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| Ex-POWs slam Kerry's war-protest activities | |||
| 2004-08-04 | |||
| EFL: John Kerry's bid to become commander in chief of wartime America has opened old wounds among some former Vietnam-era POWs who bristle over Kerry's anti-war activism and atrocity allegations during the Vietnam conflict. Those activities and statements, pushed out of sight by a campaign that spotlights Kerry's service in Vietnam, were used by the POWs' North Vietnamese captors to sap the morale of prisoners and U.S. troops still in the field in South Vietnam, former POWs told United Press International.
"They were always talking about that (anti-war demonstrations), and they picked right up on Kerry's throw-away line, 'Don't be the last man to die in a lost cause, or die for a lost cause,'" said Kenneth Cordier, an Air Force pilot who spent 2,284 days as a prisoner. "They repeated that incessantly. "They used these photographs and inputs, voice tapes, whatever, from these peace people to try to convince us the whole country had turned anti-war and we were showing a very bad attitude and would never go home." Jim Warner, a prisoner of the North Vietnamese in the Hoa Lo prison complex -- known to U.S. servicemen as the Hanoi Hilton -- remembers Kerry. He became acquainted with him, he said, when a North Vietnamese guard and interrogator the prisoners nicknamed "Boris" took Warner to the quiz shack in the complex's punishment camp called "Skid Row" in May 1971. During a four-hour propaganda and harassment session, Boris pulled papers from his pocket and gave them to Warner to think about, he said. Some were clippings from a leftist newspaper in the United States. The other was a typewritten transcript of Kerry's testimony before a U.S. Senate panel in which he repeated allegations of U.S. troops routinely committing atrocities, attacking the war and saying communism was not a threat in Vietnam. The atrocity allegations were garnered from the so-called Winter Soldier Investigation in Detroit in early 1971, in which actress and activist Jane Fonda and Kerry, a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War, were involved.
At that event people claiming to have seen combat in Vietnam alleged committing atrocities -- rape, cutting off of ears and heads, murdering women and children -- on a routine basis and with the knowledge of their superiors. Many of the allegations proved false or could not be documented, and the veracity and identities of many witnesses later came into question. "It was the stuff about the Winter Soldier," Warner said. "The paper he showed me, the statements from John Kerry, were separate. And the stuff that was supposed to be from Kerry was a typewritten transcript of a few pages, but he was pointing to the statements. I can't quote the statements, but essentially they were the same as those being played now on talk shows of his testimony in front of the Senate." Warner was in his Marine Corps F-4B aircraft when he was shot down over North Vietnam on Oct. 13, 1967, and was held for 1,979 days. He told UPI that in that confrontation with the North Vietnamese officer he was told "these statements (by Kerry) ... were proof I deserved to be punished. I was pretty sure they weren't going to do anything, but in the summer of '69 they had spent four months trying to get information out of me, and I still had the memory of my mistreatment -- sleep deprivation, leg irons, a cement box in the sun (and feet and ankles swollen from chains digging into the flesh). "The memory of that was still pretty fresh in my mind, and I was extremely uneasy. Every time he mentioned (the papers), this officer said I committed crimes, that this war was illegal. I just had no idea. ... All along they told us they would execute us for our 'crimes.'" Particularly galling for Warner was his parents' brief participation at an anti-war event in Detroit where they said their son was a prisoner and they hoped he would be released. Warner said he never spoke to his parents about that after his return -- it just wasn't something talked about -- but his sisters had told him Fonda and Kerry were involved in getting his parents to appear, an appearance he believes lent a measure of respectability to the event. Warner said Kerry and the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, which had staged large demonstrations in Washington, were often mentioned in the radio broadcasts that played incessantly over the camp's loudspeakers. "On our (former POW) listserve there are many people who mention hearing Kerry on Radio Hanoi and how much that infuriated them," Warner said, "but I don't know of anyone else confronted like that."
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| Posted by:Steve |
| #7 Which counts more? 4 weeks of "push to the middle" campaigning? 4 months combat service? 4+ years betraying those with whom he served by lying and denegrating them and their sservice? 4 terms in the Senate of doing NOTHING (never sponsored ANY meaningful bills) other than his 340+ votges for tax increases, votes agains the 1st Gulf War, and the "voted for before voted against" on this Iraq War, voting against 27 major systems that are now in use saving lives, and a vote to cut 45 billion in intelligence and defense spending right after the first World Trade center bombing in 93, etc, while racking up the rating as the Most Liberal Senator (beating out Kennedy!). Pretty transparent to anyone that bothers to look. |
| Posted by: Oldspook 2004-08-04 10:29:54 PM |
| #6 jojo, I hear he often watches the movies he made during his time there -- some of which were re-enactments (like his silver-star actions). Kind of like the atypical middle-age man who keeps watching the 'Big Game' where he caught the winning pass way back in high school....... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-08-04 7:33:42 PM |
| #5 .com. The pic's a phony. http://www.snopes.com/photos/politics/kerry2.asp But he's still an asshole. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-08-04 7:26:01 PM |
| #4 This Link from the Swift Boat Vets websight is pretty telling of what sort of reputation Kerry had with those he served with and under. Check out the list of signatures. Whats sad is that Kerry has been lying for so long that more than likely he has passed the stage of believing his own lies. |
| Posted by: jojo the idiot circus boy 2004-08-04 5:20:02 PM |
| #3 So many faces for one lifetime... This is Skeery a few months later... |
| Posted by: .com 2004-08-04 4:26:57 PM |
| #2 These are the brave ones, along with the ones presently in theater in Afganistan and Iraq. Shame on Kerry for drawing everyone's attention to him, for his own self aggrandizement. |
| Posted by: Capt America 2004-08-04 4:21:31 PM |
| #1 Take a look at this web page from the Swift Boat Vet's website : Group Photo Of course, Hannity has been playing the new ad by these guys, and, OUCH,.... "While in Cam Rahn Bay, he trained on several 24-hour indoctrination missions, and one special skimmer operation with my most senior and trusted Lieutenant. The briefing from some members of that crew the morning after revealed that they had not received any enemy fire, and yet Lt.(jg) Kerry informed me of a wound -- he showed me a scratch on his arm and a piece of shrapnel in his hand that appeared to be from one of our own M-79s. It was later reported to me that Lt.(jg) Kerry had fired an M-79, and it had exploded off the adjacent shoreline. I do not recall being advised of any medical treatment, and probably said something like 'Forget it.' He later received a Purple Heart for that scratch, and I have no information as to how or whom. Lt.(jg) Kerry was allowed to return to the good old USA after 4 months and a few days in-country, and then he proceeded to betray his former shipmates, calling them criminals who were committing atrocities. Today we are here to tell you that just the opposite is true. Our rules of engagement were quite strict, and the officers and men of Swift often did not even return fire when they were under fire if there was a possibility that innocent people -- fishermen, in a lot of cases -- might be hurt or injured. The rules and the good intentions of the men increased the possibility that we might take friendly casualties." -- Commander Grant Hibbard, USN (retired) |
| Posted by: BigEd 2004-08-04 4:15:58 PM |
