Isn't she lovely? </Sorry Stevie, sarcasm>
Posted on 06/16/2005 3:19:37 PM PDT by CHARLITE
Today, June 14, 2005, the date of Marie Cocco's article on "the Kerry smear," is the 38th anniversary of the day my husband, Kevin McManus, of Babylon, Long Island, was shot down over Hanoi and then imprisoned for six years.
During those six years, then-Lt. John Kerry, USN, served his near-four-month combat tour in South Vietnam with other Swiftees, nearly all of whom served for at least a year (many for longer than that); and returned to the United States where in early 1970 still-Lt. Kerry (now USNR), having run unsuccessfully for Congress in the Massachusetts Fourth District, decided he'd become an antiwar activist; in late May, a still-Lt. Kerry visited the Foreign Minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government of Vietnam (Viet Cong/Communist/U. S. enemy), Mme. Nguyen Thi Binh, in Paris, and within a month joined Vietnam Veterans Against the War whose activities included the staging and "confessing" of atrocities committed by American soldiers still serving in Southeast Asia -- a membership that included and, perhaps, culminated in a VVAW leadership meeting in Kansas City where a plan to assassinate several "pro-war" U. S. Senators was discussed and voted on.
But Lt. Kerry's (yes, he was still a U. S. Naval lieutenant) greatest prominence during those six long years resulted from an April 22, 1971, address to the U. S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Ms. Cocca may or may not recall the vile smears with which he punctuated that address: American soldiers, the lieutenant claimed, "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals, turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Ghenghis Khan..." and that these acts were "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." He then urged the U. S. Senate to endorse Mme. Binh's 7-point "peace" proposal.
When asked by members of the committee about the possible reprisals that a sudden, total withdrawal of American troops (a la Binh) would cause, the lieutenant answered "far, far less than the 200,000 a year who are murdered by the United States of America." (On a Dick Cavett show two months later, he reduced that "reprisal" figure to "a few thousand, less than five." So much for prescience, Lt. Kerry: the reprisals we're aware of passed the three-million mark within months of our departure.
No man, however, not even one who had served four whole months in a combat zone, or who became the presidential nominee of his party, could be expected to foretell the future; and he wasn't alone in that inability. The media agreed with him then and continue, for the most part, to agree with him now -- not merely on the so-called benefits of deserting our ally, but on the substance of his remarks about American soldiers before the Senate, a filthy substance Hollywood (with the financial and exhibitionistic support of Jane Fonda) managed to scrape up and serve the American people from that day forward about Vietnam veterans.
Apparently, though, neither the so-called mainstream media in general nor Ms. Cocca in particular, have yet come to realize that the "psychic flaws" and "tragic mistakes" made by Lt. Kerry and Senator Kerry reflect classic tragedy far less than they reflect classic ambition and greed, plastered over the leitmotif of calumnies and slanders that ruined the reputations of a generation of combat veterans; and as such the "embossed certificate of his character" required little "shredding" indeed; dry rot and putrefaction had set in 33 years before the Swiftees questioned his medals and the POWs abjured his post-combat conduct.
Many of us remember those years and Lt. Kerry's song-and-dance very well. Particularly galling was the charge that American pilots, in particular, if one believed him and Ms. Fonda, were war criminals who, in those days, merited either execution or lifelong hard labor -- galling because U. S. policy demanded pinpoint, rather than carpet-bombing in order to avoid civilian targets, forcing our pilots to expose themselves to enemy fire; galling because our soldiers fought in uniform and failed to use women and children as armaments, galling because my brother, also a Long Islander serving in the Army might, as recommended in a Fonda ditty, be "fragged;" galling because communist-held American servicemen took torture to avoid saying what one of their own offered freely and expansively to all who'd broadcast, telecast, or teleplay; galling because one of their own gave aid and comfort to their enemy, weakening the will and destroying the honor of American servicemen and citizens alike; galling because a Congress and a media empire swayed by and complicit in his lies forced America to renege on a promise, abandoning to communism the millions who didn't flee or perish from it.
Allowing Senator Kerry to stand for Commander in Chief of the armed forces he betrayed -- as no other American in or out of uniform has ever betrayed them -- was simply an abomination for formerly silent Vietnam Veterans who'd unwillingly swallowed the Left's 33-year-old let-the-wounds-heal rhetoric. Enough, they said at last; and many believe it was enough to derail his ambitions. Re-releasing "all his military records" yet again, if Ms Cocca can bear to review the record, only strengthens the case against him.
As Ms. Cocca reports, "nothing new" appeared in the re-released records provided The Boston Globe. May I suggest that what doesn?t appear may prove equally newsworthy for a truly "investigative" reporter? Full service records don?t contain gaps. A full service record would indicate the dates and action reports of his trip into Cambodia (Christmas eve or otherwise); a full record would contain an explanation as to why his military "discharge" is dated some eight years after his official release from the Navy; a full service record would contain exactly of what that early official release consisted; a full record would contain the proceedings of the "board" that met to confer on and issue his discharge (note to aspiring young investigative reporter: ask a veteran from any war if a board met to issue his or her separation papers); a full service record would indicate the reason that an officer outside an awardee's chain of command issued a Purple Heart; a full service record would indicate why a particular citation (in this case, a Silver Star) for the same action was issued at three separate times with three different wordings, with three separate signatures (the latest containing incorrect information and adding a "V" for valor which even the senator himself admits is mistaken.
Could any of these anomalies point to the issuance of an other-than-honorable discharge at the time the lieutenant was separated from the Navy? Could they result from Kerry's unauthorized, unlawful meetings with the enemy during war-time, not to mention advocacy of that enemy's position and furthering its propaganda?
Lastly, Lt. Cdr Danny Hernandez is either misquoted or mistaken. Neither the Pentagon nor the Navy Bureau of Personnel maintains complete service personnel records. Sen. Kerry has "released all his military records" at least four times, now. This is no more "all" than the "all" he released in the past. Perhaps it depends on what the meaning of "all" is; but Ms. Cocca apparently agrees: "nothing new" -- although I'm not sure if Ms. Cocca would recognize "new" if she saw it.
She apparently missed at least three admissions by the Kerry campaign and the senator himself: indeed he did not go into Cambodia at Christmas-time, as he claimed, though he now insists that he did go at some other time (but can't unearth the paperwork that ordered him there or that he should have filed with the Navy having gone there); at least one of his Purple Hearts was awarded "mistakenly" because his wound was accidentally self-inflicted; the Silver Star appearing on his campaign website mentioned and displayed a combat "V" for valor that was never awarded and was removed from the website when the truth came out.
These are only a few of the properly raised claims brought out by the Swiftees. How very, almost ingeniously, clever of John O'Neill, writing in Unfit for Command, to hone in, months before the senator released "all" or indeed any of his files, on exactly what fails to appear or appears incomplete in any re-release of "all" his military records! Now there's prescience.
So, happy Flag Day -- Sen. Kerry likes his over-easy, star-side down (see the cover of The New Soldier).
Very sincerely,
Mary Jane McManus
Link to Cocco's Newsday article (also posted on FR with lively, ongoing thread)
Char :)
Char :)
God bless Mrs. McManus and her husband.
Ping me, please, if Newsday prints her letter.
I won't hold my breath.
Thanks - great read.
Brilliant.
Bravo!!
Newsday (the monopolistic local Long Island, New York) newspaper is merely a press release service for the Democrat National Committee. Marie Cocco is a professional liar for this propaganda rag. In a million years, Newsday will never publish this excellent letter.
Isn't she lovely? </Sorry Stevie, sarcasm>
"June 16, 2005 -- Most media outlets passed over John Kerry's latest attempt to convince the public that his military records are public, other than to note the minor revelation of Kerry mediocre grades at Yale. A few, however, took the opportunity to pretend that Kerry's "signing" of Form 180 somehow discredits the charges made against him by the Swift Vets and POWs for Truth and other groups.
"This requires ignoring the gaping holes punched in Kerry's story last year, including his absurd claim to have spent Christmas of 1968 illegally fighting the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, the "No Man Left Behind" canard of a heroic rescue under nonexistent machine gun fire, the accidental injuries for which he acquired his Purple Hearts, and so on, but Kerry's media defenders are up to the task. Newsday's Character lessons from the Kerry smear is a particularly egregious example.
"Mary Jane McManus of the Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation has responded to the Newsday article, reminding us of a few things the old media would just as soon forget."
June 10, 2005 -- "In an effort to deflect criticism about his failure to authorize the complete release of his military records, John Kerry recently signed the long-awaited Form 180. Naturally, there are nuances and caveats. The actual form Kerry signed isn't available. The military records were released to the Boston Globe, not to the public. And the documents seem to have come from the Navy, not from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. Records that would show the status of Kerry's original discharge from the Navy remain hidden.
"This isn't going to solve John Kerry's document problem, no matter how fervently the Senator and his friends at the Boston Globe wish it were so. For those of you keeping score at home, here are some of the key articles:"
Did Kerry really release Navy records? -- Thomas Lipscomb, Chicago Sun-Times, June 9
Kerry Hangs Back From Disclosure to All -- Josh Gerstein, New York Sun, June 9
Critics charge Kerry still covering up -- WorldNetDaily, June 8
On the mixed-up files of John Kerry -- PowerLine, June 8
Kerry Allows Navy Release of Military, Medical Records -- Boston Globe, June 6
bookmark
Thanks for posting this.
Thank you so much all Vietnam Vets! (except that one!)
My bro was 101st Army Airborne Ranger - Bronze Star, too! (<---proud sister!)
Oh she's just a typical sKerry hater; believes a few facts can outweigh all John's wonderful intentions...
Mary Jane McManus....
Ohhhh... Mary Jane smoked Kerry!!!!! I love it!!!!
(/sarcasm)
Thanks for the ping!
Kerry's campaign themes is " Let America be America Again." This slogan was borrowed from a Communist poet, Langston Hughes. This is not common knowledge to the average American.
There is a museum in Hanoi with a section dedicated to foreign activists who help defeat the United States Military in Vietnam. Of course, you would expect Jane Fonda's picture to be there. But, alas, there is John Kerry's picture shaking the hand of a communist official.
Wow. Mary Jane, you go girl!
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