'Winter Soldier': Cold Days in Hell

the washington post ^ | Friday, December 9, 2005; Page C05 | By Ann Hornaday

[Jimmy Valentine's brother]

Vietnam Veterans Bare Their Souls In a Searing '72 Documentary

See "Winter Soldier."

This extraordinary documentary, made in 1972 and having its first theatrical release, not only revisits events during the Vietnam War that have uncanny resonance today but also stands as a riveting example of pure filmic storytelling. An unadorned, black-and-white record of a three-day gathering held in Detroit in 1971, "Winter Soldier" turns the camera on the testimony of former soldiers invited by Vietnam Veterans Against the War to share accounts of atrocities they committed or witnessed. The result is a spellbinding film that achieves impressive power through little more than the spoken word. ..... Recreational killing of civilians, rape, arson, torture: They did it, or saw it, all. Having been trained to see their enemies as less than human -- they were always called gooks or commies -- and having been taught to dissociate from the violence they were committing lest they be killed themselves, they simply learned not to care.

......."Winter Soldier" is an important historical document, an eerily prescient antiwar plea and a dazzling example of filmmaking at its most iconographically potent. But at its best, it is the eloquent, unforgettable tale of profound moral reckoning. Winter Soldier (95 minutes, at Landmark's E Street Cinema) is not rated.

[Soaring Feather]

bump

[RhoTheta]

Is anyone else as outraged as I continue to be by the hijacking of the language? These "Summer Soldiers" claim to be "Winter Soldiers." I have been reading McCullough's "1776," and other history books about the period. The Winter Soldiers are the ones that stuck around and went through the terrible privation, starvation, disease and cold to finally win the war. In sharp contrast are Kerry and his peculiar "band of brothers" who tried to stay away from the fighting, put in the minimum time, then come back to betray the real Winter Soldiers upholding the honor of America and its armed forces, and by calling themselves the Winter Soldiers, implying something else for the heroes that stayed and gave so much.

Disgusting!

[AprilfromTexas]

Many of these myths are debunked in the DVD Stolen Honor and in Corsi and John O'Neill's book published during the election. The research was done and the liars are exposed.

[Lady Jag]

[AprilfromTexas]

The book is 'Unfit for Command' by John O'Neill and Corsi

[smoothsailing]

This crap was a lie then and now it's just an old lie.It's just more desperate leftist hate-America drool.

When it's nominated for a Grammy maybe Hollyweird will invite Hanoi John and Hanoi Jane to accept the award.They've always made such a perfect couple.

[AprilfromTexas]

Thanks for the ping JV's bro. I hope you've thawed out after last night's freep in the cold. Thanks for holding the line for our wounded warriors!!

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

John Kerry's explanation: "He (Hubbard) simply exaggarated his particular position. But nobody knew it at the time. And those things happen."

Typical DemonRat double-speak. It's okay to LIE if it advances a liberal agenda. (And liberalism is communist-lite.)

[RaceBannon]

reel artways is the place where I almost got lynched freepi ng Clinton in 1999

[Gucho]

There is only one word in the English language that adequately describes what he was in 1971 – and what he remains today for capitalizing on the evil he perpetrated back then. That word is "traitor."

Questioning Kerry's patriotism

[jokar]

This slander was discredited years ago. Many of the "Vietnam vets" were REMFs who made up their stories, soldiers who never set foot in Vietnam, or people who never served at all. It is sad that this ancient lie is resurrected.

This bears repeating.
Welcome home and thank you for your service.

[Forte Runningrock]

Traitor is an understatement, he was a colaborator, the enemy. He belongs in prison. Yet, he's sitting in the senate.

John Kerry and the VVAW: Hanoi's American Puppets

Newly discovered documents link Vietnam Veterans Against the War to Vietnamese communists

Two recently discovered documents captured from the Vietnamese communists during the Vietnam War strongly support the contention that a close link existed between the Hanoi regime and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) while John Kerry served as the group's leading national spokesman.

The Circular: International Coordination of Antiwar Propaganda

The first document is a 1971 "Circular" distributed by the Vietnamese communists within Vietnam. It discusses strategies to coordinate their national propaganda effort with their orchestration of the activities of sympathetic counterparts in the American anti-war movement. Specifically, the document notes that the Vietcong and North Vietnamese delegations to the Paris Peace talks were being used as the communications link to direct the activities of anti-war activists meeting with them in Paris. To quote from the document:

The spontaneous antiwar movements in the US have received assistance and guidance from the friendly ((VC/NVN)) delegations at the Paris Peace Talks.

-- Circular on Antiwar Movements in the US. The reference to "VC" indicates the Vietcong; "NVN" is the North Vietnamese government.

This sentence is particularly important in light of John Kerry's admission that he met with leaders of both communist delegations to the Paris Peace Talks in June 1970, including Madame Binh, foreign minister of the Provisional Revolutionary Government (PRG) of South Vietnam, also known as the Vietcong. FBI files record that Kerry returned to Paris to meet with the North Vietnamese delegation in August of 1971, and planned a third trip in November.

Prior to the discovery of the Circular, there was no direct evidence that Hanoi was actually steering the U.S. antiwar movement's activities by conveying Hanoi's goals and wishes to movement leaders during their frequent visits to Paris, though many investigators had assumed that to be the case. Further analysis of this document supports the contention that Madame Binh used her Paris meeting with John Kerry to instruct him on how he and the VVAW might best serve as Hanoi's surrogates in the United States. In the spring and summer of 1971, a key strategy of Hanoi was to advance what was known as Madame Binh's Seven Point Peace Plan.

The plan was cleverly constructed to force President Nixon to set a date to end the Vietnam War and withdraw American troops. According to the 7-Point Peace Plan of Madame Binh, the only barrier to Hanoi setting a date to release American Prisoners of War was President Nixon’s unwillingness to set a specific date for military withdrawal. Of course, accepting the full terms of the 7-Point Peace Plan would have amounted to an American capitulation, a virtual surrender that included the payment of reparations to the Vietnam communists as an admission that America was the wrongful aggressor in an immoral war.

A section of the Circular titled "PREPARATION FOR THE FALL ((1971)) ANTIWAR MOVEMENT" makes clear the importance the Vietnamese Communists placed on advancing Madame Binh's 7-Point Peace Plan within the United States:

The seven-point peace proposal ((of the SVN Provisional Revolutionary Government)) not only solved problems concerning the release of US prisoners but also motivated the people of all walks of life and even relatives of US pilots detained in NVN to participate in the antiwar movement.

-- Circular on Antiwar Movements in the US. "SVN" indicates the South Vietnam Provisional Revolutionary Government, i.e., the Vietcong. "NVN" refers to North Vietnam.

And again, highlighting how the Vietnamese communists viewed the activities of the US antiwar movement, US politics, and politics in South Vietnam as interconnected; all to be targeted by Madame Binh's 7-Point Peace Plan:

The Nixon-Thieu clique is very embarrassed because the seven-point peace proposal is supported by the SVN people's (( political struggle)) movement and the antiwar movements in the US. Therefore, all local areas, units, and branches must widely disseminate the seven-point peace proposal, step up the people's ((political struggle)) movements both in cities and rural areas, taking advantage of disturbances and dissensions in the enemy's forthcoming (RVN) Congressional and Presidential elections. They must coordinate more successfully with the antiwar movements in the US so as to isolate the Nixon-Thieu clique.

-- Circular on Antiwar Movements in the US. "RVN" refers to the Republic of Vietnam, the government in South Vietnam supported by the US.

Read the rest if you haven't seen it before. I don't know why this wasn't mentioned anywhere for the last year in MSM. Well, actualy I don't wonder.

[Ciexyz]

The trouble is, back in 1972, as a student at Penn State, I read stuff like this on the Vietnam War and believed it. That was true brainwashing, along with Nixon is bad, Nixon should be impeached, Watergate is the worst constitutional crisis to hit America. This was what the MSM told us, and basically the students believed it.

[Doctor Raoul]

Somebody send the Washington Post a dictionary. "Lie" is not spelled "T-E-S-T-I-M-O-N-Y".

Bastards.

[usmcobra]

Has anyone ever found out what ever happened to Al Hubbard?

He and Kerry were once as thick as thieves.

[Gucho]

He belongs in prison.


BUMP!

[Seadog Bytes]

http://users.cwnet.com/bwj/kerry180.htm

[911angelady]

I thought Hanoi Jane found Jesus? Well,she didn't find Him for very long did she?

[sergeantdave]

I can't believe they're puking up this crap again.

You hippy goosesteppers best be very careful what you say to my face about our people doing their duty in Iraq.

[Zman516]

If slimey lefties like Ann Hornaday had listened to the Swift Boat Vets, they would know that this movie is crap.