command, cassualties and tactics in direct violation of the Code of Conduct.

He was one of the lucky PoWs that came home.

The Communist Vietnamese erected a bust of John McCain inside Vietnam. His defenders say that it is in tribute to the PAVN gunners that shot him down. When was the last time you visited a memorial to the American Military where there was a bust of the enemy?

In the May 14, 1973 edition of U.S. News & World Report, under the byline of "Inside Story, How The POW's Fought Back," the author details how John McCain told the guard to "Call the Officer" and then he told the officer, 'The Bug,' " a psychotic torturer, one of the worst fiends we had to deal with." "Take me to the hospital and I will give you military information." The author of this article? John McCain!

Click here for the exact text from the article. (Make sure you hit your browsers back button)

Yet in the interview that he gave on 9 Nov 1967 to VNA International, he claims that when he bailed out and landed in the lake, people grabbed him out of the lake and took him to the hospital.

He stayed in the Navy to retire at the rank of captain.

He repaid his wife's loyalty by divorcing her when she became an invalid, and she still remains loyal! We have to wonder if she and Mary Jo Buttafuoco are friends.

He went on to become a United States Congressmen and then a United States Senator.

He has consistently been an advocate of lenient treatment of Vietnam, even though their Prime Minister is responsible for the executions of at least three American PoWs during the war.

While a member of the Senate Select Committee on PoW/MIA Affairs (1991-1993) he consistently referred to PoW/MIA Family Members and PoW/MIA Activists as whiners and vultures and the lunatic fringe.

While a member of the Senate Select Committee on PoW/MIA Affairs, he reduced a family member, a sister of a missing serviceman, who had come to testify before the Committee to tears berating her for holding on to false hope and being a cog in the wheel of progress.

After this incident, also testifying before the Senate Select Committee was the man McCain claims was responsible for his own torture, McCains interrogator, "The Bug". The moment of confrontation came and McCain rose from his seat and walked from the podium onto the floor of the chamber to stand face to face with the man who was responsible for torturing Prisoners of War. McCain grabbed the man and embraced him.

Although the Senate Select Committee concluded that we left men behind, McCain crossed party lines to help lead the charge toward lifting the embargo and toward normalizing with Vietnam.

He disregarded testimony from professional analysts that stated that Vietnam was not cooperating and he often berated their analysis.

He ignored a letter drafted by one of the most brutally tortured PoWs, Capt. Eugene "Red" McDaniel and co-signed by FIFTY former PoWs which asked that we not lift the embargo and not normalize relations and McCain pushed for the lifting of the embargo and toward normalization.

Although only 8 remains were repatriated between the time the embargo was lifted to the time that Clinton signed the normalization order, McCain did all the talk shows using his status as a former PoW to push normalization down the throats of the American Public.

When the Missing Service Personnel Act of 1996 came on the Senate Floor for debate, Senator McCain called this bill "un-necessary" and "burdensome" even though the MSPA was sponsored by the then majority leader and the man who had considered asking John McCain to run with him, Sen. Bob Dole.

McCain has successfully mounted an attack, ammending the MSPA by removing criminal liability and several articles of the MSPA that are important to PoW/MIA Family Memebers.

McCain stated his reason for ammending the MSPA of 1996 is because ". . .General's do not have time to worry about Sergeants or Lieutenants."

He denied knowledge of his own ammendment when he was approached by family member Carol Hrdlicka, who ended up chasing him into the Senate Elevator screaming at him that he was a "Traitor!" He pushed passed several other family members, actually knocking one of them to the floor!

Although President Clinton signed into Law a bill that called for the Department of Defense to give to Congress a comprehensive review of all MIAs on a case-by-case analysis, and although the Department of Defense has been in flagrant disregard of that law, Senator McCain makes excuses for the bureaucrats instead of demanding answers on behalf of the family members.

Let's not forget that he was one of the Keating Five.

At the recent senate hearing on the confirmation of an US Envoy to Vietnam, he greeted a family member by referring to him as, "Scumbag!", while that family member was seated next to the female head of a national PoW/MIA family organization. Talk about conduct unbecoming. . .

He is willing to disregard how the majority of family members and virtually all of the veterans organizations feel about normalizing with Communist Vietnam in favor of those businesses that see Vietnam as a "viable market."

He is at it again, writing a "Dear Colleague" letter asking fellow Senator's not to co-sponsor Senate Bill 755 which would restore the provisions to the MSPA that he removed. At the time he wrote his Dear Colleague letter, there were only 12 co-sponsor's of S 755. So our question is why? Why did he feel compelled to write this letter?

He states that he speaks for the families and yet he disregards everything requested of him by the very families that he claims to represent.

He had the unmitigated gall to speak at PoW/MIA Recognition Day cermonies in Washington DC September 19, 1997 although both the National Alliance of Families and the Korea-Cold War Association requested that he be replaced with a speaker more sympathetic to the families.

To View What these two organizations had to say, click on their names.

National Alliance of Families

Korea-Cold War Association

Click here for some REVEALING information on McCain.

John McCain is incapable of loyalty. He has demonstrated it time and again. He demonstrated it when he adandoned the woman who helped make sure he would be released.

He demonstrated it when he berated a family member and then hugged the man responsible for the torture of McCain and the brutal torture McCain's fellow Prisoners of War.

He demonstrated it by pushing the lifting of the embargo and normalization disregarding the fact that the Vietnamese have not been forthcoming with their war time records to help bring the answers as to what happened to the PoWs that were in their custody.

He demonstrated it when he decided that the desires of big business outwieghed the only recourse that Family members had--the only carrot to hold out to the Vietnamese.

He demonstrated it when he stifled the MSPA on the floor of the Senate even though it was sponsored by his own party and the man who may ask him to be part of the Cabinet.

He demonstrated it by introducing an ammendment to scuttle the effectiveness of this very same bill.

John McCain does not care if there is even one American left alive and being held against his/her will. McCain does the bidding of big business and big business comes before what he has to understand is a living hell.

Could it be that the Vietnamese have a bust of John McCain in Vietnam not as a tribute to the PAVN gunners that shot him down, but to a "progressive thinker"?

See what the Vietnamese termed as Progressive Thinkers while discussing the numbers of PoWs that they held in 1972.
See the bio on this Republican's good Friend, Democrat John Kerry
See the PoW/MIA Forum's Waffle Iron HALL OF SHAME
http://ojc.org/powforum/capital/mccain/mccain.htm

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