Politics is a dirty business, to borrow a tired cliche. Anyone running for office can expect skeletons, no matter how deeply buried, to be dug up.
But what is the truth about John Kerry’s service in Vietnam? He made his service and “three Purple Hearts” issues in his campaign, but those who served with Kerry paint a different picture of the man who saluted the American flag before his vacuous speech at the Democratic National Convention.
According to editorial reviews of Unfit for Command: Swift Boat Veterans Speak Out Against John Kerry, the men reveal:
— How all three of John Kerry’s Purple Hearts were for minor injuries, easily treated with band-aids, not requiring a single hour of hospitalization
— How captured Americans were tortured in North Vietnamese prisons for not endorsing John Kerry’s false testimony-before the United States Senate-about alleged American war crimes
— How John Kerry carried a typewriter and an 8-mm home movie camera with him to Vietnam so he could record his own exaggerated version of his war exploits and film staged reenactments of his “combat actions” to advance his political career
— Why John Kerry’s photograph hangs in a place of honor in the Vietnamese communist “War Remnants Museum” in Saigon
The Kerry camp offers a lame response to the allegations. They reiterate the point over and over that none of the men in the ad served on the boat with Kerry. His lawyers’ come up with an equally lame letter. I presume you’ve seen the ad and read comments about it on the web. The men don’t assert that they were crewmates of Kerry’s. Cassandra over at I Love Jet Noise does a more thorough job responding of to the lawyers’ response.
Watch the ad for yourselves.
Robert Novak critiques both the book and the man:
I have read the book and found it is neither the political propaganda nor the urban legend that its detractors claim. It is a passionate but meticulously researched account of how Kerry went to war, what he did in the war and how he conducted himself after the war. The very serious charges by former comrades deserve answers but so far have produced only ad hominem counterattacks.
Why should details of what Kerry did more than 30 years ago be part of this election campaign? Only because the senator has made them integral to his strategy. Kerry as war hero received more attention at the Democratic National Convention than plans for the future. Thus, what he did in his shortened four months of combat becomes a valid campaign issue….
Unfit for Command sends a devastating message, unless effectively refuted. Perhaps most disturbing are allegations that are unjustified.
Is this stuff true? If so, will any of these revelations break Kerry? Doubtful. Bush-hatred is too entrenched.
Afterthought: I guess “they” don’t make real men anymore. Instead of turning his lawyers loose on TV stations showing the veterans’ ad, Kerry should be a man and clear up the whole thing. Tell us if the allegations are true. If not, sue for libel!
The First Amendment protected Kerry’s right to bad-mouth his country after Vietnam; the same amendment protects the media’s (and the veterans) right to show political ads.
Update: ResurrectionSong concludes that Kerry is a liar.
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Actually, I do think this is going to harm him significantly if he doesn’t start addressing the questions instead of sending lawyers. Not all liberals are “staunch”.
One thing I haven’t seen a lot about, and I wish I could remember where I did see it, how did Kerry wind up in Nam? Did he volunteer? Was he drafted?
I haven’t seen nor sensed anything honorable about the man.
Kerry denounced the war during his Yale graduation speech.
Later he was called up by the draft board. hHe then asked for an exemption so he could go to france (not clear if for scholarship a la Clinton re England). Request denied.
So he joined the navy and managed to stay out of harm’s way by selecting a shipboard job on a non-combat ship. As was tradition, those who volunteer, get to pick and choose the service and type of job. Those who don’t get sent wherever needed.
Then he heard about the swift boats that were essentially performing coast guard duties. Bonus, he could “captian” a power boat, so with dreams of JFK, PT Boat Hero w/o the risk, he volunteered.
Alas, within two weeks of arriving the mission had changed from blue waters patrol to brown waters hazardous duty. For what it’s worth, Admiral Zumwalt who had overall command had expected high casualty rates and indeed his own son, also a skipper, was killed in a swiftboat battle
AS I have said elsewhere, I am a Vietnam era veteran, having served in the Air Force in Thailand in 1969, almost being killed by communist infiltrators on the road between the base and town. My brother, a patrol pointman in the 101st Airborne died during the Tet Offensive on August 10, 1968, in Vietnam.
I believe Kerry is a rank opportunist, who while serving in the Navy during Vietnam did so solely to advance his envisioned future political career. I believe that he used every opportunity to inflate his significance and garner official recognition, even to the point of exageration, if not outright lies. For him to then trade on that service as a “war hero” is a travesty to those who bled and died in Vietnam, such as my brother. As a result, to attack him for those exagerations or possible lies is not an ad hominem attack, since the attacks are directed at things material to the argument. True ad hominem attacks are personal attacks on immaterial issues, such as is routinely done to Bush.
Why should Kerry sue for libel? Maybe he doesn’t really care what they say. They can say what the heck they want, but that doesn’t make it any more or less true. And that goes for both sides.
Why Kerry should sue for libel, if libel exists in the statements of the SwiftVets:
Because as President (if he makes it there), lies are grounds for impeachment. One of the two involved parties are indeed lying.
Thank you, Andy. So,he volunteered after being denied deferment. That’s interesting.
I’d volunteer too since I would be able to choose where I went, for example working with jets as opposed to being sent to be a field cook in some MASH outfit
Obviously many chose to let the DOD decide for them.
William, terrific comment. Thank you for your service, welcome home, and may God bless your brother’s soul. And I know that we WON the Tet offensive, even if the media turned it into a defeat on the home front. They are trying to do the same thing with Falluja, but Americans aren’t buying it this time.
The tricky thing about Kerry’s service is that nobody wants to impugn anybody else’s service in Vietnam. However, the fact that Kerry trumped up his injuries in order to get purple hearts and exaggerated about other things in order to get other medals is just outrageous. I mean, 5 medals in four months??? Who’s he kidding?
I know men who went into the thick of Vietnam for two years or more, and they did not accept purple hearts for surface wounds. Whether or not he deserved some of the medals, I cannot say until I read “Unfit for Command”, but just the fact that it is so obvious that he exaggerated in order to get some of the medals makes them all suspect. He knew the system and he used it.
Kerry is a war hero. He’s not lying about that. It’s just that he was a war hero for our enemy. I lived in Japan for 10 years during Vietnam; I visited my first cousin in an Army Rehab hospital just north of Yokosuka. My cousin (18 yrs old) had both legs blown off by a mine while walking point. In that rehab hospital I saw many many severely injured young men. On base, it was a common site to see young men in casts and bandages.
It makes me literally nauseous that Kerry even thinks he should get purple hearts for the types of minor injuries he sustained. And if he didn’t believe he deserved the purple hearts, then that’s even worse for accepting them, knowing he didn’t deserve them.
The type of low-minded person Kerry is can be seen throughout his life, which actions have been thoroughly discussed, especially his anti-war activities and lies and the terrible effect they had on our soldiers and on this country – and his mean-spirited and petty character is illustrated by him blaming his SS agent when he fell skiing, blamed the cameraman when he fell biking, mocked Prez Bush for taking a spill, refused to let his plane take off out of spite to delay Air Force One landing, called Bush supporters ‘goons’ (picture Bush saying such a thing!).
And now this. After four solid years of horrendous anti-Bush rhetoric, with nary a protest or disclaimer from Kerry, he has the audacity to send his lawyers on the attack when his own self-touted central issue for qualification as POTUS is called into question by those who were there with him?
Good. More for the anti-Kerry team.
All Kerry has to do is give the Pentagon permission to release his medical records.
So far he hasn’t.
How come the press doesn’t demand to see those and his divorce records?
John McCain has put it aside, doesn’t mean the rest of the country has. It’s finally coming to a head. Those who were spat upon, called baby killers, etc., who actually won the war want to be heard.
Sandy:
If we want to let the winners of the war talk, we would need to know Vietnamese. Last time I checked my history books, it was us he lost the war. Saigon fell, remember?
Expatise, they did talk. Kerry’s picture is framed in their “hallowed hall of heroes” and don’t forget, he also visited with vietcong officials while still militarily obligated and sworn to protect this nation, it’s constitution and CIC, so help him God.
What did he do for the vietcong that merited their honor and acclaim? It wouldn’t be that he volunteered to be their
manchurianvietcongian candidiate was it?I have no doubt that Nixon did NOT send him there on behalf of the US, peon O-2 that he was. Although it wouldn’t surprise me if he went with teddy chappaquidick kennedy or hanoi jane’s blessings.
So kerry is yet another example that treason/crime pays, at least for the Mass. boys and now gets a shot at POTUS 44. Bleeeh.
As far as I know, there’s no statutes of limitations on treason, so I’d like the DOD to bring him up on charges after the elections, unless carter somehow also pardoned him along with all of the draft dodgers.
First of all, what does the VC liking Kerry mean. The KKK believes that Thomas Jefferson was wonderful, but that should have no bearing on Jefferson and his legacy.
To establish the elements of the crime of treason:
(1) the defendant’s intention to betray the United States, (2) manifested in an overt act,
(3) testified to by two witnesses,
(4) which gave aid and comfort to the enemy.
Talking to the Viet Cing is not enough. If all four of those elements can be proven beyond reasonable doubt then of course the DOJ should bring up charges.
Expatise,
What I think Sandy meant is that we actually won the Vietnam war militarily. After the Tet Offensive, the Vietnamese were on their knees. We lost the war on the homefront because of the likes of Kerry. The democrats painted Nixon into a corner and the pull out was inevitable. We WON the Tet Offensive even if the media tried saying otherwise. It was militarily the communist’s last hurrah. But they had an ace up their sleeve, John Kerry. So, of course Kerry is their hero. He helped the communist Vietnamese win the war. There is no doubt about it and yes, his picture hangs with honor in their halls.
If you say so.
I can’t help but sense that Kerry was the ‘Michael Moore’ of Vietnam, he helped to generate fabricated tales in order to persuade public opinion.
The Swift Boat Veterans have the right to dispute Kerry’s actions since it was Kerry who disputed their actions in Vietnam.
I have been having an on-going discussion with a British dissenter of the GWB presidency on my blog after posting about this. This time around, he’s using the callname “Flithy Commie.” He obviously has no understanding of how the military works, either.
I admit I think the ad has the distinct smell of politics, and I know that one of the men on the video at one time supported Kerry, but none of this negates the valid questions that these men raise.
Rae,
I was over there yesterday. Interesting to know FC is a brit. I had assumed he/she was just another oblivion from an American Univ, fresh from freshman year indoctrination.
you are correct, however, that this individual has no conception of the military (love his attack on the swiftvets…) and a clear ignorance of history.
Anyway, LaShawn, Rae, keep it up. My lunch hour has never been so good
Kerry Lied, 2 million Died
Nice bumper sticker, no? Or a protest sign at every Kerry event.
Cambodia is the important, UNFINISHED business
of America after Vietnam.
REAL alternatives are the issue; in Iraq, Iran, Sudan today.
In SE Asia from 1968-1978.
Killing innocents to stop evil is the moral problem.
The anti-Vietnam War Left, in America, and the EU, have totally failed to look at the two
real alternatives, and the one they “really” chose.
1) Stay and fight and die (draftees!) and kill bad guys AND some innocents?
2) Leave, stop dying (good!) let evil commies win, and accept the Killing Fields.
Kerry advised (2), Nixon cut and ran, and Pol Pot, the kind of evil commie the US was fighting against, committed genocide in Cambodia (little complaint by Ford or Carter in 76-77).
If you ask any anti-Vietnam War protester: “did you support the commies winning in Vietnam?” — they’ll say NO!
But they are, in “reality”, lying. This is the BIG LIE at the heart of Bush-hate.
Opposition to war in Iraq IS “really” support for Saddam.
Kerry’s Big Lie was that the US leaving SE Asia was “good”.
The “Moral Superiority” of the Left is based on the assumption that being against the US war in Vietnam is the morally superior position – that the US fighting evil commies in SE Asia was wrong/ evil.
Is genocide worth fighting against? Worth dying for, worth killing for?
Gandhi said no. Is that really the morally superior answer?
http://tomgrey.motime.com/1092246736#322590
”Interesting to know FC is a brit.”
Im confused what this has to do with my knowledge of the military.
” I had assumed he/she was just another oblivion from an American Univ, fresh from freshman year indoctrination.”
If you want to be taken seriously, then wild generalising is not the way to go about it. I could generalise you, if i really wanted but dont feel the need. If you assume that everyone who thinks ill of the Swift Vets and their dubious motives is an indoctrinated student, then theres not much i can do to get rid of your bigotry.
”you are correct, however, that this individual has no conception of the military (love his attack on the swiftvets…) and a clear ignorance of history.”
Sneaky eh? Care to explain how this is the case, instead of making a statement and running? Whilst im really not fussed about people making shoddy, poorly constructed attacks against me behind my back, id much rather you email me, or respond to anything you dont agree with. Im rather surprised about the news i have a ”clear ignorance of history.” When you have a degree in American and World history, feel free to slander me without support.
I went to school with elmo zumwalt jr
he did not die in swift boat
From this side of the pond what is becomming clear is that the draft dodger GWB is running scared of voulunteer JFK(2). The hysteria at Fox News is a good indicator of how the lying campaign is hurting republicans more than their intended target.
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