Is Cheney the Next Target? The Vietnam War war could turn to the vice president.

National Review Online ^ | February 24, 2004 | Byron York

[Big Mack]

Get your rants straight. This was not a rigged VC booby trap. This was a grenade with the pin unbent so the pin could be pulled without effort then hung on the web belt by the pin. The guy that droped the grenade was the Darwin canidate, but Max wasn't thinking when he picked it up. When I was there and a grenade was rolling on the ground, you jumped for cover, then checked to see if it was live.

[7thson]

Dick Cheney was born in Lincoln, Nebraska, and educated at the University of Wyoming and the University of Wisconsin. His first government position was as special assistant to Donald Rumsfeld, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, in 1969 and 1970. He next served as a White House staff assistant in 1970 and 1971 and as assistant director of the Cost of Living Council from 1971 to 1973 before briefly returning to private life. In 1974 Cheney returned to government service as deputy assistant to President Gerald Ford. Cheney became deputy White House chief of staff and then served as chief of staff from 1975 to 1977.

This is too easy. Cheney served his country in other ways - with public service. In 1959, Cheney is 18 and goes to college. Four years later, he graduates at the age of 22 in 1963. In 1963, Vietnam was barely on anyones radar. Four years later in 1967, by the time it starts getting really dicey, he is 26 with a wife and child, and probably already working somewhere. How many 26 year olds with a wife and child chucked it all to serve in the military? Two years later - age 28 - he starts government service under Rumsfeld. He served his country during wartime several times - by being in the government and helping to form policy concerning the war!

[StriperSniper]

Frankly, he was one of the best SECDEFs to ever serve, and that trumps Kerry on anything that he ever did in Vietnam.

Yes, with 20/20 hindsight(far clearer than with the WMDs), what VP Cheney was doing at the time to prepare for that post was far more important to this country than Sen. Ketchup on the boat.

[From The Deer Stand]

When the Rats apply the same standards to Bill Clinton, a draft-dodger, then I'll listen to the Bush and Cheney argument.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

Actually, there were several reasons for Truman not seeking re-election- the first being that his Party was convinced he could not win. Somwthing about firing our finest General in the middle of a war , seizing the steel industry in violation of lots of laws, and corruption within his Administration, when Truman had made his bones in the Senate by fighting wartime defense contractor corruption via the so-called "Truman Commission.
He remains my favorite Democrat, but for his and George Marshall's efforts in post-war Europe, rather than any domestic agenda or Korean War action, where he deferred to the feckless United Nations.

But saying that someone is MY "favorite Democrat" is sort of like me going out into the dog yard and nominating" my favorite dog turd!"

I hate and despise Democrats, in case that is not clear.

[Skywarner]

"John Kerry served in Vietnam?"

As Johnny Carson use to sarcastically say, "I did not know that!"

JF'nK should talk more about his wealth of Vietnam experience and how he almost single handedly won the war (until he decided he was against the war - which was when he decided he wanted to run for office).

Maybe one of Kerry's personalities forgot to tell his Vietnam personality? It's gotta be touch hearing all of those voices....

[Skywarner]

"But saying that someone is MY "favorite Democrat" is sort of like me going out into the dog yard and nominating 'my favorite dog turd!'"

Oh man, quote of the DAY!! :-)

Go airborne!

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

No, I think that this phony story about a mysterious "other soldier" who dropped a grenade is bullcrap. The original and undoubtedly true story is that this unskilled junior officer had a grenade hooked to his LBG by the ring, and it simply came off- and he was too slow to recognize the danger to retrieve it and get rid of it safely. (I have had to scramble after trainees for grenades- it takes a certain amount of situational awareness, not to mention quickness to tretrieve this situation).
All of these later fairy tales are to cover-up for his own incometence- which could easily have killed several other men.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Dick Cheney was born in 1941

. . . which would suggest that he graduated from college in 1963--the year after I, two years his senior, graduated from a 5-year college program. In those days Vietnam was still a sideshow; we were not well and truly committed to Vietnam until the assassination of President Diem of South Vietnam--which occurred only a month before the assassination of President Kennedy in October 1963.

The (secretly) Kennedy-approved overthrow of the government of S. Vietnam because Diem was not considered to be the second coming of George Washington meant that the US was morally committed to giving S. Vietnam a better government than Diem's. LBJ picked up the ball and before you knew it we had 500,000 troops there instead of maybe 500 military "advisors" supporting S. Vietnamese troops when Kennedy took office. So if you applied for a draft deferrment in mid 1963 there was not that big an implication that you were "avoiding Vietnam."

In any event history shows that the Johnson Administration was incompetent, micromanaging military leadership, and that has not been the course of wisdom to volunteer for service under any post-Eisenhower Democratic Administration. Johnson honored the troops but mishandled his CIC role, and subsequent to that it was the rare Sam Nunn or Scoop Jackson Democratic leader whose interest lay in boosting military preparedness and military pay.

And John Kerry lead in the development of the post-Vietnam (actually post-Tet) Democratic tradition of self-righteous pacifism which destroyed the Johnson and Nixon Administrations and assured the futility of the commitment to Vietnam which Kennedy and Johnson made and which Nixon tried to redeem. The failure of which led to the killing fields of Cambodia and the deaths of a great many thousands of South Vietnamese is reeducation camps or in small boats at sea in the open Pacific Ocean.

[deport]

I'm not saying Cheney did a thing wrong or that any accusations that the dems will raise will even make headlines.... They raised them in 2000 along with the President Guard duty and they didn't work.

Cheney didn't graduate in four years... He started at Yale and basically flunked out after two years.... Came back to Casper got a job as a lineman and finally reentered college and graduated in 1965....... During that time he had student deferments which most had that were around during that period and attending college or a deferment as a registrant with a child.... Nothing wrong with that...

The thing they will try again is the same thing from 2000 which is a statement he supposedly made..... It didn't fly then and won't this time either, imo. But the point of this article is they will bring it up most likely as a diversionary tactic just to see what sticks.... But Kerry will have to have a clean VP candidate if they do.

..........“I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service,” Cheney told a reporter in 1989, according to the Washington Post. However, in his Senate confirmation hearing, Cheney said he “would have been obviously happy to serve had I been called.”.......

[mass55th]

"If I remember correctly you were elgible for the draft up through age 26...."

I don't remember where my brother stood in the draft. It was never even mentioned that I recall. He enlisted, but only after some perseverance on his part. His vision wasn't good enough initially. He ended up having to get a note from a civilian eye doctor attesting that his vision in the one eye was good enough for his to go.

[leadpenny]

The House just went into session for some formal business. Before adjourning they have allowed a few "one-minute speeches." The first democrat up, Rep Allen (ME), brought up the Cheney/Scalia duck hunting trip last month. This is the "sleeper" issue that will go all the way to November - - not Cheney's non-military service record.

[7thson]

Basically, I do not see anything wrong with his response. Anyone that had the money to go to Yale obviously had more choices than the majority of those who went into the military. In my 18+ years in the Navy, I did not meet too many guys or gals who had an upper or basic middle class background that joined. The vast majority of those who enlisted had nothing else. Not to say that they were not smart or anything. This just did not have the resources to continue with school - even if they wanted to. I think a wife and kid is considered high priority and I respect Cheney more for his honesty. Also, I do not want you to think I am jumping on your case.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You summed it up nicely. The Libs like to say there were no dominoes in SE Asia (refusing to look at Laos, Cambodia and Burma, of course). Just 2 1/2 million Viet Namese who fled the country, were forced into re-education camps or died trying to escape.

[deport]

I didn't think you were jumping. I was only trying to provide some context to the slander should they try to present it again this time... It won't fly but that doesn't mean they want use it if they can find a willing press to go along with it again.

[templar]

All of these later fairy tales are to cover-up for his own incometence- which could easily have killed several other men.

I would be liking to see any evidence that supports this. There were others present from what I understand, any of them concur?

[templar]

When I was there and a grenade was rolling on the ground, you jumped for cover, then checked to see if it was live.

When I was there, in an airport, I think it was NhaTrang but it's been so long I really don't remember for sure, A chicom grenade came rolling out of a stack of baggage into a group of grunts waiting for a flight. One of the guys screamed "GRENADE' and threw himself on top of it. Turns out it was a dud that someone was trying to smuggle out as a souvenir, and that guy had a bit of embarrassment over it. Still, it was absolutely the most courageous and self sacrificing thing I ever saw anyone do. I wouldn't think of him as a Darwin candidate.

[My2Cents]

The Vietnam was the high water mark of the American left. Is it any wonder that they salivate at the prospect of "quagmire" everytime the US becomes involved in a conflict overseas?

[The G Man]

Fair enough. It was a cheap shot on my part. Just trying to call attention to his description as a "hero" when in reality he's not. Now, overcoming the obstacles he then had to face to get to where he is now? Yeah, thats heroic. But his Vietnam service? No. It's just more patronizing and pandering.

[templar]

Fair enough. It was a cheap shot on my part.

You have my respect. Very, very few people ever admit that. You are an honorable man.