Altyernate headline" "Kerry wins endorsement of the Viet Cong"
My thoughts exactly. Does Kerry really want anything good said about him by a former VC?
Yeah, I think your headline is the most descriptive.
Viet Cong Vietnamese: "Kerry Deserves A Medal"
Vietnamese-Americans: "Kerry Is A 'Phan Boi' (Traitor)"
Well, well. More proof that you can count on Kerry shills to enlist the testimony of the VC and NVA in his political campaign.
But my wife, who grew up not 50 feet from the Mekong (and was later arrested in Ca Mau for trying to escape the commies as a "boat person") remembers things a little differently. So do her friends and family.
Yes, the Navy was fierce aginst the Viet Cong, and that's precisely what the South Vietnamese wanted. But American personnel weren't feared by the locals for the most part, either then or now. My wife recalls being led home at the hand of a kindly Navy guy when she was lost as a toddler (they docked boats near her house). Her entire family remains grateful to this day for America's help in their struggle against the communists (even though they remain saddened and profoundly affected by the ultimate loss).
I'm happy this NYT reporter was able to find a few VC to interview. In my wife's old neighborhood, they are reviled and despised to this very moment. But they do still have the guns. One pays them deference, they have the power.
And Mr. Sinh and Mr. Hung are both egregious liars: while they might indeed have received their VC service medals, the 200,000 ARVN who died in Vietnam did not. Hanoi has not and will not disburse one penny to maintain the thousands of overgrown and undocumented ARVN burial grounds all over the South.
Professional courtesy.