Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

In Fonda’s Footsteps: Murtha, Kucinich, and the Antiwar Movement’s Economic War
Original FReeper research | 1/15/2007 | Fedora

Posted on 01/15/2007 6:49:46 AM PST by Fedora

In Fonda’s Footsteps: Murtha, Kucinich, and the Antiwar Movement’s Economic War

By Fedora

There is only one way to end this war. Cut off the funds.

--Dennis Kucinich, November 15, 2006

When John Murtha recently announced legislative plans to cut off funding for US troop deployment in Iraq, he was following the same game plan Jane Fonda and Tom Hayden had used three decades earlier in Vietnam. The descent of this antiwar strategy can be traced from Fonda and Hayden to Murtha through an antiwar lobby that dates from the Vietnam War and has been spearheaded through the current war by Dennis Kucinich.

In 1976, former US Ambassador to South Vietnam Graham Martin testified to the Senate that two prongs of the antiwar movement had played what he considered the pivotal role in Congress’ decision to reject President Ford’s request for emergency financial aid to prevent the fall of Saigon. One prong was the lobbying and public relations campaign directed by Don Luce, whose Indochina Mobile Education Project toured the country spreading allegations about purported US atrocities in Vietnam. The other prong was a complementary campaign directed by the Indochina Resource Center (IRC), a group which pressured Congress to support various goals of the antiwar movement, such as severing US aid to South Vietnam and anti-Communist forces in Cambodia, negotiating the release of South Vietnam's political prisoners, and securing amnesty for American war resisters.

The IRC worked closely with Hayden and Fonda’s Indochina Peace Campaign (IPC), a publicity campaign launched concurrently with an episode of The Phil Donahue Show where Fonda reported on her July 1972 visit to Hanoi and claimed she had witnessed American POWs being treated well. Other IPC members included Donald Sutherland and Holly Near from Fonda’s FTA troupe, Scott Camil of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (whose legal defense in the Gainesville Eight trial was being funded by Fonda), former POW George E. Smith, and former Ramparts editor Mike Ansara.

In its efforts to persuade Congress to cut off US aid to Vietnam, the IRC and IPC worked in coordination with the People’s Coalition for Peace and Justice (PCPJ), a Communist Party front group which regularly sent delegations abroad to Communist-bloc countries and to conferences of Soviet front groups. The IPC also collected aid for Communist groups in Southeast Asia through Medical Aid for Indochina (MAI), a fundraising group founded by future MoveOn.org consultant Bill Zimmerman. MAI raised donations to “buy medical equipment” for the Vietcong and North Vietnam, as well as Communists in Laos and Cambodia. MAI’s fundraisers included Cuban agent Rene Mederos. The funds were sent via trips to Hanoi coordinated with antiwar groups and the Communist Party travel agency AT.

Supporting the IRC/IPC campaign in Congress was an antiwar caucus called Members of Congress for Peace Through Law (MCPL). MCPL had emerged in the late 1960s from a series of seminars sponsored by the Institute for Policy Studies, described in FBI files as “a Washington-based ‘Think Factory’, which helped train extremists who incite violence in the United States and whose educational research serves as a cover for intrigue and political agitation”. MCPL members George McGovern and Mark Hatfield led legislative efforts to defund the US war effort. Meanwhile McGovern and Hatfield lent antiwar groups both political and financial support. During the April 1971 Dewey Canyon III rally organized by Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), McGovern and Hatfield personally transmitted the VVAW $50,000 that former Robert Kennedy speechwriter Adam Walinsky had raised on behalf of John Kerry. The rally was timed to coordinate with Kerry’s testimony to a Senate committee.

Testifying to the effectiveness of this antiwar lobbying apparatus, Ambassador Martin told the Senate:

The main organization I think is the Indochina Resources Center, and I really think that another principal element would be the multi-faceted activities of Mr. Don Luce. . .

When [IRC founder] Mr. [Fred] Branfman came out for a visit to Hanoi. . .in the fall of 1974, and told some of our friends in both Vientiene and Bangkok that he now had a person in each of the 500 congressional offices. . .he was bragging a little bit.

But I think he probably was correct in that they had worked very hard among the newer congressional staffs to get at least one person in each office on the Hill who was favorable to them, who would receive their material, who would try to see that it got to the member, et cetera. . .

Mr. Branfman, I understand, is now sort of on a leave of absence assisting Mr. Thomas Hayden. . .

. . .I seriously recommend that it become a matter of investigation because I do not think policy can safely be made this way in the future.

Unfortunately, all indications are that policy continues to be made this way today. Hayden’s lobbying apparatus supported his 1976 Senate campaign and survived into the post-Vietnam era as the Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy (CNFMP, intertwined with similar groups called the Campaign for a Democratic Foreign Policy and the Campaign for Economic Democracy). CNFMP spawned spinoffs which remain active today, such as the Latin America Working Group (LAWG), a coalition of over 65 groups that recently played a role in organizing opposition to John Bolton.

Meanwhile, key Congressional leadership positions have been assumed by MCPL veterans, who include Senators Joseph Biden, Christopher Dodd, Tom Harkin, and Edward Kennedy and Representatives John Conyers, Jr., George Miller, and Charles Rangel. Conyers, Miller, and Rangel are also members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), a socialist lobby descended from the influence of MCPL member Michael Harrington.

The CPC overlaps with the Iraq antiwar lobby organized in September 2002 by CPC Congressman Dennis Kucinich. Kucinich announced the formation of a Congressional antiwar coalition immediately following the return of a delegation to Baghdad co-led by former MCPL Senator James Abourezk. Kucinich’s coalition initially consisted of 19 Democrats, notably CPC members Barbara Lee, who had cast the lone vote against military action in Afghanistan after 9/11, and Jim McDermott, who had also criticized military action against Afghanistan. McDermott would soon follow up Abourezk’s delegation with another trip to Baghdad. Accompanying McDermott’s delegation was Iraqi agent Shakir Al-Khafaji, who later paid McDermott a check. Al-Khafaji had also been using Oil-for-Food vouchers to finance a film by antiwar spokesman Scott Ritter, who met Abourezk’s delegation in Baghdad.

Since 2002, Kucinich’s coalition has spearheaded the movement to defund the war effort. On June 16, 2005, Kucinich’s coalition held a Capitol Hill news conference to announce the introduction of a resolution calling for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq on or before October 1, 2006. The October 2006 deadline came and went, but immediately after the Democrats’ victory in the November 2006 elections, Kucinich began calling on the new Congress to cut off funding for the war. On November 15, 2006, Kucinich said in a floor speech:

One week ago the American people sent a message to this Congress. That message had to do with Iraq. Were the American people asking us to send more troops? No. They want the troops to come home. Were they looking for to expand the war? No. They want us to end the war.

There is only one way to end this war. Cut off the funds.

Kucinich echoed these sentiments throughout November and December. Then on January 10, 2007, the day after Murtha unveiled a new antiwar plan, Kucinich introduced a resolution against proposed troop escalation and laid out what he called the Kucinich Plan, which repeated his earlier proposal to cut off war funding:

That’s what the Kucinich Plan, which I [am] presenting to Congress today is all about. Congress is a co-equal branch of government. We have an urgent responsibility here. Congress under Article I, Section 8, has the war-making power. Congress appropriates funds for the war.

Congress does not dispense with its obligation to the American people simply by opposing a troop surge in Iraq. It is simply not credible to maintain that one opposes the war, yet continues to fund it. If you oppose the war, then don’t vote to fund it.

In introducing legislation to defund the war, then, Murtha is following the Kucinich Plan. And Kucinich is following in the footsteps of Fonda.

Select Bibliography

”Bipartisan Coalition Of Members of Congress Announce Legislation Setting Date To Begin The Withdrawal Of US Armed Forces From Iraq: Reps. Jones (R-NC), Paul (R-TX), Abercrombie (D-HI), Kucinich (D-OH) Announce Legislation This Morning At Capitol Hill Press Conference”. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. June 16, 2005. http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=29423

Chumley, Cheryl K. “The Congressional Progressive Caucus: Fringe-Left Democrats Wield New Influence”. Capital Research Center. January 2007. http://www.capitalresearch.org/pubs/pdf/FW0107.pdf

Congressional Progressive Caucus. http://cpc.lee.house.gov/

Fedora. “Goodfellow’s Bedfellows: Who’s in Bed with the Washington Post”. FreeRepublic.com. July 4, 2006. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1660323/posts

Fedora. “Wilsongate: Motive, Means, and Opportunity”. FreeRepublic.com. November 21, 2005. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1526309/posts

”House Coalition Announces Opposition To War: 19 Members Of Congress Representing A Growing Coalition in the House Announce Opposition to War in Iraq”. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. September 19, 2002. http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=26537

“Independent American Delegation to Baghdad”. IPA: Institute for Public Accuracy. September 10, 2002. http://www.accuracy.org/newsrelease.php?articleId=614

”Kucinich: American Voters Want Congress To End War In Iraq”. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. November 15, 2006. http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=53845

”Kucinich: Congress Must Cut Off Funds For Iraq War; More Troops Will Only Increase The Death And Destruction: Congress Must Use Its Constitutional Authority To Do What The Administration Will Not: End The War In Iraq”. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. November 20, 2006. http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=53846

”Kucinich: Congress Needs To Oppose Bush’s Call For Troop Surge: Introduces Resolution Urging President Not To Order Troop Escalation”. Congressman Dennis J. Kucinich. January 10, 2007. http://kucinich.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=55163

Landau, Saul. “Doom in Baghdad”. The Progressive. November 2002. http://www.mafhoum.com/press4/118S29.htm

”Members of Congress for Peace through Law”, Institutional Analysis. Issue 1, April 19, 1977. Online at http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/IA1.cfm

Pfeiffer, Eric. “Murtha proposes bill to choke funding for surge”. The Washington Times. January 15, 2007. http://washingtontimes.com/national/20070114-113535-3275r.htm

Poole, William T. “The Anti-Defense Lobby Part 3: Coalition for a New Foreign and Military Policy”. Institutional Analysis. Issue 12, December 19, 1979. Online at http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/IA12.cfm

---------------------. “Campaign for Economic Democracy Part I: The New Left in Politics”. Institutional Analysis. Issue 13, September 19, 1980. Online at http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/IA13.cfm

---------------------. “Campaign for Economic Democracy Part II: The Institute for Policy Studies Network”. Institutional Analysis. Issue 14, April 19, 1981. Online at http://www.heritage.org/Research/GovernmentReform/IA14.cfm

Powell, S. Steven. Covert Cadre: Inside the Institute for Policy Studies. Introduction by David Horowitz. Ottawa, Illinois: Green Hill Publishers, Inc., 1987.

Rogers, David. “Murtha Outlines Strategy To Restrict Troop Surge”. The Wall Street Journal. January 9, 2007, A6. Online at http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB116831329878171033-8Vl8GdijujdEXH_fLjVthcE4Ojk_20080109.html

Tyson, James L. Target America: The Influence of Communist Propaganda on U.S. Media. Preface by Reed Irvine. Chicago: Regnery Gateway, 1981.

United States Congress House Committee on Internal Relations, 94th Congress, 2nd Session. The Vietnam-Cambodia Emergency, 1975: Part III--Vietnam Evacuation: Testimony of Ambassador Graham A. Martin, January 27, 1976. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1976.


TOPICS: Editorial; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: cpc; fonda; hayden; kucinich; murtha; progressivecaucus
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-45 next last

1 posted on 01/15/2007 6:49:50 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: RedRover

Murtha ping.


2 posted on 01/15/2007 6:50:57 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Shermy; piasa; Liz; backhoe; christie; GailA; Alamo-Girl; stockpirate; stands2reason; windchime; ...

Ping on Vietnam, Goodfellow and related subjects.


3 posted on 01/15/2007 6:53:40 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: SunkenCiv

Historical ping.


4 posted on 01/15/2007 6:54:27 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: smoothsailing; ForGod'sSake; GOPJ; Txsleuth; nuclady; sageb1; Helen

Ping.


5 posted on 01/15/2007 6:55:33 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fedora

Hope that's everybody from my various ping lists who might be interested in this--sorry if I missed anybody.


6 posted on 01/15/2007 6:56:26 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Fedora

All of them, deserve to dance,
at the end of US gallows ropes.


7 posted on 01/15/2007 7:01:19 AM PST by NickatNite2003 (From the Man from Hope" to the wife who snarls "Abandon All Hope!")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Fedora

Sure , cut the funds . Make sure our boys do not have bullets to shoot at the enemy and tanks that run . What does Murhta have to do with this anyway he was involved with the middle east sting ,how can he be trusted? How did these two win? What is wrong with people ? The military families better get involved with a heavy march on Washington. We could help, can't we.


8 posted on 01/15/2007 7:06:54 AM PST by betsyross1776
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Max Friedman

Meant to ping you to this as well. I wanted to include what you mentioned on other threads about the Fonda/Hayden investigation but wasn't sure if you had published that yet or not, so I left it out. Has that been published yet? Looking forward to reading that when it's available.


9 posted on 01/15/2007 7:11:30 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: betsyross1776
Sure, cut the funds. Make sure our boys do not have bullets to shoot at the enemy and tanks that run.
They don't care. They don't care one iota for the lives of US military personnel. In fact, if there was a politically expedient way to vote for funds to give to enemy soldiers, these traitors would do that. They would actively vote to actively kill more American soldiers and marines.
10 posted on 01/15/2007 7:22:51 AM PST by samtheman
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: samtheman
This is why we have to take back our congress folks. the reason is our kids lives are at stake. Another attack is at stake. We got to stand and fight for what we believe in , cause if we don't we all are toast.
11 posted on 01/15/2007 7:25:15 AM PST by betsyross1776
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: betsyross1776
The military families better get involved with a heavy march on Washington. We could help, can't we.

I see that and a supporting counter-lobbying effort as vital. If they could do it to oppose the war, we can do it to support the troops.

12 posted on 01/15/2007 7:39:34 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Fedora
They're the same organizations, often the same damn people, promoting the same subversion...and all fronting for the same old socialist idea.

The KGB injected them into our society's bloodstream -- just like a toxin, or self-replicating virus.

And their sole interest is American defeat.

13 posted on 01/15/2007 7:42:54 AM PST by okie01 (The Mainstream Media: IGNORANCE ON PARADE)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: Fedora

BTTT


14 posted on 01/15/2007 7:55:49 AM PST by Liz (Nearly all men can stand adversity, but to test a man's character, give him power. Abe Lincoln)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: okie01

Apt analogy. They are a virus, and a cancer. I think the most insidious part is the part of the disease that goes deeper than the KGB, though. Even before and during the rise of the USSR, much of the funding for the global Marxist movement was coming from US philanthropies. I believe this has also been a major factor in the post-Cold War survival of the problem: they can keep feeding off private philanthropies and--by declaring nonprofit status--US government grants and UN "Non-Government Organization" privileges. Meanwhile on the legal front they are protected by an "immune system"--to extend the analogy--consisting of the loopholes the ACLU has discovered/created in the legal and judicial systems. I believe that these are also fronts in the War on Terror, necessary battlefields that must be faced to deal with our homegrown terrorists.


15 posted on 01/15/2007 7:58:43 AM PST by Fedora
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Fedora
Just because we are right and have the numbers if we do not stand up , they the congress will never know it. If you do let me know when I would love to go organize and I promise to help as much as I can.
16 posted on 01/15/2007 8:06:59 AM PST by betsyross1776
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 12 | View Replies]

To: Fedora; Berosus; Cincinatus' Wife; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; Ernest_at_the_Beach; FairOpinion; ..

Thanks.


17 posted on 01/15/2007 8:28:08 AM PST by SunkenCiv ("In theory, theory and practice are the same, but in practice, they're not." -- John Rummel)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: samtheman

I live about 20 miles from Kucinich's district. I'm amazed and saddened that people who live so close to me continue to vote the communist into office. While Mayor of Cleveland, he ran the city into default, yet his district continues to reelect him to Congress.


18 posted on 01/15/2007 8:28:26 AM PST by mmichaels1970
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: Fedora

Thanks for the ping!


19 posted on 01/15/2007 8:37:03 AM PST by Alamo-Girl
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: 68-69TonkinGulfYachtClub
A ping for Tonk's Promise.


Kerry : Help is on the way! Hanoi Jane Partners with MoveOn.Org

'Hanoi Jane' Fonda is teamed up with a leading anti-Bush 527 group in a bid to register millions of women voters to cast their ballots for her old anti-war protest partner, John Kerry.



"First I picked Edwards BUT now I pick Hanoi Jane!"

Edwards played football in 1971 when he turned 18
instead of serving in Vietnam.
Hanoi Jane at least was a Viet Cong!
Just like me!

Hanoi Jane and I know how to demoralize US Troops serving today!

We hate US Troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We hate all US Troops!

We lie about them in 2004 the same as we did in the 60's and 70's!

We vow to insult and undermine Iraq Prime Minister Ayad Allawi

We vow to protect the UN and the Oil for Food Scandal

We vow to keep secret the ties between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaida

We vow to free Saddam Hussein with help from our old friend Ramsey Clark.


John F. Kerry
Timeline of a traitor.
Click Here





20 posted on 01/15/2007 8:39:34 AM PST by Calpernia (Breederville.com)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-45 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson