Vietnam Veterans Against the War Lane Anderson Spreads Smear That McCain Started Forrestal Fire

[Doctor Raoul]

Look out for the next smear from the radical left, that McCain started the USS Forrestal fire.

McCain plane was hit by an accidentally fired rocket, for Pete's sake how to you even work up a lie that he's somehow responsible.

[NRA2BFree]

When is McCain going to learn that he cannot trust liberals? He's trying to be Mr. Nice Guy, and the RATS are screwing him at every turn. He better cowboy up and go for the jugular if he really wants to be President.

[Billthedrill]

I believe it was actually an F-4 that had the Zuni. The A-4’s were dropping 1000-lb gravity bombs, IIRC. Might be wrong.

[ETL]

John Kerry, from his book, The New Soldier:

"We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small [American] flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the 'greater glory of the United States.'..."

"The John Kerry quote comes in the epilogue to "The New Soldier," the book put out by Vietnam Veterans Against the War [VVAW]. The book's cover features a group of not-particularly sober-looking anti-war protesters (vets, presumably) flying the American flag upside down [while mocking the historic flag raising event at Iwo Jima]":
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1203164/posts

Note John Kerry's name at top right of The New Soldier

John Kerry: "...if the United States were to set a date for withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned."

"Under questioning from the Committee, Kerry referred to the democratically elected government of South Vietnam -- our allies -- as a "dictatorial regime, the Thieu-Ky-Khiem regime," while respectfully calling the North Vietnamese communist regime we were fighting by its oxymoronic official name, the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, and the murderous Viet Cong's political arm by their preferred "Provisional Revolutionary Government.":
http://www.townhall.com/columnists/lindachavez/lc20040428.shtml

From Frontpagemag.com:
During the question and answer period following his April 22, 1971 televised testimony before the Armed Services Committee of the United States Senate, Kerry said:

"I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government and of all eight of Madam Binh's points it has been stated time and time again, and was stated by Senator Vance Hartke when he returned from Paris, and it has been stated by many other officials of this Government, if the United States were to set a date for withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned."

Even today, knowing what we know about the Vietnamese communists and about John Kerry, it is difficult to grasp the enormity of what he was confessing to. As an American citizen and a member of the United States Navy—while his former comrades and countless others were fighting and dying in Vietnam at the hands of Viet Cong guerillas and North Vietnamese regulars—Kerry consorted with the Viet Cong representative and discussed (“talked with,” he euphemized) her “plan.” That obscene plan included a trade: the return of our POWs for a withdrawal of American forces.

As John O’Neill expressed in his important bestselling book Unfit For Command, “. . . America could have its POWs back only if we agreed that we lost, then surrendered, and then set a date to leave.”

Kerry’s wartime trip to Paris was confirmed about six months ago by a campaign spokesman, who tossed it off as a mere “fact-finding” excursion.

Yet Kerry was apparently so impressed with the “facts” he found in company with the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese that a few months after his return from Paris he had the effrontery to urge the President of the United States to accept his communist hosts’ plan for 'peace' in Vietnam."
http://www.frontpagemag.com/articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=15127

"We will not quickly join those who march on Veterans' Day waving small (American) flags, calling to memory those thousands who died for the 'greater glory of the United States.' "

So John Kerry would have a difficult time marching with those waving small American flags yet had NO problems marching with those waving HUGE VIETCONG FLAGS?

"Pictured above: VVAW-supported demonstration during the Washington Spring Offensive, April - May 1971. Notice the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong flags."

June, 1970 -- Kerry joins Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), a national veterans group that is part of the Peoples Coalition for Peace and Justice. The PCPJ is a broad coalition of local and national organizations, including the Communist Party, USA, "committed to conducting demonstrations aimed at ending the war in Indochina, and poverty, racism and injustice at home." The VVAW, CCI and PCPJ all have headquarters at 156 Fifth Avenue in New York City. VVAW Executive Secretary Al Hubbard, a former Black Panther, is also on the coordinating committee of the PCPJ. Hubbard soon appoints Kerry to the VVAW's Executive Committee, bypassing the normal election process.
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=Timeline

http://www.1stcavmedic.com/jane_fonda.htm

November 22, 1970 -- During a fund-raising tour for GI deserters, Vietnam Veterans Against the War and the Black Panthers, Jane Fonda is quoted in the Detroit Free Press as telling a University of Michigan audience:

"I would think that if you understood what communism was, you would hope, you would pray on your knees that we would someday become communist," and "The peace proposal of the Viet Cong is the only honorable, just, possible way to achieve peace in Vietnam."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=Timeline

Fonda made the following statement at the University of Texas:
"We've got to establish a Socialist economic structure that will limit private profit-oriented businesses. Whether the transition is peaceful depends on the way our present governmental leaders react. We must commit our lives to this transition ...... We should be very proud of our new breed of soldier. It's not organized but it's mutiny, and they have every right." --Karen Elliott Dallas Morning News December 11, 1971

PHOTO: "Jane Fonda and John Kerry at an anti-war rally in Valley Forge, Pa. (Leif Skoogfors/Corbis)"
http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry.asp

John Kerry and the VVAW--Hanoi's American Puppets?
"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."
http://www.wintersoldier.com/staticpages/index.php?page=puppets

Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) Complete FBI files:
http://www.wintersoldier.com/index.php?topic=VVAWFBI

[300winmag]

I stand corrected on the details. McCain's aircraft was next to the one that was hit. He got out, and tried to rescue the pilot of the stricken A-4.

It still reinforces the safety rule of "watch where the rockets are pointing". The same applies to Army helicopters, and is constantly pounded into heads.

[Enchante]

No problem, I hope you do know I wasn’t yelling at you since my post was before yours? :^)

It’s these VVAW liars that make my blood boil. This kind of smear isn’t near any borderline of uncertainty, it’s patently absurd and contradicted by extensive video, photo, and witness evidence. There is no grey area at all for these scumbags to try to make their ‘charges’ — they are like the 9/11 nutters. Probably some of the same people.....

[Michael.SF.]

Everybody going through Damage Control school in the 70's got chapter and verse on the Forrestal.

My son went through Damage Control school at Great lakes in '82, they still do.

[300winmag]

No problem. But this McCain libel is worse than the 9-11 truthers. Just come up with a heinous lie, and know that some morons who vote will buy it.

Anybody with an IQ above room temperature can find the truth with just a couple minutes of looking. But when you're wrapped up in a straight jacket, someone else is more than willing to spoon-feed you what you need to know.

[pacpam]

How could you go into such detail and be so wrong about it.

[rottndog]

USS Forestal Fire Video

[MediaMole]

You are absolutely wrong. McCain’s aircaft was HIT by a rocket. It did NOT fire the rocket.

No offense, but you are helping to spread the lies.

[Bodhi1]

Is this what you mean:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vfptalk/message/4837

[Bodhi1]

BTW, that link I posted above has Lane Anderson’s email address on it. FWIW.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Zuni rocket, not a missile.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Quite a few freepers have been perpetuating that old lie as well.

[A.A. Cunningham]

His plane fired the rocket.

You are full of s***.

[7thson]

A lot of mistakes were made that day. One was the improper loading of the original missile fire. Another huge mistake was the lax attitude onboard the carrier. Many of the berthing areas had gear adrift - loose articles of clothing - which clogged up the pumps and allowed the berthing to become flooded. Also, if you watch the video, at one point a crew lays down foam which starts to smother the fire. But right behind them was another crew that washed the foam away with fire hoses and the fire reignited.

They show this film to you when they send you to firefighting school and also in boot camp. It is horrendous and scarier than a movie because it is real. There is one moment where a chief is running up with a fire extinguisher and then a horrific blast. He is gone - blown away!

[magslinger]

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[Dilbert56]

McCain actually walked along the refueling probe (fixed on the A-4) to get clear of the fire. Pretty neat way to escape the conflagration consuming the plane.

[CholeraJoe]

Pretty neat way to escape the conflagration consuming the plane.

That only proves that he was paying attention during egress training. They teach you that.

[mware]

Hey Doc, they are not just going after McCain now. They are also going after his father for the attack on the USS Liberty.

There is a thread up right now of that smear.