[Vacets-local-dc] [Ghosts of Vietnam haunt Kerry]

[Hai Tran]

Ghosts of Vietnam haunt KerryBy Andy Obermann
Monday, August 30, 2004
Recently, presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry's Vietnam War record has come under a firestorm of controversy. 
As you may well know, a group known as Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, spearheaded by John O'Neil -- the author of "Unfit to Command" and vocal critic of Sen. Kerry since the 1970s -- has unleashed a series of attack ads questioning Kerry's service in Vietnam. 
Some 250 honorably discharged Vietnam Vets, 60 of which are under sworn affidavit, make up the organization. Many of these men are highly decorated officers -- in some cases more so than John Kerry. These respected men are independently claiming Kerry is an opportunist who exaggerated and lied about his service and wounds for political gain. 
The Kerry campaign relies on testimony from veterans supporting the presidential candidate. Included among these men is former special forces officer Jim Rassman who claims Kerry saved his life under intense enemy fire. 
I've intentionally avoided this for one simple reason: There is absolutely no way to verify which side is telling the truth. Did Kerry purposely inflict his own wounds and later lie to be awarded combat decorations? Probably not. Did Kerry later exaggerate the extent of action he saw in Vietnam? Probably. Was he an ambitious young officer with political hopes in his future? Probably. Did he have a grand scheme to use Vietnam as his stepping stone to the White House, some 30 years later? Probably not. 
As it so often does, the truth probably lies somewhere between the two extremes, being blinded by animosity from the opposing ends. 
One unquestionable fact, however, is Kerry's post-war actions. 
When the young John Kerry returned home from Vietnam, he slandered his fellow servicemen. In Senate testimony, Lt. Kerry claimed American soldiers had " … raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam … ." 
Kerry's other statements, primarily before the anti-war groups of the time, confirmed this sadistic description of our noble fighting force. The incidents Kerry discussed did happen, but not on a daily basis and certainly not by anything close to a significant percentage of Vietnam vets. 
As the second Swift Boat ad rightly claims, men in North Vietnamese prison camps were tortured day in, day out for five, six, seven, or more years to avoid admitting to these bogus charges. The North Vietnamese would go so far as to use Kerry's own words to torture American prisoners of war. 
Paul Galanti, a POW from 1966 to 73, in the same ad states, "John Kerry gave the enemy for free what I and many of my comrades in North Vietnam, in the prison camps, took torture to avoid saying." 
Nothing, absolutely nothing, can refute this -- and nothing Kerry says now can make up for it. This is the blackest chapter in Kerry's war history. 
A friend of mine, and current sergeant in the U.S. Army once told me, "I'd fight and die for your right to disagree with the war I'm fighting, but when you aid and abet the enemy with your words, you are the enemy." 
These Vietnam vets see this -- they realize it and believe it down to their bones -- and John Kerry is the embodiment of this belief. 
To be honest with you, Vietnam isn't an issue that will determine this election, at least not on my part. I would much rather have national discussions about the issues that truly threaten us today -- Islamic terrorism, illegal immigration, taxes and entitlement -- but since Sen. Kerry has made this the center of his campaign it is something we cannot ignore. 
For better or worse, the future of this country is tied to the ghosts of 30 years past.

    


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