Posted on 10/07/2004 9:37:00 AM PDT by PDR
Peter Principles: The race to the Swift By Peter Roff UPI Senior Political Analyst
Published 10/6/2004 6:35 PM (Please send comments to nationaldesk@upi.com.)
WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- A group calling itself Swift Boat Veterans for Truth laid waste to John F. Kerry's presidential campaign. The Swifties, as they have become known, used a single television ad -- which initially aired in less than 2 percent of U.S. households -- to undercut the Democratic nominee's principal virtue: his record in Vietnam.
The group's activities brought attention to a period in Kerry's life that, well-known and apparently well-documented, had never really be subject to intense scrutiny; certainly not the level of scrutiny given to either President George W. Bush's record in the Texas Air National Guard or former Vice President Dan Quayle's time in the Indiana National Guard.
The group's latest ad charges that, "Even before Jane Fonda went to Hanoi to meet with the enemy and mock America, John Kerry secretly met with enemy leaders in Paris though we were still at war and Americans were being held in North Vietnamese prison camps."
The group has drawn the nexus that was long in the making -- that Kerry's inconsistency on the war in Iraq has an historical antecedent: his inconsistency on the war in Vietnam.
On the one hand, there is his record as a decorated war hero: a Silver Star, a Bronze Star, several Purple Hearts and the life of at least one U.S. solider saved in battle.
On the other, there is his record as the leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, the activities on which he based his rise to political prominence leading to a career in Massachusetts politics.
One of the more notable actions taken by Kerry was his 1971 appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in which he uttered his famous line about asking the last American solider "to die for a mistake." But he said a lot of other things too, worth quoting at length.
"I am not here as John Kerry," he told the committee, "I am here as one member of the group of 1,000, which is a small representation of a very much larger group of veterans in this country; and were it possible for all of them to sit at this table, they would be here and have the same kind of testimony."
Kerry then brought up the Winter Soldier project, which he described as "an investigation at which more than 150 honorably discharged, and many very highly decorated, veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia."
What Kerry may not have known at the time, however, is that most of the participants in the so-called investigation, as later scholarship demonstrated, were not highly decorated veterans; in fact, many of them had never even been in Vietnam or in the U.S. military.
"They told stories," Kerry continued, "that at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown 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 ...
"The country doesn't know it yet, but it has created a monster, a monster in the form of millions of men who have been taught to deal and to trade in violence and who are given the chance to die for the biggest nothing in history," Kerry told the committee in a perfect illustration of what he himself criticized in his first debate with George W. Bush.
The communists in Southeast Asia used Kerry's testimony before the committee as a propaganda tool, and it was an integral part of the torture perpetrated by the North Vietnamese against U.S. POW's held in Hanoi. In what he told that U.S. Senate committee in 1971, the future U.S. senator from Massachusetts apparently could not distinguish between the war and the warriors who fought it.
The lasting outrage on the part of some veterans who, like Kerry, served nobly in and were discharged honorably from that long-ago war propelled them to action initially and has kept them going when their actions suffered a withering assault from those who would sooner dismiss their allegations than explore them.
Now the Swift Boat Veterans, together with some members of the POW community, have come together to form Swift Boats and POWs for Truth and to press on to extract from Kerry an apology.
The group recently opened an online petition addressed to Kerry that reads, in part, "The vast majority of the men who served with you, and the entire chain of command, has refuted your representations of your conduct in Vietnam. To date, you have repeatedly refused to respond to these statements, electing instead to have professional politicians flood the media with efforts to discredit these former comrades.
"If you betrayed us once, we need to be assured that you will not do it again," the petition reads. "It is time for you to set the record straight."
While the Swifties may be over the top, their personal connection to the events involved give them a certain license toward emotionalism; nevertheless, the allegations they raise deserve investigation. To the extent their activities provoke serious inquiry, even if Kerry is ultimately exonerated of all the charges they have made, they will have been a welcome development indeed.
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(The Peter Principles explores issues in national and local politics, U.S. culture and the media. It is written by Peter Roff, UPI political analyst and 20-year veteran of the Washington scene.)
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Copyright © 2001-2004 United Press International
Wow. Better late than never from UPI. Wait! Is that an icicle I see forming in hell??
Now's a good time for everyone to write letters to their newspapers backing up the Swift Boat Vets' claims with added data. They've been doing on heckuva job, but are still being rebutted and aren't given the proper air time to rebut the rebuttals. We can do that because we have the facts at our disposal. I hope you all consider this.
This article gives me a warm feeling inside. I like to think my donations helped the Swifties to derail Kerry's efforts to use his 4 months service in Nam to his benefit.
There's a special place in Hell reserved for Kerry.
While the Swifties may be over the top, their personal connection to the events involved give them a certain license toward emotionalism; nevertheless, the allegations they raise deserve investigation. To the extent their activities provoke serious inquiry, even if Kerry is ultimately exonerated of all the charges they have made, they will have been a welcome development indeed.
Interesting last paragraph.........
The Combat V on its own is enough to paint the picture of Kerrys self-glorification of his Viet Nam record. We can bring up things like his camera footage of re-enacted battles, self-fragging stupidity and Cambodia, but I think anyone with half a wit to them can figure it out. Anyone that can't is either clinically retarded or completely wedged by their loyalty to the dungocrapic party.
Bullshit!! Sounds like the swifties are going soft on Kerry. What the hell good is an apology. An apology from kerry would have no more value than an apology from clinton. The damage has already been done. Apologies do not repair the kind of damage inflicted upon our service men, POW's and nation by the insufferable swine kerry nor does it assure that he would not repeat his betrayal as commander in chief. I would like to see the "apology" language dropped and the "Swifties" to continue focus on torpedoeing the kerry campaign.
Kerry lied about the atrocities supposedly committed by our soldiers in Viet Nam but I've never heard him condemn the North Vietnamese for their treatment of our POW's. He tried to disgrace our military in front of Congress and the World with lies but will not condemn a country using the truth. That explains why he is disgracing our allies and soldiers in Iraq. He wouldn't know what faith, loyalty and honor was, even if it bit him in the A$$!
If they will keep churning out the ads, I'll keep making donations. ...Just made one minutes ago.
If only the ads could run in EVERY market.
All the best to these good men, who are doing good work(s).
Icicles in hell or Hillary getting worried about the BS polls that pretend that the poodle is generating enthusiasm.
please buy a vowell or get a clue - a Kerry apology does torpdeo the Kerry campaign (and why one has yet to be forthcoming)
Calm down. There's no way on God's green earth that Kerry can apologize to the POW's and the Swift Vets because that would give the lie to every damn thing he's said about Viet Nam for the last 34 years. The Swift Vets know this, but they appear more reasonable to stupid reporters when they say they want Kerry to apolgize. What's Kerry going to say? 'I'm sorry I betrayed my country and betrayed my fellow veterans and sorry I accepted my battle awards under false pretenses, sorry I conspired with communists and anarchists and politcal assasins'?
Excellent theory.
Right. Further, they are asking for much more than an apology -- signing the 180, releasing the diary, etc. The swiftvets know that Kerry cannot consent to their demands.
If you would like to help the Swift Boat Vets ( as I have, and I urge all to do-- even a few dollars will help ) kindly click on this logo:
Take a look at these short video clips, especially the last one. You will walk away with a heavy heart.
Just a simple reference to what Kerry accused his fellow soldiers of during one of these debates, with 'you were obviously lying then so how can we trust you now' would put an end to the Kerry campaign.
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