Kerry and his Vietnam problem - long

[cindyw]

Many members here have expressed some concern about Kerry's "vietnam" problem. I recently heard Drudge (rare occasion) commenting rather sarcastically about Kerry talking about Vietnam. He said something like, "Thanks for bringing that up again Kerry. Just what this country needs, to fight about Vietnam again."

I for one think it shows a great deal of leadership on his part to bring it up. This country may have stopped talking about that war, but it there has has never been a collective understanding about what went wrong, much less a healing. I believe that now is the time to try again. The great split in the country between those who think we lost because it was wrong and who think we lost because the protesters caused it to be unpopular is more evident today that ever before. Today we still fight everytime something happens to determine if the wars we fight are just.

So for those of you who are worried about Kerry's "hanoi jane" problem, I want to make a couple points and share an article with you. One, Kerry is not responsible for the actions of another person. Kerry's affiliation with fonda were before she went to hanoi in late 1972. There is no evidence of his approving of what she did. Whether you agree with them or not. Most of the other horrible things you hear about him and his involvment are rehashings of the lies that were made up about him by the Nixon Administration in an effort to discredit him to to other Vets. Colson and Haldeman admitted to it later including spreading many of the rumors you hear today. He admitted to it and apologized for his actions before he passed away.



"Nixon seemed particularly incredulous that Kerry had won so many medals. "Bob, the Navy didn't have any casualties in Vietnam except in the air," Nixon told Haldeman, showing either a disregard for the high casualty rate of swift boat sailors or an extraordinary lack of knowledge about what had really happened during the war he oversaw as commander in chief.

The White House staff decided it needed to dig up dirt on Kerry, or at least undermine his effort. Three days later, Haldeman arrived in the Oval Office and announced to the president: "We've got some interesting dope on Kerry."

Nixon was interested. "

snip...

"I don't ever remember finding anything negative about Kerry or hearing anything negative about him," Colson said. "If we had found anything, I'm sure we would have used it to discredit him."

Colson's memos, in storage at the National Archives, show that he tried mightily to discredit Kerry. On April 16, Colson noted that, "A number of tough questions have also been planted with the Vietnam Veterans Against the War questioners for `Meet the Press."

Vice President Spiro T. Agnew briefly led the White House charge against Kerry. Appearing in the Bahamas, Agnew said that Kerry, "who drew rave notices in the media for his eloquent testimony before Congress, was later revealed to have been using material ghosted for him by a former Kennedy speechwriter, and to have spent most of his nights in posh surroundings in Georgetown rather than on the Mall with his buddies."..end quote
http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061703.shtml

And two, this is fight we need to have right now. There were attrocities happening in Vietnam. I asked my father who served in Okinawa during vietnam (fixing machinery that had been destroyed) what he thought of what Kerry did when he got home and what he thought of what he said some soldiers were doing. He said that the soldiers were doing what they were told to do and that they themselves were honorable men, but that attrocities had happened. Read about Mi Lai massacre 1968. He also said that those men had earned the right to protest in any damn way they wanted to. There will always be some who do not like protesters.

How can we here at the DU fight for the rights of those who appose this Iraq war and not be jumping all over ourselves to defend John Kerry in a fight with RWers when they attack John Kerry for his anti-war actions? I understand that there are those here who do not like Kerry for other reasons. I am not asking Dean supporters to jump on with us and support him. All I am asking is that as it becomes more evident who our nominee will be, let go of your fear of this fight about Kerry and Vietnam. It is one this country needs right now if we are to find a way to also heal the wounds of Iraq and avoid the pain for ourt returning soldiers that Vetnam Vets have experienced, then we must experience the pain of closure. I am asking you to rise up to that challenge. Whether Kerry is the nominee of not.

This is a fight I am willing to have over the next 9 months. Thank you Senator Kerry for bringing it up. We cannot fight to end a war in Iraq and at the same time ask Vietnam Vets to shut up about the war of their generation. They are trying to teach up something if we would just stop for a moment and listen.

Enjoy this short article.

http://www.richmond.edu/~ebolt/history398/VVAW_WinterSoldier.html

VIETNAM VETERANS AGAINST THE WAR
AND
THE WINTER SOLDIER INVESTIGATION (1971)
Dr. Ernest Bolt, University of Richmond

The most active group active expressing dissent of veterans was Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). Formed in 1967 by six veterans involved in a protest march in New York City, by spring 1970, VVAW had 600 members. Over the next several years, thousands more joined.

In 1971 VVAW held "hearings" on the war under the title "Winter Soldier Investigation." At first, this group participated in antiwar protests and demonstrations organized by others. Then, from January 31 to February 2, 1971, VVAW leaders held an investigation of the conduct of the war in a Detroit Howard Johnson motel. Over a three day period, over 100 veterans and sixteen civilians described their war experiences, including rapes, torture, brutalities, and killing of non-combatants. Senator Mark Hatfield (Republican-Oregon) entered the testimony into the Congressional Record and urged hearings on the conduct of U.S. forces in the war. Although the media showed little interest in the Winter Soldier Investigation, veterans such as John Kerry, a VVAW leader by 1971, testified about VVAW's investigation in a Senate committee hearing April 22, 1971.

This group's efforts to document such testimony followed the well-known 1968 massacre of Vietnamese civilians at My Lai. By the 1971 VVAW hearings, the trial of Lt. William L. Calley by the Army was planned. The 1968 My Lai incident clearly resulted in more antiwar sentiment here in the United States, including these efforts of Vietnam veterans to describe vividly their personal experiences. Calley was found guilty in March 1971. In all wars, both sides have used terror against civilians and war crimes have been featured. There is no better source for this than soldiers' letters and later testimonies to such effects of the Vietnam War.

snip...

For five days in April 1971 (19-23), VVAW also led demonstrations in Washington. Leaders called their protest "a limited incursion into the country of Congress," as it followed Dewey Canyon I and Dewey Canyon II, code names for American and then ARVN invasions of Laos in February-March 1971. They called their protest effort Dewey Canyon III. The protest lasted a week and included an encampment to protest the war and to lobby Congress. Veterans and mothers of soldiers killed in Vietnam marched to Arlington Cemetery while veteran John Kerry testified against the war during Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings. The protests that week also included "guerrilla theater," with simulated attacks on "civilians" and the attempt of 60 vets to surrender to Pentagon officials for committing attrocities. (The Pentagon turned them away.) VVAW continued antiwar protests in 1972, and as the war ended for us in 1973, VVAW advocated universal amnesty for draft resisters and deserters.

The day after this VVAW-led protest, April 24, 1971, over 500,000 demonstrators arrived in Washington to lobby Congress and to "stop the government" if President Nixon did not stop the war. May 4 saw the arrest of over 1,400 protesters on the steps of Congress. Daniel Ellsberg was one of the ex-Marines who had tried to block DC traffic that day."

[THUNDER HANDS]

1. the GOP can't be that stupid

to get into a fight with Kerry about Vietnam. I mean, how many comparisons does this White House want to draw with the Nixon administration?

They're already the most secretive since Nixon.
They're the most political since Nixon.
They're the most pure evil since Nixon.

Jeez. This group is in for a rude awakening come November.

[NNN0LHI]

2. The WH is in full panic mode MR. That is really obvious n/t

[mopinko]

3. this thread from this morning

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=108&topic_id=110384

but i would like kerry supporters to reconcile for me "that" jk with "today's" jk. they do not seem to be the same person to me.
i would kinda like to rehash the whole sixties again myself. (i was too young to take the drugs at the time.) seriously, tho, it would be nice to remind the gingrich types out there who stymied bill clinton, and tried to rob him of his office, that i am pretty sure that we won the sixites.

[cindyw]

4. Agree or not agree with his vote on the IWR.

I for one read his statement on the floor at the time and think that it would have made more sense to vote no after that statement. It is difficult to reconcile Kerry then and Kerry of October in 2002. But the Kerry of today is more like the Kerry of the 60's. I am comfotable with that. People make hard decisions and sometimes make the wrong one. It happens. I am comfortable with him making the right one when he is president and I am very comfortable that if he makes mistakes he will fix them. Compare that to GWB.

[aldian159]

5. Excellent post, thanks for the research

"How can we here at the DU fight for the rights of those who appose this Iraq war and not be jumping all over ourselves to defend John Kerry in a fight with RWers when they attack John Kerry for his anti-war actions?"

A question I've been asking myself for a while, thanks for putting it in words, cindyw.