I think I have figured out what your saying. You believed we still had a chance of winning the war. Kerry was trying to make concessions with the enemy while there were still soldiers fighting who thought they had a chance of winning. That is much more reasonable than calling Kerry a communist or pro-communist. My father who was a history teacher told me it was not smart to have gone to Vietnam because Americans were not familiar with fighting in jungles. This came from a man who was fascinated by wars since he was a little boy and supported most wars.
You are not really getting it. And no disrespect to your father, but his viewpoint about Vietnam was misguided. For the U.S. not being a jungle-familiar army we never lost a battle or the war militarily. In fact, We had it won militarily. We lost it politically. At home. And who was responsible for that? Let's see what the enemy said:
Tuesday, Feb. 10, 2004 10:25 p.m. EST
Gen. Giap: Kerry's Group Helped Hanoi Defeat U.S.
Carl Limbacher, Newsmax.com
The North Vietnamese general in charge of the military campaign that finally drove the U.S. out of South Vietnam in 1975 credited a group led by Democratic presidential front-runner John Kerry with helping him achieve victory.
In his 1985 memoir about the war, Gen. Vo Nguyen Giap wrote that if it weren't for organizations like Kerry's Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Hanoi would have surrendered to the U.S. - according to Fox News Channel war historian Oliver North.
That's why, he predicted on Tuesday, the Vietnam War issue "is going to blow up in Kerry's face."
"People are going to remember Gen. Giap saying if it weren't for these guys [Kerry's group], we would have lost," North told radio host Sean Hannity.
"The Vietnam Veterans Against the War encouraged people to desert, encouraged people to mutiny - some used what they wrote to justify fragging officers," noted the former Marine lieutenant colonel, who earned two purple hearts in Vietnam.
"John Kerry has blood of American soldiers on his hands," North said.
Which gets us back to my earlier use of language. Murderous. Kerry undeniably was. All for self-ambition...and ideology.
You show a further historical weakness: Your failure to recognize, at minimum, the possibility as borne out by a lifetime of actions damaging to the U.S. defense that Kerry was either: (a) a Useful Idiot, (b) Fellow Traveller, or (c) True Believer, dedicated traitor to the U.S. in the hardcore Soviet Conspiracy. Do you honestly think he was none of the above? Have you never read Whittaker Chamber's "Witness"?
As we say up here in Garage Logic, "We Don't Know That!" That is just so much bilge water by Kerry and his Kool-Aid Drinkers. And you went on still further saying the following:
That is much more reasonable than calling Kerry a communist or pro-communist.
Oh really? What do you really know about the nation's "MOST LIBERAL" Senator from Massachussets? Not much I bet. Just how seriously do you take National Security anyways?
You probably can't handle the truth, as Jack Nicholson famously said. Note the following speculation.
Kerry's FBI File
By Gary W. Aldrich
March 1, 2004
I experienced something akin to humiliation when the President of the United States ordered subordinates to release his dental records to the public. President Bush acted in hopes of ending the ridiculous argument surrounding his National Guard service.
Nothing is sacred in today's politics of personal destruction - invented and perfected by the Democrats. Not even the number of fillings in George Bush's teeth.
Thus, Senator John Kerry and his followers "opened the door." It's only fair that many will now choose to walk through that door. No competent attorney would ever open a line of inquiry in the courtroom unless he knew how the same issue would impact his own client.
Democrats should not complain now if certain similar questions are asked of the good Senator.
In the debate about which man has given more to his country, no evidence has been more emotionally persuasive than Senator Kerry's own claims of war heroism. One basis for this assertion is that while serving in Vietnam, Kerry showed great courage in leaping off his boat to attack and kill a wounded North Vietnamese soldier.
Evidence suggests the Vietnamese soldier had previously been wounded by a 50-caliber round. Veteran friends of mine tell me if a person is hit by a 50-caliber round, it is highly unlikely they could continue to be a threat, because of the hydro-shock associated with the impact of the round. I am assured this is true regardless of where the enemy was hit.
I know from my own FBI training that certain high-powered rounds can destroy vital organs and blow away entire limbs - due to this same hydro-shock factor. Kerry's claims that he saved his fellow soldier's lives by taking the life of the wounded Vietnamese fighter now lie in reasonable doubt.
Also, Kerry's ardent fans clamor over the Purple Hearts he received for each of his several wounds. What is not widely known is that even a minor wound can qualify for a Purple Heart, and a combination of Purple Hearts can be the basis for reassignment to a safer post. Kerry did, in fact, take a safer post after accepting his war medals.
Other veterans tell me they didn't even put in for Purple Hearts, because they did not want to be transferred home unless they were seriously wounded. These veterans didn't want to leave their buddies behind just to seek the safety of distance from the battle.
In total, it appears Kerry was in-country less than five months. Yet some prisoners of war served more than seven years and had many serious wounds.
Today, Senator Kerry likes the political attention his medals afford him. However, during one protest, Kerry was seen tossing his precious medals over the White House fence.
Except now he says those were not actually his medals, but somebody else's medals he discarded. Another version has him tossing over just the ribbons. Which is it?
Anyone visiting his Senate office can see medals hung in a display case on the wall. Well, whose medals are in the display case? Are these Kerry's, or did he or a member of his staff buy a few similar medals at a local pawn shop?
Finally - in the biggest controversy of all - Senator John Kerry says he is a hero for standing up to power while protesting against the War in Vietnam. According to news reports, Kerry was protesting the war even as he served as a full-time member of the armed forces.
Did Kerry take leave-time to attend these rallies, or was he AWOL from his post while he traveled around protesting the war?
Did he only participate in peaceful war protests, or did he join the Hard-Left, anti-US, pro-Communistic cabal of Tom Hayden, Jane Fonda and other well-known Hard-Left, anti-US radicals?
I don't know the answers to these questions, but I do know where to find them. Every significant leader of any anti-war, anti-US protest from the 1960s has a large file sitting in a file drawer over at the FBI Headquarters.
The Bureau's headquarters is located at 9th street and Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Washington, D.C. To get a copy of the FBI file, which would clear up this entire thing, Senator Kerry merely has to file a form. But HE must be the one to do it. Nobody else can get a copy - only John F. Kerry.
And, because it's a U.S. Senator asking, I am sure the FBI would find and copy the file in a hurry. Then, like President Bush, Senator Kerry could release his FBI file to the media. All questions would be answered. We could put the matter behind us and, as the Democrats are fond to say, "move on to real issues." Like what Kerry would do as president if we were attacked by terrorists.
Senator Kerry can also get a copy of his service records from the US Navy using the same kind of form. These naval records would clear up a lot of good questions about his military service in Vietnam.
Today I am announcing the formation of an exploratory committee to encourage and assist Senator John F. Kerry in the acquisition and distribution of these two files. In due course, we will send the appropriate forms to Senator Kerry to be filled out. Soon, following President Bush's lead, Senator Kerry can reveal to the mainstream media the various documents establishing the truth about his conduct.
Vietnam veterans and former FBI and intelligence bureau agents are invited to join our exploratory committee. These individuals have a real sense of the truth about Senator John F. Kerry, and the Vietnam veterans have a large stake in the argument.
We're calling our exploratory committee, "Americans for the Truth About Kerry".
--------------------
Note -- The opinions expressed in this column are those of the author.
POST-ELECTION UPDATE: Not only did John F. Kerry never yetsign the Form 180 to release his military records as demanded by the Swift Boat Veterans, but Kerry has also refused, actually stonewalled, all requests to release his salient FBI records at issue as well...the ones pertinent to whether he was, and still is, a communist.
Here is the last letter from Aldrich which Kerry blew off, as he did all others:
October 26, 2004
Senator John F. Kerry
304 Russell Bldg. Third Floor Washington D.C. 20510
Dear Sir,
As a long time employee of the federal government, I have confidence in the records that each government agency maintains. Many official federal records have formed the basis for legal decisions, major or minor. US courts find such records acceptable as evidence in criminal and civil trials, and, as evidence, these records are highly sought by parties of interest to major legal decisions. Obviously, such documents would be helpful in the determination of a citizen’s suitability to seek the highest office in the land.
During your lifetime, several federal agencies have kept detailed records related to your various careers and your antiwar activities which took place after your return from Vietnam, where you served in a combat role for approximately four months.
Legitimate and interested parties, including veterans groups, non-governmental interest groups (NGOs), and the mainstream media, want to review your federal records, but they cannot because you refuse to fully release them. Several groups and individuals have requested a review of your records since you began your campaign to win the presidency.
Among the various records are your medical records, your IRS records, your military records, and, perhaps most important of all, the records that only you can obtain which contain evidence the Federal Bureau of Investigation gathered as they investigated you under their statutory authority to investigate threats to our nation’s internal security.
Hundreds of these FBI investigations took place during the Sixties and Seventies, but not everyone investigated was guilty of threatening our nation’s internal security. However, unless your records are read by the voting public, only you and the FBI know what is hidden in your FBI files. And you know full well that the FBI is not empowered to disclose what is in your FBI files, regardless of how important such evidence may be.
On the other hand, there is no bar to the release of these documents, if you authorize the disclosure. In fact, many individuals – interested in putting certain controversies to rest – have obtained their own FBI files and then have allowed an interested third party to review them so as to end a conflict or controversy. You can do the same, and nearly 100,000 citizens are urging you to do so. If the whole of the American voting public knew these FBI files with your name on them existed, I am quite sure they would want to know what is contained within those file jackets.
The Patrick Henry Center for Individual Liberty, a Fairfax-based foundation has obtained petitions from almost 100,000 individuals who agree that you should request your FBI files, and disclose them immediately. Only then would citizens know the full extent of your antiwar activities. If your activities were innocent and in the best interest of this nation, then the FBI records would certainly reveal your patriotism and your good intent.
I believe it is in your best interest to obtain, and then release these records whether or not you are successful in your bid for the presidency.
Be assured that citizens want to know all there is to know about presidential candidates. To my knowledge, no other candidate is withholding documents that may bear on their character and reputation, but if we learn that is the case, our organization will seek petitions from interested citizens so as to learn about those candidates’ pasts, as well.
Only when citizens are well informed can we expect to have elections that are truly legitimate. If candidates lie or withhold important information bearing on their character or their true loyalty to our nation, voters can be fooled into voting for the wrong persons.
I am certain because you are a long-serving US Senator you would agree that truth is the most important component to ensuring our nation’s future. Please move swiftly to enable the FBI to release your FBI files so that they may be completely reviewed prior to the election on November 2, 2004. All you have to do is sign a one-page form.
Very truly yours,
Gary W. Aldrich President
The Patrick Henry Center For Individual Liberty