Posted on 09/07/2004 1:24:21 PM PDT by Calpernia
Excerpt:
"If I got three Purple Hearts for three scratches, I'd be embarrassed," said Ted Sampley, who fought in Vietnam and publishes U.S. Veteran Dispatch. He remembers soldiers turning away awards for minor injuries.
Mr. Kerry has said none of his Purple Heart injuries, only one of which removed him from the field for two days, was critical.
After his third Purple Heart, Mr. Kerry requested and was granted permission to return to the United States to work behind a desk in New York. Even while still a Navy man, he began traveling to antiwar rallies with leading war protesters such as Adam Walinsky, a former speechwriter for Robert F. Kennedy.
Mr. Walinsky recalled that Mr. Kerry flew him around the state of New York for several Vietnam Moratorium protests in October 1969.
"He was a guy who had been in the war," he said. "We spent a lot of time talking about the campaign, the presidential campaign and the Vietnam War."
Mr. Kerry has said he did not take part in the protests, but was intrigued by Mr. Walinsky's views about the war. The two men stayed in contact and "became reasonably good friends," Mr. Walinsky said.
Others were shocked by the Naval officer's association with the antiwar movement.
"He gets this cushy job in his hometown, goes around protesting the war, then asks to get out six months early," Mr. Sampley said. "What regulations were busted when Kerry — as a Naval officer and still on the payroll — was flying around protesting the war? And who had to stand in and fight for John Kerry after he left six months early?"
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
The real John Kerry, lets not forget
note the last paragraph! FROM FORMER POW, MIKE BENGE
John Kerry, Another Traitor...
As Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat, considers a bid for the White House, Americans should know a few things about him that he might prefer go unmentioned - and I don't mean his $75 haircuts.
When Mr. Kerry pontificated at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial on Veterans Day, a group of veterans turned their backs on him and walked away. They remembered Mr. Kerry as the anti-war activist who testified before Congress during the war, accusing veterans of being war criminals. The dust jacket of Mr. Kerry's pro-Hanoi book, "The New Soldier," features a photograph of his ragged band of radicals mocking the U.S. Marine Corps Memorial, which depicts the flag-raising on Iwo Jima, with an upside-down American flag.
Retired Gen. George S. Patton III charged that Mr. Kerry's actions as an anti-war activist had "given aid and comfort to the enemy," as had the actions of Ramsey Clark and Jane Fonda. Also, Mr. Kerry lied when he threw what he claimed were his war medals over the White House fence; he later admitted they weren't his. Now they are displayed on his office wall.
Long after he changed sides in congressional hearings, Mr. Kerry lobbied for renewed trade relations with Hanoi. At the same time, his cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam ??? an odd coincidence.
As noted in the Inside Politics column of Nov. 14 (Nation), historian Douglas Brinkley is writing Mr. Kerry's biography. Hopefully, he'll include the senator's latest ignominious feat: preventing the Vietnam Human Rights Act (HR2833) from coming to a vote in the Senate, claiming human rights would deteriorate as a result. His actions sent a clear signal to Hanoi that Congress cares little about the human rights for which so many Americans fought and died.
The State Department ranked Vietnam among the 10 regimes worldwide least tolerant of religious freedom. Recently, 354 churches of the Montagnards, a Christian ethnic minority, were forcibly disbanded, and by mid-October, more than 50 Christian pastors and elders had been arrested in Dak Lak province alone. On Oct. 29, the secret police executed three Montagnards by lethal injection simply for protesting religious repression. The communists are conducting a pogrom against the Montagnards, forcing Christians to drink a mixture of goat's blood and alcohol and renounce Christianity. Thousands have been killed or imprisoned or have just "disappeared." The Montagnards lost one-half of their adult male population fighting for the United States, and without them, there might be thousands more American names on that somber black granite wall at the Vietnam memorial.
As Mr. Kerry contemplates a run for the presidency, people must remember that he has fought harder for Hanoi as an anti-war activist and a senator than he did against the Vietnamese communists while serving in the Navy in Vietnam.
MICHAEL BENGE
Foreign Service officer
former Vietnam POW (1968 to 1973)
Ex-Korean prisoner of war (POW) Steve Kiba was at the Senate Select Committee for POW/MIAs and he spoke of being captured and held by the Red Chinese. He knows first hand what the communist and Sen. John Kerry are capable of.
Danny "Greasy" Belcher
Infantry Sgt. Vietnam 68-69
"D" Troop 7th Sqdn 1st Air Cav.
Executive Director, Task Force Omega of KY Inc.
From: Steve Kiba
Greasy,
Is there any way I can get a copy of the article "No Comrade of Ours" by Rick Erickson? Much of it was hidden by the front cover of John "Commucrat" Kerry's propaganda trash. I think this article needs to be widely circulated continuously until after Red Vietnam's favorite candidate loses in the primaries or until after he loses in November. Everyone needs to see how he felt about America, America's military, our MIAs and POWs, and freedom after he returned from Vietnam. Everyone needs to know that his cowardly and traitorous actions, just as those of his fellow commie comrades (Jane Fonda, Tom Hayden, the Hollywood commie crowd, and all the other hippie, anti-USA war protesters) prolonged the war by giving the communists the will and determination to fight on. All Americans need to know that the cowardly and treasonous actions of Fonda, Kerry, and the rest of their filthy, anti-American commie friends vastly increased the number of patriotic young military personnel who died in their attempt to halt the spread of communism and to preserve and protect the freedoms of all of us (including the freedoms of these raunchy, anti-American communists); and by prolonging the war, these "self-righteous" scum of the human race caused our unfortunate MIAs and POWs to endure a much longer period of pain, agony, and misery at the hands of their cruel, sadistic, inhumane, godless communist torturers. Only God knows how many failed to survive because of Hanoi Jane, commie propagandist Kerry, and other traitors to the American way of life.
All Americans need to know how Senator "Commucrat" Kerry controlled and manipulated the laughable "so-called" Senate Select Committee on POW/MIA Affairs. What a waste of time and money that was! With the exception of Senator Bob Smith, all the other "elitist" clowns had already made up their feeble closed minds that there were no live fellow countrymen left behind. Greasy, they didn't (and still don't) give a tinker's damn about those poor, unfortunate souls who were not repatriated after our past wars. These poor souls were not just left behind; they were betrayed, abandoned, and forgotten. I have come to the realization that U. S. Government MIA/POW Policy was, is, and always has been first to betray them, then abandon them, then continue to deny that there are any live MIAs and POWs, and lastly to forget them. What a disgraceful, dishonorable, despicable, disgusting way to treat the people whom you send off to fight your enemies for you! The elected officials are just as guilty as the appointed officials in their implementation of this unbelievable policy, and they must share equal blame with the cruel, sadistic foreign bastards who inflicted and still inflict unbelievably excruciating pain and misery on the MIAs and POWs. John "Commucrat" Kerry, John "Republicomm" McCain, our first Red Chinese President of America Bill Jefferson (Jefferson is probably turning over in his grave.) Clinton, and the rest of the liberal, socialist, communist members of Senate and House of Representatives deliberately and callously pounded the last nails into the coffins of our still missing (many live) and un-accounted for MIAs and POWs when they normalized relations with Red Vietnam. Bury them alive and bury them deep. These cowardly representatives of a proud, caring American people figure that our MIAs and POWs will die off and that we the proud, caring Americans are just too busy and unconcerned to become involved in any organized, concerted effort to find out the truth. My fellow Americans to date they seem to right: there just to damned few of us who care enough to put forth the effort on their behalf. I beseech you and beg you: let us not alllow the U. S. Government, the U. S. Senate, and the U. S. House of Representatives to continue their cowardly, dishonorable MIA/POW policy of betray, abandon, deny, and forget them! Remember what John "Commucrat" Kerry and the other cowardly commie-lovers inflicted upon our troops in Vietnam and the needless years of suffering added to our MIAs and POWs.
We must continue to do all humanly possible to bring them home if they are alive and to account for them otherwise.
God bless you all. God bless and protect America and our brave military personnel wherever they might be. God bless, protect, and bring home all of our missing fellow countrymen.
Steve E. Kiba, author
The Flag -- My Story: Kidnapped by Red China
"Not ALL MIAs/POWs came home!"
picot@charter.net
And to Paris and colluded with the enemy,
Yes, the number of suicides cannot be known. It is estimated by some researchers currently documenting Vietnam-related suicides of veterans may well reach into the tens of thousands. (Per www.SuicideWall.com)
This story has not begun to be told.
Cross reference this:
At the same time, his cousin C. Stewart Forbes, chief executive for Colliers International, assisted in brokering a $905 million deal to develop a deep-sea port at Vung Tau, Vietnam ???
To this post:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1207003/posts?page=125#125
"Mr. President, I am anxious to construct a new relationship with our old adversary (Vietnam)".
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1205397/posts?page=164#164
THE AMERICAN SPECTATOR "The MIA Cover-Up"
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1205397/posts?page=167#167
POWs IN LAOS: SOME STILL SURVIVE HELP BRING THEM HOME
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1205397/posts?page=173#173
On April 16, five members of the Select Committee -- Senators Kerry, Smith, Robb, Brown and Grassley -- embarked on a ten-day mission to Southeast Asia. Members of the delegation spent three days in Vietnam. Their purpose was twofold: first, to obtain the necessary assurances of cooperation from senior Vietnamese leaders; and, second, to ensure that those guarantees of access would be carried out.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1205397/posts?page=179#179
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1205397/posts?page=208#208
Hardly likely. In 1971, two years before any peace agreement, John Kerry, a Vietnam veteran who became a peace activist, said that ``points'' presented by Hanoi-Vietcong delegations in Paris, and their conversations with him and other Americans, showed prisoners would be returned. So, he said, the U.S. should not ``stall'' any longer.
Anyone interested in viewing the Swift Boat Ads click the link.
http://swift1.he.net/~swiftvet/index.php?topic=Ads
Bio on Vice Admiral James B. Stockdale
http://www-hoover.stanford.edu/BIOS/stockdale.html
>>>In 1992, Admiral Stockdale was an independent candidate for Vice President of the United States as a running mate of Ross Perot. In 1993 he was inducted into the Navy's Carrier Aviation Hall of Fame. <<<<
I didn't realize that was him!
Vietnam POW: Hanoi Hilton Torturers Cited Kerry's Speech
A former Vietnam POW is alleging that his Hanoi captors specifically cited Sen. John Kerry's 1971 anti-war testimony to Congress as they brutally tortured him to get him to turn on his fellow GIs.
One-time Navy pilot Paul Galanti was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966 and spent seven years in the infamous Hanoi Hilton.
He told the Los Angeles Times on Tuesday that he learned of Kerry's April 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee while being tortured by his Hanoi Hilton guards.
According to the Times, "during torture sessions, [Galanti] said, his captors cited the antiwar speeches as 'an example of why we should cross over to [their] side.'"...
From Wolf Blitzer Reports' Brian Todd in Washington
The association with Fonda is too much for some veterans, including two members of Congress.
Republican Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a former Navy pilot and the first "ace" of the Vietnam War, was shot down in 1972.
"It bothered us, anyone that associated themselves with Jane Fonda, with Tom Hayden, with the antiwar movement. We just wanted to do our job, complete our mission for our country that sent us and come back alive. And having people like Senator Kerry protest that was kind of a slap in the face to us," says Rep. Cunningham.
And Texas Republican Sam Johnson, a POW in Vietnam, told the Washington Times Wednesday, "I think it symbolizes how two-faced he is, talking about his war reputation, which is questionable on the one hand, and then coming out against our veterans who were fighting over there on the other."
OPEN LETTER TO ANTI-WAR PROTESTERS
As a Prisoner Of War in North Vietnam for over seven years, I had to not only resist the efforts of the Communists to exploit me for military information and for propaganda, but also keep faith in our mission in South Vietnam in the face of near constant communist propaganda, the most effective of which was actually drawn from our own media . We heard the details of every anti-war riot and demonstration, every anti-war statement by opportunistic politicians and Hollywood celebrities--the same statements we were taking torture to not make.
In spite of that depressing input--or perhaps because of it--each passing day my convictions were strengthened that we were right to be there and that our cause was just. Experiencing Communism up-close-and-personal allowed me to know it as the evil it is; an ideology and political system based upon lies, slander, and deceit--not to mention the tens of thousands of lives terminated in North Vietnam alone just to impose it. I realized the people on the outside of the prison walls there in downtown Hanoi were no better off than I was on the inside.
The Communist officers and interrogators doted on the anti-war news from America, and considered the anti-war protesters as their allies, hence Jane Fonda's queenly reception there. They would often say to us, "Even if we are not able to win this war in the jungles of the South, we will win it in the streets of America." Ironically, that was the only truth they ever spoke.
This hoped for victory on the propaganda front contributed significantly to the tenacity and longevity of their military effort in South Vietnam, even in the face of horrendous defeats--most notably the 1968 "Tet Offensive" which was hastily hailed by our media as a watershed victory for the Communists. The longer war resulted in more casualties on both sides, no matter the outcome. This strategy was validated in the post-war memoirs of North Vietnam's highest leaders.
Fast forward to Iraq and the present. We are again fighting an evil, despotic regime based upon lies, slander and deceit, and which also owes it's survival to the elimination of tens of thousands of lives. But in this case, the justness of our cause is even more clear. International terrorists--Al Qaeda or otherwise--have been standing in line for a Saddam Hussein produced chemical or biological WMD for use against more innocent Americans; an attack that would be devoid of Saddam's fingerprints. So much for "containment". Every day that Saddam Hussein has been allowed to remain in power has been another day this could actually happen. And again--as futile as in this case it may be--Saddam and his War Council are depending upon the anti-war movement in America and around the world for their salvation. After his interview with Dan Rather, Saddam expressed to Rather his deep interest in the effectiveness of the American anti-war movement. Even while losing, you can be sure he will fight harder and more tenaciously to prolong the war unit his own propaganda and his "allies" in the streets of the world can have their effect.
So all you protesters out there, whatever your individual or collective motivation, I have no problem with your right to protest peacefully, thereby not diverting law enforcement from the more critical priority of real security. But just keep one thing foremost in your mind. Regardless of your naive pronouncements about wanting to "save the lives of innocent Iraqis and to bring American soldiers home", just as in Vietnam, you are encouraging our enemy to fight harder and longer, and more people will die. Get it? MORE PEOPLE WILL DIE!
Our strategy in the earlier gulf war--"Desert Storm" and our projected strategy for this war--"Iraqi Freedom"--proves our political and military leaders learned "the lessons of Vietnam". It's just a shame that you didn't.
Gerald Coffee
Captain, US Navy (Ret.)
BUMP
Damn, I'd never read that before.
Very enlightening.
It seems impossible, but he's even more dishonest, calculating and despicable than I thought.
Stickman, have you ever seen this?
Not only was Kerry IN Paris. Kerry was a signer of the“People’s Peace Treaty.” A “people’s” declaration to end the war, drawnup in communist East Germany. It included nine points, all of which were taken from VietCong peace proposals at the Paris peace talks as conditionsfor ending the war
The People's Peace Treaty
BETWEEN THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES, SOUTH VIETNAM & NORTH VIETNAM
Be it known that the American and Vietnamese people are not enemies. The war is carried out in the names of the people of the United States and South Vietnam but without our consent. It destroys the land and people of Vietnam. It drains America of its resources, its youth and its honor.
We hereby agree to end the war on the following terms, so that both peoples can live under the joy of independence and can devote themselves to building a society based on human equality and respect for the earth. In rejecting the war we also reject all forms of racism and discrimination against people based on color, class, sex, national origin and ethnic grouping which forms the basis of the war policies, present and past, of the United States.
1. The Americans agree to immediate and total withdrawal from Vietnam, and publicly to set the date by which all U.S. military forces will be removed.
2. The Vietnamese pledge that as soon as the U.S. government publicly sets a date for total withdrawal, they will enter discussions to secure the release of all American prisoners, including pilots captured while bombing North Vietnam.
3. There will be an immediate case-fire between U.S. forces and those led by the Provisional Revolutionary Government of South Vietnam.
4. They will enter discussions on the procedures to guarantee the safety of all withdrawing troops.
5. The Americans pledge to end the imposition of Thieu, Ky and Khiem on the people of South Vietnam in order to insure their right to self-determination, and so that all political prisoners can be released.
6. The Vietnamese pledge to form a provisional coalition government to organize democratic elections. All parties agree to respect the results of elections in which all South Vietnamese can participate freely without the presence of any foreign troops.
7. The South Vietnamese pledge to enter discussion of procedures to guarantee the safety and political freedom of those South Vietnamese who have collaborated with the U.S. or with the U.S.-supported regime.
8. The Americans and Vietnamese agree to respect the independence, peace and neutrality of Laos and Cambodia in accord with the 1954 and 1962 Geneva conventions, and not to interfere in the internal affairs of these two countries.
9. Upon these points of agreement, we pledge to end the war and resolve all other questions in the spirit of self-determination and mutual respect for the independence and political freedom of the people of Vietnam and the United States.
By ratifying this agreement, we pledge to take whatever actions are appropriate to implement the terms of this Joint Treaty of Peace, and to insure its acceptance by the government of the United States.
South Vietnam National Student Union
South Vietnam Liberation Student Union
North Vietnam Student Union
National Student Association
Saigon, Hanoi and Paris, December 1970
Signed: Amongst others, John F. Kerry!
Adopted by New University Conference and Chicago Movement Meeting, January 8-10, 1971
Good docs.
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