John Kerry And The Mythology Of The Vietnam War:
A Veteran’s Perspective
John Kerry And The Mythology Of The Vietnam War:
A Veteran’s Perspective
By
Michael Tank
Part Two
“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes.”
- Anonymous
Sadly Kerry’s involvement with the Vietnam War and its Veterans did not end with the war. America had long ignored the repeated reports filtering in about our POW/MIA’s, still being seen alive in Southeast Asia. In January 1973 after signing the peace agreement, North Vietnam handed over a list of 591 POW’s who they would release. This list was far short of the total number of known POW’s being held in Southeast Asia. As an example it contained the names of only nine men out of the 300 men that were known being held as POW’s in Laos. Common sense should make one question how a war, which lasted from 1957 to 1973, sixteen years, with no other major releases of POW’s in that time frame, could produce just 591 POW’s at the end of hostilities? In 1991, Kerry, now a Senator from Massachusetts, headed the Congressional investigation into these reports and whitewashed or ignored the evidence of the continuing survival of our POW/MIA’s kept in captivity by the Communists of North Vietnam, long after the war was over.
The evidence included: “A short list would include more than 1,600 firsthand sightings of live U.S. prisoners; nearly 14,000 secondhand reports; numerous intercepted Communist radio messages from within Vietnam and Laos about American prisoners being moved by their captors from one site to another; a series of satellite photos that continued into the 1990s showing clear prisoner rescue signals carved into the ground in Laos and Vietnam, all labeled inconclusive by the Pentagon; multiple reports about unacknowledged prisoners from North Vietnamese informants working for U.S. intelligence agencies, all ignored or declared unreliable; persistent complaints by senior U.S. intelligence officials (some of them made publicly) that live-prisoner evidence was being suppressed; and clear proof that the Pentagon and other keepers of the "secret" destroyed a variety of files over the years to keep the P.O.W./M.I.A. families and the public from finding out and possibly setting off a major public outcry.”
-('When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A.' by Sydney H. Schanberg: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg.php)
Furthermore, Kerry refused to subpoena important witnesses and the famous Watergate Tapes of Nixon’s administration during the 1973 period, when the peace talk discussions included important secret information about North Vietnam’s refusals to release all the American POW’s in exchange for 4 billion dollars in war reparations, which they would never receive. It has been reported by witnesses of this investigation that Kerry coached them about what to say during their testimony, just as he had done with his war criminals in 1971. There are repeated reports from staff members that Kerry shredded important evidence and omitted important testimony from being included on the Congressional Records of his investigation’s report. One would have to question his inclusion on this committee in the first place, let alone his role as its leader, with his history of being a Vietnam anti-war protester. In fact his choice as a leader of, or even any participation in, this particular investigation smacks of collusion and displays a total lack of respect or concern for the families of the missing men. Unless of course the desired end results of the investigation were to be exactly as they turned out to be. As the result of Kerry’s and other’s desire to normalize our relations with our past enemy and to bury the guilt of the Pentagon and the Nixon administration of leaving our men behind, America’s sons were to be abandoned, unaccounted for and forgotten. Kerry’s actions of denying the reports of our POW’s continuing survival and sweeping them under the rug has sentenced these heroes to a life of imprisonment and death in the hands of a foreign enemy. By these findings they have lost all hope of freedom and will never again see their families and their homeland for the crime of serving their country in an unpopular war. As of February 1997 there were 2128 POW/MIA’s still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Although many of these men are known to have perished during the war many others are known to have survived. Our Brothers in Arms, your fathers, husbands, brothers, sons and neighbors were left behind because of the politicians’ rush toward the appeasement of Kerry’s anti-war crowd. What a shameful epitaph for these lost heroes.
“God defend me from my friends; from my enemies I can defend myself.”
- Proverb
It has been thirty-one years now since the United States withdrew from Vietnam. For most Americans the war is old news, long past troubled times best to be forgotten. To many younger Americans the war is ancient history covered in high school history books in just a few paragraphs, which always seems to discuss the anti-war protesters even more than the war or its Veterans. Many things that had happened in that long ago time have been forgotten; many others have been exaggerated, embossed or vilified. But what has suffered most are the memories of the ideals behind our involvement in that war and the legacy of its warriors.
It has been forgotten that a once honored and cherished President gave his word, which was backed by the promise of the Congress of the United States, and given on the behalf of a generous, proud and free people, to come to the aid of a foreign sovereign threatened with a life of domination under Communism. It has been forgotten that North Vietnam broke a treaty that they had agreed to just years before and invaded South Vietnam. It has been forgotten that we were not the invaders but the defenders. It has been forgotten that it was never our task to topple the government of North Vietnam but only to get them to leave South Vietnam. It has been forgotten the words and challenge of a young fallen leader who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” It has been forgotten that so many of us only wanted to answer that challenge. It has been forgotten the betrayal and negativity of our own press, reporting only what it wanted to see or assumed was the truth. It has been forgotten the audacity and the foolhardy manner, of a man paid to just report the news, who elevated himself to the position of such power that he saw fit to judge and determine the course of our country’s policies. Thus moving from just reporting the news to becoming the news itself.
It has been exaggerated and embossed the number of anti-war protesters, their motives and their morality. Never has such a small minority of people yielded such influence over a nation’s consciousness and determined the goals of the majority of that nation. It has been embossed with all the protesters’ passion and horror over abused human rights, the killing and wounding of others, yet how quiet they became when the people of Southeast Asia were slaughtered and subjugated after we left. The misleading distinction of the label anti-war protesters automatically raises the bearer to a higher plane of humanity than the soldier in people’s minds. Misleading people to believe that while the protesters are against the war, we who fight are pro-war. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those of us who have actually been to war know first hand it’s horrors. Most human beings are opposed to war, what must be questioned with these American anti-war protesters is what were their true motivations? It has been exaggerated and embossed the courage and fortitude of the protester and draft dodger, where is the courage and fortitude of your actions when there is no consequence? Where was the courage and fortitude when your draft number came up and you ran when so many others like you went to serve your country? What of that man who’s number was called to serve in your stead because you fled? It has been exaggerated and embossed the virtue and honor of the NVA and NLF, backed by the Communist Soviet Union, their goal was to conquer and subjugate, not unite. It has been exaggerated and vilified the conduct of our Armed Forces fighting for a people’s freedom. It has been vilified the motives, actions and morality of our government, our leaders, our troops and America itself. These last vilifications have remained to this day. America vowed to learn from the hard lessons of Vietnam. But how can you learn anything when the truth of what really happened is wrapped so tightly with lies and mythology and where ultimately the goal was to forget the war and its lessons altogether? In the years following the Vietnam War, America, intent on not getting involved in another Vietnam, walked softly and carried no stick. Military troop strengths and budgets were greatly reduced, as is the custom in this country after a war, but America deemed it necessary to cut even deeper in the atmosphere of military disfavor. For the first time in our storied history a large number of Americans no longer looked upon duty in our Armed Forces as an honorary service. Most Vietnam Veterans learned to keep the knowledge of their military service to themselves and only recently have come forward to reclaim the honor of that service, which they so rightly deserve. America reduced its military personnel and switched its posture from an aggressive, well equipped, manned fighting force to one of a perpetual threat by building more missiles and warheads. America no longer looked at its military as a collection of its own citizens, it had been transformed into a faceless entity, to be distrusted and watched as carefully as big government. In the minds of our civilians our military had lost its humanity.
At the end of 1971, 70,000 of the 100,000 American draft dodgers had fled the United States to live in Canada. In 1972 Hanoi Jane Fonda returned from her much publicized propaganda trip in North Vietnam, after calling for our troops to lay down their arms and surrender to the NVA and their VC brothers. She had made numerous Tokyo Rose type propaganda messages on the radio that were broadcast to our troops in South Vietnam. She had met with selected POW’s and after labeling them "war criminals" she came home and lied to us about how well they were being treated. Tom Hayden, Fonda’s husband and Ramsey Clark, LBJ’s former Attorney General, followed much the same path through North Vietnam as Hanoi Jane. Various ministries and others from the United States also made numerous trips to North Vietnam to show support in the Communist’s war against their countrymen.
Throughout the United States students and non-students protested on campuses and in our cities, against the draft, politicians, private corporations, military recruiters and bases, and anything else they believed supported the war. They disrupted our academic institutions, private company and military recruiting interviews, they took over public and private buildings, held hostages, made outrageous demands in lieu of their dispersal and generally broke the laws of the land a thousand times over. Hayden, Kerry and others unlawfully met with the Communist peace representatives in Paris and signed bogus treaties. Kerry and others gave false testimony under oath that slandered your sons and daughters in our military. Kerry’s VVAW held a meeting in Kansas City and discussed plans to assassinate pro-war Congressmen. Yet few if any of these lawbreakers ever faced any form of punishment for these unlawful acts. In fact few suffered at all for their crimes and still prosper today. Fonda was awarded two Oscars and many film roles and is respected by many as an actress, heath fitness guru and activist. Hayden has had unsuccessful bids for the Senate and the Mayor of LA and has been invited to the White House. Clark still practices law and consuls some of the men arrested for terrorism against the United States. Politicians who had spoken out against the war and criticized our government’s handling of it, moved on unabated with their public careers. Those in the news media, who once reported falsely about the war, are seen now as respected and revered leaders in their field. In 1977 President Carter issued an amnesty for all the draft dodgers from the war. As they freely ambled home they grumbled that the amnesty wasn’t enough. Among other concessions they had wanted were complete amnesty for deserters and for those who had been given less than an honorable discharge from the service, for that to be changed to honorable discharges. Everyone of the era has been forgiven for their past trespasses, except the ones who had been wrongly accused in the first place, those of us who had fought in the war.
“It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.”
- Andy Warhol
America’s treatment of the Vietnam Veterans on their return has been less than stellar. While we returned home to an uncaring and sometimes hostile society, we watched as the draft dodgers and anti-war protesters were defended and many times even celebrated. We Vietnam Veterans are an angry bunch. The war, its outcome and what happened after have made us angry. But for the most part we went on about our lives and tried to forget. As the years went by we watched how America’s perceptions of us did not change over time. In 1980, 1990 we were, as a whole, still seen as just the drugged up mob that we were supposed to have been in 1970. Books were published explaining how we had lost the war; the newspapers and television reports seemed to always be negative. But the worst perpetrators of these negative images of the Vietnam Veterans are the movies of Hollywood.
Good old Hollywood, never one to let facts or the truth get in the way of a good story. But we Veterans watched, year after year, hoping that someone, anyone, would just get it right. Instead what we saw was the myth exposed on film. As the bad guys Vietnam Vets were crazy wanton killers and drugged up criminals. If the good guy was a Vet than he had some deep dark secret and nine times out of ten he had won the Medal of Honor. Have to give the hero some redeeming quality I guess; yet still the reluctant hero only seemed to win the day when he was forced into it. If the story was about when the Vet had come home he was always a head case. Not like Vets from other wars, disturbed and saddened by their war time experiences, but I mean they showed the Vietnam Vet as a real nut job. Plus they were all the holders of that deep dark secret of what they had done over there and ten times out of ten it was a war crime that the secret was hiding.
The other night I saw ten minutes of one of these movies, “The War At Home.” The Vet had come home and was having a confrontation with his father, mother and sister. Standing in his family’s parlor he pulls out a .45 pointing it first at his father, and then taking his sister in a headlock, he holds the gun against her temple. Seems he is really mad at his father for making him honor his draft notice, when all he had really wanted was a few bucks and a bus ticket to scoot off to Canada. But his father had talked him into going into the Army to answer his "stupid honor." All the while he kept flashing back, through the magic of the cinema, to the Nam! Finding himself back in a night battle with flares glowing overhead, explosions and small arms fire ripping off all around, as he was standing around with some other soldiers who had just pulled a VC out of a tunnel. (The soldiers were all standing straight up mind you, with this war going on all around them like they were back home on the street corner whistling at the girlies.) The VC is on his knees in the mud with his hands clasped behind his head as three or four soldiers were pointing their weapons at him and the lieutenant was beating the VC and yelling, “VC camp? VC camp?” Of course the VC just looked back defiantly silent as his cowardly captors tortured him. I sat there and thought, “VC camp?” Well no kidding lou-ten-unt, there’s a war going on all around you and you just pulled this guy out of a hole in the ground, what do you think it is a ride at Six Flags? Of course you just knew what was coming next, the lieutenant hands the Nut Vet his .45 and looks at him with a, you know what to do expression and when the Nut Vet hesitates the officer asks, “Is there a problem?” Like the execution of VC POW’s was SOP, standard operating procedure. You know just like Kerry said, “…with full knowledge of their officers." As everyone else just turns and walks away our Nut Vet, after a little hesitation and seeing his father’s face appear on the shoulders of the kneeling prisoner, shoots the VC in the head. Apparently this Nut Vet really had his heart set on that extended Canadian vacation. I don’t know if he went that extra mile when he flashed back home, I had seen enough. I looked up the movie on the Internet to find it was made in 1996, and here I was beginning to believe that America was moving away, even ever so slightly, from its distorted image of the Vietnam Vet.
There are some things that most all of these in country Vietnam movies have in common, and I say most because I have seen enough of them but not all. I will exclude “We Were Soldiers” from this criticism as it is nothing like any others I have seen, and it does not include any of what I am about to discuss. Of the ones I have seen, all have at least one scene where the enlisted man shows up the incompetent officer or NCO or just mouths off to one and goes unpunished, thus demonstrating the Vietnam Vet's insubordination. At least one or more officers is a coldhearted liar and usually tells the hero to stay quiet about a war crime, or the officer is so dumb (“VC camp?”) that they couldn’t find their backsides with a flashlight, a map, a compass, both hands, and a re-inforced Marine Forced Recon Platoon. They all show the VC or NVA in a sympathetic light, we were the bad guys after all. They all show a high rate of heavy drug use by American troops (they called me Big Bong Mike.) Finally, they all have at least one scene of the famous war crime, that day-to-day thing Kerry lied to you about.
In “Platoon”, while there are some realistic moments, the American soldiers were so bloodthirsty that they killed each other when they ran out of VC, come to think of it, even when there were still plenty VC around. My, they were a bloodthirsty lot. Anyone who wasn’t getting high and totally wasted was getting drunk. Most of the characters whined and complained about what they were facing and accused each other for their own failings, such as falling asleep while on an ambush and so on. The platoon lieutenant was always undecided, looked for too much advice, received physical and verbal abuse from the sergeant, and was so dumb that he didn’t know when his troops were insulting him, or if he did than he was too cowardly to apply some much needed discipline. He was made to come off as the 'All American Christian College Boy', as if that is a bad thing to be.
After finding a VC bunker the soldiers set up a perimeter and one of them is captured by the VC, tortured, mutilated, killed and trussed up to a pole, all without making a sound and in broad daylight. The mystic, ghost-like VC, unseen and unheard, pulled this off right under the noses of an on the alert company of soldiers. Leaving the viewer with the impression of the VC as some kind of super warrior and our guys were, at the least, inept. There is that ever-present war crime where a sergeant murders a mother and threatens to kill the daughter to make a village leader talk, just before they burn the village.
We have all seen the old classic war movie scene where in a quiet moment before the battle, one man sadly, yet bravely, confides to his buddy, “…I have a bad feeling that I won’t be coming back from this one…” while having no thoughts what so ever of not going into battle with his friends. In “Platoon” this scene is changed to a sniveling, sycophant sergeant telling the sergeant in charge that he deserves R&R right then and there before the big battle. When his R&R is turned down he almost starts to cry, as he whines in a quivering voice, “I gotta baaad feelin’ about this Sarg.” Later another soldier stabs himself in the leg to get out of his unit. After the battle the movie’s hero shoots the sergeant, who had killed the woman, because the sergeant had killed another sergeant and had also tried to kill the hero during the battle. I know, you almost need a scorecard to keep track of what Americans killed or tried to kill what other Americans. Panning the aftermath of the big battle, there are scenes of the American relief troops walking through the dead and wounded VC cutting off ears and shooting survivors.
Meanwhile, our wannabe on R&R sergeant survives by hiding under the bodies of his dead comrades. Which all in all is not the worst thing a man can do at such a time and place, but he did it without even first firing a shot. Then making himself look like the lone, brave remaining warrior, he then promptly dishonors his dead comrades as he complains to his rescuers about his cowardly men, who had just fought, died and whom he had used to cover himself with their bodies, thus saving his miserable life, “The bastards, they ran off and left me.” Hmmm, sounds kind of familiar, I wonder if this sergeant ever ran for office after the war.
Add to this that “Platoon” won the Academy Award for Best Picture and is revered by many as THE Vietnam movie. This was an example of Hollywood’s new version of the brave American soldier in Vietnam, repeated again and again in movie after movie. I know, you say it’s only movies. That’s true. I know all about artistic license, symbolism and so on. But the sad part about movies is that most people are visual, they believe what they see and to hell with the symbolism and literary license, Nam must have been just like that. Millions of people walk out of these movies, or view them at home believing that what they just saw was what Vietnam was really like. If you want to see just how realistic most people believe these movies about Vietnam are, go to a web site that sells them and offers reviews. Time and time again you will read how the reviewers know that this movie is, “…what it must have been like in Vietnam.” The sad truth about telling lies is that, if you tell a lie long enough and often enough, the lie has become the truth.
“God bless those lost in distant lands
Never to be seen again
But bless those too who do return
For their lives they have also given”
- The Witness
Like all Veterans returning from war, those of us who came home from Vietnam faced many challenges. However, unlike Veterans of other wars, we returned from Vietnam to an uncaring and sometimes even hostile environment. It is hard to explain what a person experiences in combat and how that remains with them for the rest of their lives. It is true, as they say; that if you have not seen 'the elephant' for yourself, then there is no way I can really help you in sharing the experience. This is not said with any form of arrogance or superiority, for it is generally spoken with a reverent sadness. For most of us, Vietnam was the focal point of our lives. The hardships and the horrors of war, along with the values and morality we learned in the service of our country, still shape the kind of men we remain today. It is not that we sit around and dwell on Vietnam; it is just that the war is always there, within us. I personally, have often wondered what I would be like, or would have become, if I had not gone to Vietnam. I have often looked upon others I knew, and envied the fact, that they had been able to grow to maturity with a more natural process over time than was allowed those of us who had to mature, and even grow old, in such a quick and violent process. This accelerated passing of our youth and innocence, along with seeing our friends and the Vietnamese killed by the most violent means, saddened and frustrated us, and made us angry. After being trained as an aggressive, offensive minded force and then being held to the restrictions of defensive operations, which where being enforced upon us by politicians far from the battlefield, only made us even more frustrated and angrier as we watched our countrymen die. This being said, you must understand that we had not given up, nor did we want to extend the war. We only wanted to take the fight to our enemy of the North and thus end the fighting, while completing the mission of keeping the Communists out of the South. We had been given a task and we had the strength, courage and fortitude to see it through, if only someone would have just let us. Add to this the betrayal, upon our return, by our countrymen, and even some of our own Brothers from the war, and you may begin to understand why, this particular election campaign and the possibility of having Kerry as our President, is so repulsive to us.
As young men in Vietnam, we always felt that once home we would be able to pick up exactly where we had left off, that we would be able to shrug off all these feelings we were then experiencing, and return to the same life, being who we had been before we went to war. But soon after our arrival back in the States, we discovered that something was not right within ourselves. Restless, irritable, saddened, depressed and angry, we did have trouble adjusting, all Veterans do, as if, we felt, there was just something missing, and yet we didn’t have a clue of what it might be. In my case, with over a year left to serve, the routine of stateside duty soon became worse than being in Vietnam. When the chance came for me to transfer to Cuba, I took it gladly, hardship post or not; I had to get out of the States. There was nothing heroic about my choice, it was simply a matter of knowing something was wrong, something was missing, and something had to change. Looking back now, I realize that these feelings have followed me throughout my life. It is a feeling, as if there is an emptiness within me, a hole in my heart that cannot be filled even with the love of my sons and family. These feelings are not the kind of things we wear on our sleeve, people talking to a Veteran would never know he has such feelings. We do go about our daily lives, are productive, have families and jobs, not to mention, charming personalities. It’s not like we have a third eye. Most people in my life, outside of family and a few close friends, would never expect that I had been a sniper in Vietnam. We have found ways to bury these feelings, such as immersing ourselves in our work, which at least for me had worked for a long time. Others have tried drug or alcohol abuse. Whatever the temporary cure, these feelings remain, ready to rejuvenate and overwhelm at their leisure. However, it must also be understood, that even with these ill effects caused by the war, I would do it all again, as I cherish the honor to be called a Veteran and my inclusion in this noble Brotherhood.
This said, brings us to another part of the mythology of the Vietnam War, PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Although PTSD can affect anyone who has survived a traumatic experience, it is most commonly associated with Vietnam Veterans. Thus it is often believed, that we Veterans of that war were the first to suffer from this syndrome. Along with this false belief came the disparaging claims that, since so many Vietnam Veterans suffer from PTSD, we must not have been up to the high standards of previous Veterans. It is believed that, for whatever reasons, we had not been able to cut the mustard, when it was our time to go to war like our fathers. It became a fault, or character flaw, instead of an illness. In reality PTSD has been suffered by Veterans of all wars, it was only until 1980 when someone labeled it PTSD, and explained how the syndrome physically affected the brain, that it was so called. In the Civil War it was known as the soldier’s disease, in WW I it was called shell shock, and in WW II, Korea, and even during Vietnam, it was described as battle fatigue. It is caused by a permanent change in the functioning of the human brain after experiencing, or witnessing, a frightful or fatal event, and it does not have to be the affected person’s life that was necessarily threatened. Common victims of PTSD include survivors, or a witness, of a single traffic accident, plane crash, robbery, murder, physical assault or rape. In Vietnam there were no front lines, the rear areas, which in previous wars might have offered at least some safety, could and often were, as hazardous as anywhere else. While serving twelve to thirteen months under these dangerous circumstances, most Veterans have witnessed, and or, survived many PTSD causing episodes during their tours of duty in Vietnam. But it has fit the propaganda of the critics and protesters of the Vietnam War and its Veterans, to associate this syndrome with a lack of courage, character or moral fiber, as the cause for so many Vietnam Veterans with PTSD. The syndrome is also misunderstood for its severity and lasting effects, many Veterans have been told by others that:
"You need to just shake it off."
"You need to just put it behind you."
"It was only one year, how can you let that one year affect your whole life?"
"That was so long ago, just forget about it and move on."
"Just let it go!"
For those afflicted with PTSD, the depression, fear, anxiety, and anger, caused by the original trauma, may be brought to the surface by a variety triggers, the most common being stress. Other triggers include the very symptoms of the illness itself, anxiety, fear, depression and anger. While still others may be simple everyday occurrences, such as a certain smell or sound, like the smell of diesel fuel, which was used in military vehicles, or the sound of a car backfiring, the simple loud slamming of a screen door, reminding someone of a gunshot. Among these triggers is the reminder of the war itself. In this current Presidential campaign, we Veterans have been reminded of our war more then we needed to be. With Kerry’s constant bragging of his war time heroics, the debate on the merit of those heroics, the debate of just were Bush had spent his lost time in the Air Guard, and of his not going to Vietnam, but especially the fact of Kerry’s traitorous behavior after his return from Vietnam, is a bit more than some want to endure. Is it any wonder that we Vietnam Vets are so angry right now? So if you think that you are tired of hearing about Vietnam in this campaign, to borrow an old phrase, you should have been there.
All of our past presidents, from Truman on to our present day have served, in one capacity or another, in the military except for Clinton. Bush Sr. was the last president to serve in WW II, and most probably will remain so. You can call Clinton a draft dodger if you like, but I do not remember hearing anything about him actually receiving a draft notice and refusing to be inducted. He may have used his connections to avoid being drafted, I do not know. But if we kick out all the men in our government who have used their family’s position, and or their wealth, to manipulate the system, D.C. will become a ghost town. Besides, as it has been noted, 2.6 million men, out of 21 million men, who came of military age, went to Vietnam. We didn’t need Bill Clinton. However, we also do not need to elect only ex-military personnel as our presidents. In fact, with the passing of the torch of the future presidency, from the WW II generation to the Vietnam generation, if this is the type of political campaign that we must look forward to every four years, I am one Vietnam Veteran who says, no thank you. If, however, in future years, the presidency is going to be handed to someone from the Vietnam era, I would hope that this Mesolithic two party system could be more selective, and intelligent, on whom they deem to be our heroes. While George Bush is not my idea of a prodigious leader, I would much prefer someone who spent their misguided youth chasing skirts, when he was supposed to be at those boring Air Guard meetings, than someone who spent theirs’ condemning my Brothers and I while lying under oath, treating with the enemies of my country, and cavorting with a bunch of radicals intent on assassinations and the overthrow of my Government. At this point I must ask the party of my father, and the party to which I have been so faithful for all these long years, the Democratic Party, why John Kerry? Why this man with his past traitorous behavior? Is this the best you have to offer? Is this truly the Democratic Party’s idea of a hero?
Sadly we already know the answers to these questions. Both of the two parties in our electoral system have discovered that the character of these men, they continue to run at us, no longer matters. They have found that with the right spin they can sell almost anyone to the American public as long as the person, they are selling, is presentable in appearance, is at least a bearable public speaker and appeals to some type of special interest group(s). In today’s political campaigns, ad men have become more important than policy writers, image more important than substance and character. While the spin-doctors explain away their illegal and inappropriate behavior of their youth, we who did the right thing at their age, and have had to pay for it, sit by and are told that it all didn’t mean a thing. Well I for one, want leaders who do not have to hire people to make excuses for their failure to live the life, that the rest of us are all held responsible for living, except for these few who seem to be above the moral and ethical standards to which the rest of us are so tightly held. Do not tell me that what Kerry did thirty-odd years ago does not mean a thing today. What he did at that time is just as relevant as what he will do tomorrow. Especially, when Kerry’s anti-war activities, were against the laws our Constitution, cost the lives and blood of my fellow countrymen, weakened my country and helped my enemies. There are no statutes of limitations on treason, and there should certainly be no award of the Presidency for treason either. It does not matter if the treason was during an unpopular war. Treason is still treason, even if a small percentage of our population is against the war and for our enemies.
We Veterans are anti-war. Knowing the hardships, the horror and the impending casualties which will be suffered by our fellow countrymen, and the civilians of the country in which the war is being fought, saddens and angers us. We never want to see our country have to go to war. We are especially incensed, when that war may be, what some consider, an unjust war. But what we also know is that, even in this age of civilization, we must defend ourselves. We know that America’s freedoms have been paid for with the blood and suffering of our Veterans and their families. We know that these young men and women, we now send to defend us, will also be forever changed by their experiences. The Vietnam Veterans know to well the betrayal by their fellow citizens upon our return, and the adverse effects, which occurred because of that betrayal. Today, thirty-one years after the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, we Veterans have a new war, to fight the betrayal once again of the American people, who wish to put our betrayer in the White House, and to protect those who are fighting for us now from being betrayed themselves. They too will return thinking that they will be able to resume their young lives unchanged. They too will continue to suffer the ill effects of the experiences of their war, throughout the rest of their lives. But first we must see that they have every means and support to complete successfully their missions, with honor and with the whole-hearted thankfulness of the American people. If President, John Kerry will betray them while they are still in the field of battle, and again upon their return, just like he did the Vietnam Veteran. You can count on it.
"We make war that we may live in peace."
- Aristotle
America was so intent to avoid another Vietnam that it sat by and did little or nothing after countless attacks on our citizens, military and property. The seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korea in 1968, the seizure by Cambodia of the USS Mayaguez in 1975, the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, the attack on our troop’s peace keeping mission at the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983, the first bombing of the World Trade Center and our peace mission in Somalia in 1993, the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, numerous other bombings of our embassies and that of or allies all over the World. Yet all but the Mayaguez were met with little or no military response, while the Pueblo still sits in a North Korean harbor used as a museum to honor North Korean militarism. America we have been at war ever since Vietnam. Americans have been abducted and murdered, by both terrorists and sovereign states. Besides a few air strikes the only time in that period where we mobilized our Armed Forces and attacked was in Granada, Kosovo and the Desert War, the last two being sanctioned by the United Nations.
After Vietnam, the military remained shadowed in this country until the Gulf War. That war had everything the American public needed, sanctioned by the U.N., aggression by an evil dictator who had invaded a helpless neighbor, minimal, even though still painful casualties on our side and a fast paced one-sided victory. The only thing left lacking was a successful conclusion with the ouster of the evil dictator. Our military did us proud. Only the politicians lacked the courage to put an end to the evil dictator’s rule. Once the war was won our armies came marching home to a grand Patriotic reception. It was the way it should always be. After the Gulf War, Patriotism was in such high gear that a wave of emotion swept across America, with some people wanting to include the Vietnam Vets and finally welcome us home. But the Patriotic fervor soon died away, the attacks continued, WTC bombing, embassy bombings, Oklahoma City, Somalia, the Atlanta Olympics, the Cole and then 9-11. America at war abroad and within and we didn’t even know it, or least we would not admit it.
After 9-11 America finally, and justly, attacked the terrorists and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Then came Iraq, to the American left we have come full circle. Never mind that Bush was given solid intelligence about WMD’s from three different sources, Britain, Russia and the U.S. Never mind, that Hussein was a murdering tyrant without whom the World is a far far better place. Never mind, that along with most of Congress, Kerry voted Yes on going to war with Iraq. Never mind, given the history between George, Sr. and Hussein, that anyone who did not think that Hussein and Iraq were not going to be brought into the equation somewhere after George, Jr. was elected has never seen a Western or heard of the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s.
So here we are again, in an unpopular war. The protesters are again protesting. In this election year, the politicians are again viciously condemning the current administration and digging up Vietnam. All the while the talking heads complain that, this Vietnam War stuff is just old news, yet they just can’t seem to pass up a new angle or to just let it go. The news media is printing and broadcasting all the bad news from the Iraq War they can find, and then some. Our military is once again doing what has to be done and doing us proud. Our enemies, knowing they cannot defeat us militarily, are again just holding on, killing and maiming as many of our sons and daughters as they can, with the hope that we will once again loose our collective will and remove the troops before the peace is won. America we have learned nothing from Vietnam, but our enemies sure the hell have.
So what can we do to insure that the political climate in our country, during this unpopular war, does not disintegrate into the lawlessness of the protester’s demonstrations and private meetings with our enemies? First we must look at some of the question that have never been answered about Vietnam and that includes Kerry’s participation in the anti-war movement.
When we young Americans were fighting for America in Vietnam, when those young Marines were standing on that dark and lonely fence line in Cuba, America, where were you? When we were facing the dangers and insuring your freedoms, who was watching our backs? Why did no one speak out against the slander that was being said against us? Why did no one question our accusers? Why was no one charged with their crimes and made to pay for the anarchy? Why did no one put an end to the lies?
America, we were your sons, your brothers, your husbands and your sweethearts. We were the kids who had lived next door. We were the kids who sat next to you in church for all those years. We were the football, baseball and basketball players on the local high school team you cheered. We were the kids who shoveled the snow off your sidewalk in the winter, cut your grass in the summer, delivered your newspapers and asked your daughters to the Friday night dance. We were the products of your society. You raised us with your values, your beliefs, your compassion for our fellow man, and your sense of duty and honor. You raised us with your sense of right and wrong and with the divine belief and faith in your God. Why would you believe that we would step onto the soil of Vietnam and forget who we were? Did you believe that we were all truly converted into some kind of insane opium drug adducts once we hit Vietnam’s shores? Only to kick the habit in our three to four day journey back home? Or maybe America just thought we were these lunatic killers because there was something in the water over there that changed us? How could America believe that her sons could do what was being said? When we were not here to defend ourselves from the lies and propaganda of our common enemies, why was there no one here to defend us? Your silence and lack of actions, against these false accusations of your Nation’s sons, only strengthened and legitimized their value and have helped them to endure. So why now, after all these years, if you do not believe what Kerry said about your sons, do you try to push this man upon us, who was so instrumental in the instigation and advancement of these lies and who, with the help of America’s silence, sustained our unwarranted conviction?
It did not really matter yesterday if these questions were asked or answered for the Vietnam Veterans. Time has pushed us pass these things. Why they must be asked and answered today is because some of you want to make Kerry our President and because America is about to treat our servicemen and women, who are fighting for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, like they treated the Vietnam Veterans.
For those of you backing Kerry, here are a few of the problems that you face with him. You can’t call the Swift Boat men dishonorable because they have spoken out against and slandered Kerry and then call Kerry honorable and courageous when he spoke out against the Vietnam War and slandered the Vietnam Vets. You can’t say you respect the Swifties, thank them for their service to our country and then call them liars. You can’t claim the Swifties are politically motivated with their accusations against Kerry, when Kerry is using his medals and war record to run for President. Kerry is politically motivated; he’s a Senator running for President, the Swifties are not running for anything. But if you insist on claiming political motivation, then both parties in this case must be politically motivated, so how can you accuse one side and not the other?
You can’t blame Bush alone for the war in Iraq, when Kerry voted to go to war with Iraq! How do you now place this war solely on Bush, simply because Kerry has now changed his mind about going to war? Since he voted yes to go to war with Iraq he is just as responsible for the war as Bush! How can you possibly explain the actions and consciousness of Kerry, who votes yes to send our sons and daughters into harms’ way, and then votes No for the funds they need to conduct the war and to help insure their safety? How do you explain Kerry’s audacity, of after voting yes to go to war and then voting no to the money that is needed to supply our sons and daughters with the protective equipment they need, only to then to stand in front of our Nation, speaking of Bush at the Democratic Convention, and say:
“You don't value families if you force them to take up a collection to buy body armor for a son or daughter in the service, ……” - John Kerry (Democratic National Convention Acceptance Speech, July 2004.)
He is absolutely right; he has proven that he does not value families. His vote for the war and his vote against the funding for the war, along with this audacious statement at the convention, would have by themselves cancelled any plans of my voting for Kerry if I had ever intended to.
However, here is the biggest dilemma that you face with Kerry. With his testimony in 1971, if you believe that America’s sons could and in fact did commit such war crimes on such a broad scale as Kerry has sworn, then you must believe that every man who went to Vietnam committed, witnessed or had knowledge of these war crimes. You must also believe that Kerry is a war criminal with the rest of us. You cannot pick him out from amongst us and make him the lone hero. His statements in his testimony were too vast; the wording he chose implicated everyone. If you do not believe that we went to Vietnam and committed mass murder, rape, torture and mutilations than you must believe that Kerry lied under oath. If he did indeed lie, he was helping the Communist defeat America, than you must see that he is a traitor to his nation and does not deserve to be the President. It is that simple. Either Vietnam Veterans are as a whole, war criminals with Kerry included or Kerry lied and is a traitor. Either or, you can’t have it both ways. Not this time. There was no confusion on his part when he made his accusations; he was neither merely mistaken nor overzealous in his youth. There were many fine men who fought in Vietnam who came home to protest the war because of the way it was being fought or because they did not want to see any more Americans die there. These men did not brand us all as war criminals as Kerry chose to do. Kerry calculated his words and actions, acted them out and told the lies. He knew at that time what he was doing and what the consequences would be. He knew that his words and actions were helping the NVA and he met with them after he came home from Vietnam. He has never apologized or has he recanted his testimony. He stands by it today as he did in 1971. So it is up to you. If Kerry is elected President we either have a self-confessed war criminal in the White House or a traitor in the White House. When it comes to Kerry being our President there is no other choice.
“Television was different. Its correspondents and cameramen, often at great risk, provided dramatic narrative and vivid, fleeting film snippets. They were allowed to explain to the audience more than they knew--or could possibly know. Their usual goal, then as since, was "impact"; this was especially misleading at Tet. Pundits in print or on television back home, like the US officials and their critics in Washington, were confronted by contradictions, ambiguities, and their own ignorance.”
- 'The News Media and the War in Vietnam - Myths and Realities' By Peter Braestrup
http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part03.html+
Without the slanted excess coverage of a biased news media, the few thousands of Vietnam anti-war protesters in a nation of over 200 million would have never succeeded nor would the false mythology of Vietnam have survived. When news cameras zeroed in on America’s campuses of that time they only focused on those few students who were demonstrating, while the majority of the students went about their academic routines unseen and unheard. When the protesters marched on Washington D.C., again they did not lack media exposure. Every news medium clamored to get the story and exploit its sensationalism. What was not seen, again, were the millions of Americans going about their daily lives, shaking their heads at these un-American activities. The news media and other protesters celebrated those very few Vietnam Veterans who joined their ranks like the coming of The Almighty Truth. Here were people who had been to Vietnam who had come home to speak out against the war. Every word these Veterans spoke was revered as if these men were all Christ incarnate. No one doubted a word they said; no one questioned their motivation or their harrowing gruesome tales of torture, rape and murder. For this was what these protesters and the media wanted to hear, it validated their beliefs, actions and their dogma. It must have been very heady stuff for the private, buck sergeant or a lieutenant, j.g. to have such celebrity and power over so many people and hanging on your every word. The only problem these Vets faced was how to keep up the interest. They learned quickly that to fuel the frenzy all that they needed were more lies, and the more outrageous the better. Again what the media did not show was the other two million plus Veterans who came home and did not protest. We other Vets had come home tired of war, but not believing that we or America had been wrong, nor were we willing to sell out our Country or our Brothers. Only a biased media could take these three groups of students, protesters, and anti-war Vets, representing such a very small percentage of their whole and make them look like an unstoppable force. Only a biased media could make them look like they and only they knew the truth of it all, while the vast majority of us, sharing the same experiences, were in the dark. Only a biased media could allow them to succeed and while the media at home sided with the protesters, some of their brethren in Vietnam followed this same course.
One such example in Vietnam is the case of the news media and the damaged planes during the siege at Khe Sanh and its airstrip. Khe Sanh was a remote Marine outpost, which was surrounded by elements of the NVA and VC who were determined to wipe out the Marines. The siege started on January 21, 1968 and ended on March 14, which coincided with the Tet Offensive. The Communists bombarded the base day and night and attacked many times, but the Marines held on. Being surrounded, the only way to re-supply the base was by air. Of course when the planes and helicopters would swoop down to land and unload the Communist increased the mortar, artillery and automatic and small arms fire on the base, with the hope of destroying the planes and helicopters. Hundreds of these re-supply missions were flown into the Marines at Khe Sanh. To their credit, there were also TV camera crews and reporters present. Of course with all these missions a C-130 was going to get destroyed sooner than later. When it happened and there was a lull in the fighting, these TV crews rushed out to get a film clip of their reporters standing in front of the burning plane, you know for effect as they say. These filmed reports went back to the world and showed up on the nightly news in America’s homes just in time for dinner. Always with a reporter telling how dismal the outcome of the battle was evolving for the Marines, how it was almost impossible to re-supply the base and without continued re-supply the Marines would not be able to hang on. Many times there was a reference comparing Khe Sanh with Dein Bein Fu, the ultimate French defeat in Vietnam. As you can see by the dates the siege lasted for almost three months and along with the Tet Offensive, it was all gloom and doom for the reporters and their reports going into the homes of America during the siege, always standing in front of burned out airplanes on the airstrip at Khe Sanh. To the people at home Khe Sanh was a disaster in the making. Night after night the troubling reports of the impending defeat of our Marines and the sight of all those wrecked airplanes came into their homes. But there were problems with these reports and the film footage. All those shots of the wrecked planes were of the same plane, just shot at different angles by the film crews. These different angles of the plane, whether on purpose or not, misled the people viewing these reports into believing that we were losing many planes at Khe Sanh. Although the Marines were in one hell of a fight and they suffered many hardships and ran short of everything, and the pilots of those planes and helicopters were braver than brave to be flying into this hell everyday, Khe Sanh was holding on. In all the planes made 480 re-supply flights into Khe Sanh but remarkably lost only 2 C-130’s and 3 C-123’s. When weather permitted the Marines in the hills surrounding Khe Sanh were re-supplied by CH-46 helicopters that would come in twelve at a time three times a day. Seventeen CH-46s were lost during the re-supply efforts. But there was only one C-130 that was sitting next to the airstrip at Khe Sanh. That was the one in all the filmed reports. By the end of the siege the media had already pronounced Khe Sanh was as good as gone, an American defeat. When the NVA pulled out and the siege was lifted to show it was an American victory, it received little or no press coverage. Varying estimates I have read list the Marine losses at around 250, other American servicemen at 500. While the NVA estimate is between 10,000 to 15,000 dead and the Marines still held Khe Sanh. NVA General Giap would say that his waste of troops at Khe Sanh was his biggest mistake. But the Americans back home would not be told that The Siege of Khe Sanh was an American victory. The American media had already moved on.
There are so many images of that time of war that have stayed with us over the years, maybe none more so than the picture of a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl named Kim Phuc. Photographer Nick Ut captured the child running naked down the road after she had ripped off her burning clothes. Her village of Trang Bang, that had been a battleground between NLF and South Vietnamese forces for three days, had been hit by a napalm strike in June of 1972. She was badly burned and as she ran down the road away from her village she cried, “Nong qua! Nong qua!”(“Too hot! Too hot!”) To his credit Ut dropped his camera after he took the picture and commandeered a vehicle to rush young Kim to a hospital, where her life was saved. When the picture of this horrible scene was published it soon became the ultimate condemnation of America in Vietnam. Even though there were no American forces present at the battle and it had been a Vietnamese plane that had mistakenly dropped the napalm on the villagers and its own ARVN forces. The reporters present had reported correctly in their initial reports, that no American forces were involved in the battle. Yet the story behind the picture, which spread across America and the rest of the World, was that American forces had burned little Kim. Later someone would add to the story false reports that nerve gas had been used in the village, it would become part of the legend. Ut was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the picture and years later he would move to America and become a U.S. citizen, while Kim is now a Canadian citizen. In 1996 Kim Phuc was invited to speak on Veteran’s day at The Wall, her visit there coincided with a soon to be released Canadian documentary of her life. In her short speech, she never mentioned anything about forgiving America but said that if she would ever meet the pilot who had been responsible for her burns during the war, she would tell him it was part of history now. To some in the media and the makers of her documentary her sole purpose for being at The Wall was to forgive America. After her speech and away from the crowd, an American minister, who had served in Vietnam, confessed that he had been the officer who had ordered the air strike on Trang Bang and he would accept her forgiveness. Even though it had been reported accurately in 1972 that no Americans were involved in Kim’s bombing, American newspapers headlines were filled with her forgiveness of the American who had ordered the attack. Later the A&E Network would run the documentary with the misleading byline, “The American Commander Who Ordered The Bombing.” It was all a hoax. It would be proven that the Veteran minister could not have ordered the strike. Yet A&E would not retract its documentary and it has been shown more than once on their channel. Vietnam Veteran Ronald Timberlake, Major, U.S. Army, Retired, a man who was foremost in outing this scam, said of the minister:
“His story was that of the stereotypically troubled Vietnam Veterans. A divorced alcoholic. A failure at so much in life. Recently remarried and called to the Ministry. And now saved by the "forgiveness" of "his victim". With that terrible burden of guilt lifted from his overburdened shoulders. That stereotype fit what Americans have come to expect to hear about Vietnam veterans.”
Many in America and the World, still believe that American forces were responsible for the napalm that burned the little girl in the picture. There seems to be no end to the myths of Vietnam, no matter what proof you present. It can be argued, that Nick Ut’s picture is the most famous image to come out of the war in Vietnam. Likewise it can also be argued, that the most famous image to come out of WW II was Joe Rosenthal’s photo of the Marine flag raising on Iwo Jima. Both won the photographer the Pulitzer Prize and captured images of an American war that remains forever in the viewer’s consciousness. Both pictures have been fogged with controversy. But while Rosenthal’s picture has become famous for the bravery of America’s fight for freedom. Ut’s picture has falsely become famous for America’s inhumanity. Even though no American’s were involved. In the eyes of the World, how far we had fallen in just twenty-seven years.
Kerry: Part Three
“Copyright 2004. Michael E. Tank All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or in any other manner duplicated without express written permission of the author.”
A Veteran’s Perspective
By
Michael Tank
Part Two
“They were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Naturally they became heroes.”
- Anonymous
Sadly Kerry’s involvement with the Vietnam War and its Veterans did not end with the war. America had long ignored the repeated reports filtering in about our POW/MIA’s, still being seen alive in Southeast Asia. In January 1973 after signing the peace agreement, North Vietnam handed over a list of 591 POW’s who they would release. This list was far short of the total number of known POW’s being held in Southeast Asia. As an example it contained the names of only nine men out of the 300 men that were known being held as POW’s in Laos. Common sense should make one question how a war, which lasted from 1957 to 1973, sixteen years, with no other major releases of POW’s in that time frame, could produce just 591 POW’s at the end of hostilities? In 1991, Kerry, now a Senator from Massachusetts, headed the Congressional investigation into these reports and whitewashed or ignored the evidence of the continuing survival of our POW/MIA’s kept in captivity by the Communists of North Vietnam, long after the war was over.
The evidence included: “A short list would include more than 1,600 firsthand sightings of live U.S. prisoners; nearly 14,000 secondhand reports; numerous intercepted Communist radio messages from within Vietnam and Laos about American prisoners being moved by their captors from one site to another; a series of satellite photos that continued into the 1990s showing clear prisoner rescue signals carved into the ground in Laos and Vietnam, all labeled inconclusive by the Pentagon; multiple reports about unacknowledged prisoners from North Vietnamese informants working for U.S. intelligence agencies, all ignored or declared unreliable; persistent complaints by senior U.S. intelligence officials (some of them made publicly) that live-prisoner evidence was being suppressed; and clear proof that the Pentagon and other keepers of the "secret" destroyed a variety of files over the years to keep the P.O.W./M.I.A. families and the public from finding out and possibly setting off a major public outcry.”
-('When John Kerry's Courage Went M.I.A.' by Sydney H. Schanberg: http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0408/schanberg.php)
Furthermore, Kerry refused to subpoena important witnesses and the famous Watergate Tapes of Nixon’s administration during the 1973 period, when the peace talk discussions included important secret information about North Vietnam’s refusals to release all the American POW’s in exchange for 4 billion dollars in war reparations, which they would never receive. It has been reported by witnesses of this investigation that Kerry coached them about what to say during their testimony, just as he had done with his war criminals in 1971. There are repeated reports from staff members that Kerry shredded important evidence and omitted important testimony from being included on the Congressional Records of his investigation’s report. One would have to question his inclusion on this committee in the first place, let alone his role as its leader, with his history of being a Vietnam anti-war protester. In fact his choice as a leader of, or even any participation in, this particular investigation smacks of collusion and displays a total lack of respect or concern for the families of the missing men. Unless of course the desired end results of the investigation were to be exactly as they turned out to be. As the result of Kerry’s and other’s desire to normalize our relations with our past enemy and to bury the guilt of the Pentagon and the Nixon administration of leaving our men behind, America’s sons were to be abandoned, unaccounted for and forgotten. Kerry’s actions of denying the reports of our POW’s continuing survival and sweeping them under the rug has sentenced these heroes to a life of imprisonment and death in the hands of a foreign enemy. By these findings they have lost all hope of freedom and will never again see their families and their homeland for the crime of serving their country in an unpopular war. As of February 1997 there were 2128 POW/MIA’s still unaccounted for in Southeast Asia. Although many of these men are known to have perished during the war many others are known to have survived. Our Brothers in Arms, your fathers, husbands, brothers, sons and neighbors were left behind because of the politicians’ rush toward the appeasement of Kerry’s anti-war crowd. What a shameful epitaph for these lost heroes.
“God defend me from my friends; from my enemies I can defend myself.”
- Proverb
It has been thirty-one years now since the United States withdrew from Vietnam. For most Americans the war is old news, long past troubled times best to be forgotten. To many younger Americans the war is ancient history covered in high school history books in just a few paragraphs, which always seems to discuss the anti-war protesters even more than the war or its Veterans. Many things that had happened in that long ago time have been forgotten; many others have been exaggerated, embossed or vilified. But what has suffered most are the memories of the ideals behind our involvement in that war and the legacy of its warriors.
It has been forgotten that a once honored and cherished President gave his word, which was backed by the promise of the Congress of the United States, and given on the behalf of a generous, proud and free people, to come to the aid of a foreign sovereign threatened with a life of domination under Communism. It has been forgotten that North Vietnam broke a treaty that they had agreed to just years before and invaded South Vietnam. It has been forgotten that we were not the invaders but the defenders. It has been forgotten that it was never our task to topple the government of North Vietnam but only to get them to leave South Vietnam. It has been forgotten the words and challenge of a young fallen leader who said, “Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.” It has been forgotten that so many of us only wanted to answer that challenge. It has been forgotten the betrayal and negativity of our own press, reporting only what it wanted to see or assumed was the truth. It has been forgotten the audacity and the foolhardy manner, of a man paid to just report the news, who elevated himself to the position of such power that he saw fit to judge and determine the course of our country’s policies. Thus moving from just reporting the news to becoming the news itself.
It has been exaggerated and embossed the number of anti-war protesters, their motives and their morality. Never has such a small minority of people yielded such influence over a nation’s consciousness and determined the goals of the majority of that nation. It has been embossed with all the protesters’ passion and horror over abused human rights, the killing and wounding of others, yet how quiet they became when the people of Southeast Asia were slaughtered and subjugated after we left. The misleading distinction of the label anti-war protesters automatically raises the bearer to a higher plane of humanity than the soldier in people’s minds. Misleading people to believe that while the protesters are against the war, we who fight are pro-war. Nothing could be further from the truth. Those of us who have actually been to war know first hand it’s horrors. Most human beings are opposed to war, what must be questioned with these American anti-war protesters is what were their true motivations? It has been exaggerated and embossed the courage and fortitude of the protester and draft dodger, where is the courage and fortitude of your actions when there is no consequence? Where was the courage and fortitude when your draft number came up and you ran when so many others like you went to serve your country? What of that man who’s number was called to serve in your stead because you fled? It has been exaggerated and embossed the virtue and honor of the NVA and NLF, backed by the Communist Soviet Union, their goal was to conquer and subjugate, not unite. It has been exaggerated and vilified the conduct of our Armed Forces fighting for a people’s freedom. It has been vilified the motives, actions and morality of our government, our leaders, our troops and America itself. These last vilifications have remained to this day. America vowed to learn from the hard lessons of Vietnam. But how can you learn anything when the truth of what really happened is wrapped so tightly with lies and mythology and where ultimately the goal was to forget the war and its lessons altogether? In the years following the Vietnam War, America, intent on not getting involved in another Vietnam, walked softly and carried no stick. Military troop strengths and budgets were greatly reduced, as is the custom in this country after a war, but America deemed it necessary to cut even deeper in the atmosphere of military disfavor. For the first time in our storied history a large number of Americans no longer looked upon duty in our Armed Forces as an honorary service. Most Vietnam Veterans learned to keep the knowledge of their military service to themselves and only recently have come forward to reclaim the honor of that service, which they so rightly deserve. America reduced its military personnel and switched its posture from an aggressive, well equipped, manned fighting force to one of a perpetual threat by building more missiles and warheads. America no longer looked at its military as a collection of its own citizens, it had been transformed into a faceless entity, to be distrusted and watched as carefully as big government. In the minds of our civilians our military had lost its humanity.
At the end of 1971, 70,000 of the 100,000 American draft dodgers had fled the United States to live in Canada. In 1972 Hanoi Jane Fonda returned from her much publicized propaganda trip in North Vietnam, after calling for our troops to lay down their arms and surrender to the NVA and their VC brothers. She had made numerous Tokyo Rose type propaganda messages on the radio that were broadcast to our troops in South Vietnam. She had met with selected POW’s and after labeling them "war criminals" she came home and lied to us about how well they were being treated. Tom Hayden, Fonda’s husband and Ramsey Clark, LBJ’s former Attorney General, followed much the same path through North Vietnam as Hanoi Jane. Various ministries and others from the United States also made numerous trips to North Vietnam to show support in the Communist’s war against their countrymen.
Throughout the United States students and non-students protested on campuses and in our cities, against the draft, politicians, private corporations, military recruiters and bases, and anything else they believed supported the war. They disrupted our academic institutions, private company and military recruiting interviews, they took over public and private buildings, held hostages, made outrageous demands in lieu of their dispersal and generally broke the laws of the land a thousand times over. Hayden, Kerry and others unlawfully met with the Communist peace representatives in Paris and signed bogus treaties. Kerry and others gave false testimony under oath that slandered your sons and daughters in our military. Kerry’s VVAW held a meeting in Kansas City and discussed plans to assassinate pro-war Congressmen. Yet few if any of these lawbreakers ever faced any form of punishment for these unlawful acts. In fact few suffered at all for their crimes and still prosper today. Fonda was awarded two Oscars and many film roles and is respected by many as an actress, heath fitness guru and activist. Hayden has had unsuccessful bids for the Senate and the Mayor of LA and has been invited to the White House. Clark still practices law and consuls some of the men arrested for terrorism against the United States. Politicians who had spoken out against the war and criticized our government’s handling of it, moved on unabated with their public careers. Those in the news media, who once reported falsely about the war, are seen now as respected and revered leaders in their field. In 1977 President Carter issued an amnesty for all the draft dodgers from the war. As they freely ambled home they grumbled that the amnesty wasn’t enough. Among other concessions they had wanted were complete amnesty for deserters and for those who had been given less than an honorable discharge from the service, for that to be changed to honorable discharges. Everyone of the era has been forgiven for their past trespasses, except the ones who had been wrongly accused in the first place, those of us who had fought in the war.
“It's the movies that have really been running things in America ever since they were invented. They show you what to do, how to do it, when to do it, how to feel about it, and how to look how you feel about it.”
- Andy Warhol
America’s treatment of the Vietnam Veterans on their return has been less than stellar. While we returned home to an uncaring and sometimes hostile society, we watched as the draft dodgers and anti-war protesters were defended and many times even celebrated. We Vietnam Veterans are an angry bunch. The war, its outcome and what happened after have made us angry. But for the most part we went on about our lives and tried to forget. As the years went by we watched how America’s perceptions of us did not change over time. In 1980, 1990 we were, as a whole, still seen as just the drugged up mob that we were supposed to have been in 1970. Books were published explaining how we had lost the war; the newspapers and television reports seemed to always be negative. But the worst perpetrators of these negative images of the Vietnam Veterans are the movies of Hollywood.
Good old Hollywood, never one to let facts or the truth get in the way of a good story. But we Veterans watched, year after year, hoping that someone, anyone, would just get it right. Instead what we saw was the myth exposed on film. As the bad guys Vietnam Vets were crazy wanton killers and drugged up criminals. If the good guy was a Vet than he had some deep dark secret and nine times out of ten he had won the Medal of Honor. Have to give the hero some redeeming quality I guess; yet still the reluctant hero only seemed to win the day when he was forced into it. If the story was about when the Vet had come home he was always a head case. Not like Vets from other wars, disturbed and saddened by their war time experiences, but I mean they showed the Vietnam Vet as a real nut job. Plus they were all the holders of that deep dark secret of what they had done over there and ten times out of ten it was a war crime that the secret was hiding.
The other night I saw ten minutes of one of these movies, “The War At Home.” The Vet had come home and was having a confrontation with his father, mother and sister. Standing in his family’s parlor he pulls out a .45 pointing it first at his father, and then taking his sister in a headlock, he holds the gun against her temple. Seems he is really mad at his father for making him honor his draft notice, when all he had really wanted was a few bucks and a bus ticket to scoot off to Canada. But his father had talked him into going into the Army to answer his "stupid honor." All the while he kept flashing back, through the magic of the cinema, to the Nam! Finding himself back in a night battle with flares glowing overhead, explosions and small arms fire ripping off all around, as he was standing around with some other soldiers who had just pulled a VC out of a tunnel. (The soldiers were all standing straight up mind you, with this war going on all around them like they were back home on the street corner whistling at the girlies.) The VC is on his knees in the mud with his hands clasped behind his head as three or four soldiers were pointing their weapons at him and the lieutenant was beating the VC and yelling, “VC camp? VC camp?” Of course the VC just looked back defiantly silent as his cowardly captors tortured him. I sat there and thought, “VC camp?” Well no kidding lou-ten-unt, there’s a war going on all around you and you just pulled this guy out of a hole in the ground, what do you think it is a ride at Six Flags? Of course you just knew what was coming next, the lieutenant hands the Nut Vet his .45 and looks at him with a, you know what to do expression and when the Nut Vet hesitates the officer asks, “Is there a problem?” Like the execution of VC POW’s was SOP, standard operating procedure. You know just like Kerry said, “…with full knowledge of their officers." As everyone else just turns and walks away our Nut Vet, after a little hesitation and seeing his father’s face appear on the shoulders of the kneeling prisoner, shoots the VC in the head. Apparently this Nut Vet really had his heart set on that extended Canadian vacation. I don’t know if he went that extra mile when he flashed back home, I had seen enough. I looked up the movie on the Internet to find it was made in 1996, and here I was beginning to believe that America was moving away, even ever so slightly, from its distorted image of the Vietnam Vet.
There are some things that most all of these in country Vietnam movies have in common, and I say most because I have seen enough of them but not all. I will exclude “We Were Soldiers” from this criticism as it is nothing like any others I have seen, and it does not include any of what I am about to discuss. Of the ones I have seen, all have at least one scene where the enlisted man shows up the incompetent officer or NCO or just mouths off to one and goes unpunished, thus demonstrating the Vietnam Vet's insubordination. At least one or more officers is a coldhearted liar and usually tells the hero to stay quiet about a war crime, or the officer is so dumb (“VC camp?”) that they couldn’t find their backsides with a flashlight, a map, a compass, both hands, and a re-inforced Marine Forced Recon Platoon. They all show the VC or NVA in a sympathetic light, we were the bad guys after all. They all show a high rate of heavy drug use by American troops (they called me Big Bong Mike.) Finally, they all have at least one scene of the famous war crime, that day-to-day thing Kerry lied to you about.
In “Platoon”, while there are some realistic moments, the American soldiers were so bloodthirsty that they killed each other when they ran out of VC, come to think of it, even when there were still plenty VC around. My, they were a bloodthirsty lot. Anyone who wasn’t getting high and totally wasted was getting drunk. Most of the characters whined and complained about what they were facing and accused each other for their own failings, such as falling asleep while on an ambush and so on. The platoon lieutenant was always undecided, looked for too much advice, received physical and verbal abuse from the sergeant, and was so dumb that he didn’t know when his troops were insulting him, or if he did than he was too cowardly to apply some much needed discipline. He was made to come off as the 'All American Christian College Boy', as if that is a bad thing to be.
After finding a VC bunker the soldiers set up a perimeter and one of them is captured by the VC, tortured, mutilated, killed and trussed up to a pole, all without making a sound and in broad daylight. The mystic, ghost-like VC, unseen and unheard, pulled this off right under the noses of an on the alert company of soldiers. Leaving the viewer with the impression of the VC as some kind of super warrior and our guys were, at the least, inept. There is that ever-present war crime where a sergeant murders a mother and threatens to kill the daughter to make a village leader talk, just before they burn the village.
We have all seen the old classic war movie scene where in a quiet moment before the battle, one man sadly, yet bravely, confides to his buddy, “…I have a bad feeling that I won’t be coming back from this one…” while having no thoughts what so ever of not going into battle with his friends. In “Platoon” this scene is changed to a sniveling, sycophant sergeant telling the sergeant in charge that he deserves R&R right then and there before the big battle. When his R&R is turned down he almost starts to cry, as he whines in a quivering voice, “I gotta baaad feelin’ about this Sarg.” Later another soldier stabs himself in the leg to get out of his unit. After the battle the movie’s hero shoots the sergeant, who had killed the woman, because the sergeant had killed another sergeant and had also tried to kill the hero during the battle. I know, you almost need a scorecard to keep track of what Americans killed or tried to kill what other Americans. Panning the aftermath of the big battle, there are scenes of the American relief troops walking through the dead and wounded VC cutting off ears and shooting survivors.
Meanwhile, our wannabe on R&R sergeant survives by hiding under the bodies of his dead comrades. Which all in all is not the worst thing a man can do at such a time and place, but he did it without even first firing a shot. Then making himself look like the lone, brave remaining warrior, he then promptly dishonors his dead comrades as he complains to his rescuers about his cowardly men, who had just fought, died and whom he had used to cover himself with their bodies, thus saving his miserable life, “The bastards, they ran off and left me.” Hmmm, sounds kind of familiar, I wonder if this sergeant ever ran for office after the war.
Add to this that “Platoon” won the Academy Award for Best Picture and is revered by many as THE Vietnam movie. This was an example of Hollywood’s new version of the brave American soldier in Vietnam, repeated again and again in movie after movie. I know, you say it’s only movies. That’s true. I know all about artistic license, symbolism and so on. But the sad part about movies is that most people are visual, they believe what they see and to hell with the symbolism and literary license, Nam must have been just like that. Millions of people walk out of these movies, or view them at home believing that what they just saw was what Vietnam was really like. If you want to see just how realistic most people believe these movies about Vietnam are, go to a web site that sells them and offers reviews. Time and time again you will read how the reviewers know that this movie is, “…what it must have been like in Vietnam.” The sad truth about telling lies is that, if you tell a lie long enough and often enough, the lie has become the truth.
“God bless those lost in distant lands
Never to be seen again
But bless those too who do return
For their lives they have also given”
- The Witness
Like all Veterans returning from war, those of us who came home from Vietnam faced many challenges. However, unlike Veterans of other wars, we returned from Vietnam to an uncaring and sometimes even hostile environment. It is hard to explain what a person experiences in combat and how that remains with them for the rest of their lives. It is true, as they say; that if you have not seen 'the elephant' for yourself, then there is no way I can really help you in sharing the experience. This is not said with any form of arrogance or superiority, for it is generally spoken with a reverent sadness. For most of us, Vietnam was the focal point of our lives. The hardships and the horrors of war, along with the values and morality we learned in the service of our country, still shape the kind of men we remain today. It is not that we sit around and dwell on Vietnam; it is just that the war is always there, within us. I personally, have often wondered what I would be like, or would have become, if I had not gone to Vietnam. I have often looked upon others I knew, and envied the fact, that they had been able to grow to maturity with a more natural process over time than was allowed those of us who had to mature, and even grow old, in such a quick and violent process. This accelerated passing of our youth and innocence, along with seeing our friends and the Vietnamese killed by the most violent means, saddened and frustrated us, and made us angry. After being trained as an aggressive, offensive minded force and then being held to the restrictions of defensive operations, which where being enforced upon us by politicians far from the battlefield, only made us even more frustrated and angrier as we watched our countrymen die. This being said, you must understand that we had not given up, nor did we want to extend the war. We only wanted to take the fight to our enemy of the North and thus end the fighting, while completing the mission of keeping the Communists out of the South. We had been given a task and we had the strength, courage and fortitude to see it through, if only someone would have just let us. Add to this the betrayal, upon our return, by our countrymen, and even some of our own Brothers from the war, and you may begin to understand why, this particular election campaign and the possibility of having Kerry as our President, is so repulsive to us.
As young men in Vietnam, we always felt that once home we would be able to pick up exactly where we had left off, that we would be able to shrug off all these feelings we were then experiencing, and return to the same life, being who we had been before we went to war. But soon after our arrival back in the States, we discovered that something was not right within ourselves. Restless, irritable, saddened, depressed and angry, we did have trouble adjusting, all Veterans do, as if, we felt, there was just something missing, and yet we didn’t have a clue of what it might be. In my case, with over a year left to serve, the routine of stateside duty soon became worse than being in Vietnam. When the chance came for me to transfer to Cuba, I took it gladly, hardship post or not; I had to get out of the States. There was nothing heroic about my choice, it was simply a matter of knowing something was wrong, something was missing, and something had to change. Looking back now, I realize that these feelings have followed me throughout my life. It is a feeling, as if there is an emptiness within me, a hole in my heart that cannot be filled even with the love of my sons and family. These feelings are not the kind of things we wear on our sleeve, people talking to a Veteran would never know he has such feelings. We do go about our daily lives, are productive, have families and jobs, not to mention, charming personalities. It’s not like we have a third eye. Most people in my life, outside of family and a few close friends, would never expect that I had been a sniper in Vietnam. We have found ways to bury these feelings, such as immersing ourselves in our work, which at least for me had worked for a long time. Others have tried drug or alcohol abuse. Whatever the temporary cure, these feelings remain, ready to rejuvenate and overwhelm at their leisure. However, it must also be understood, that even with these ill effects caused by the war, I would do it all again, as I cherish the honor to be called a Veteran and my inclusion in this noble Brotherhood.
This said, brings us to another part of the mythology of the Vietnam War, PTSD, Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. Although PTSD can affect anyone who has survived a traumatic experience, it is most commonly associated with Vietnam Veterans. Thus it is often believed, that we Veterans of that war were the first to suffer from this syndrome. Along with this false belief came the disparaging claims that, since so many Vietnam Veterans suffer from PTSD, we must not have been up to the high standards of previous Veterans. It is believed that, for whatever reasons, we had not been able to cut the mustard, when it was our time to go to war like our fathers. It became a fault, or character flaw, instead of an illness. In reality PTSD has been suffered by Veterans of all wars, it was only until 1980 when someone labeled it PTSD, and explained how the syndrome physically affected the brain, that it was so called. In the Civil War it was known as the soldier’s disease, in WW I it was called shell shock, and in WW II, Korea, and even during Vietnam, it was described as battle fatigue. It is caused by a permanent change in the functioning of the human brain after experiencing, or witnessing, a frightful or fatal event, and it does not have to be the affected person’s life that was necessarily threatened. Common victims of PTSD include survivors, or a witness, of a single traffic accident, plane crash, robbery, murder, physical assault or rape. In Vietnam there were no front lines, the rear areas, which in previous wars might have offered at least some safety, could and often were, as hazardous as anywhere else. While serving twelve to thirteen months under these dangerous circumstances, most Veterans have witnessed, and or, survived many PTSD causing episodes during their tours of duty in Vietnam. But it has fit the propaganda of the critics and protesters of the Vietnam War and its Veterans, to associate this syndrome with a lack of courage, character or moral fiber, as the cause for so many Vietnam Veterans with PTSD. The syndrome is also misunderstood for its severity and lasting effects, many Veterans have been told by others that:
"You need to just shake it off."
"You need to just put it behind you."
"It was only one year, how can you let that one year affect your whole life?"
"That was so long ago, just forget about it and move on."
"Just let it go!"
For those afflicted with PTSD, the depression, fear, anxiety, and anger, caused by the original trauma, may be brought to the surface by a variety triggers, the most common being stress. Other triggers include the very symptoms of the illness itself, anxiety, fear, depression and anger. While still others may be simple everyday occurrences, such as a certain smell or sound, like the smell of diesel fuel, which was used in military vehicles, or the sound of a car backfiring, the simple loud slamming of a screen door, reminding someone of a gunshot. Among these triggers is the reminder of the war itself. In this current Presidential campaign, we Veterans have been reminded of our war more then we needed to be. With Kerry’s constant bragging of his war time heroics, the debate on the merit of those heroics, the debate of just were Bush had spent his lost time in the Air Guard, and of his not going to Vietnam, but especially the fact of Kerry’s traitorous behavior after his return from Vietnam, is a bit more than some want to endure. Is it any wonder that we Vietnam Vets are so angry right now? So if you think that you are tired of hearing about Vietnam in this campaign, to borrow an old phrase, you should have been there.
All of our past presidents, from Truman on to our present day have served, in one capacity or another, in the military except for Clinton. Bush Sr. was the last president to serve in WW II, and most probably will remain so. You can call Clinton a draft dodger if you like, but I do not remember hearing anything about him actually receiving a draft notice and refusing to be inducted. He may have used his connections to avoid being drafted, I do not know. But if we kick out all the men in our government who have used their family’s position, and or their wealth, to manipulate the system, D.C. will become a ghost town. Besides, as it has been noted, 2.6 million men, out of 21 million men, who came of military age, went to Vietnam. We didn’t need Bill Clinton. However, we also do not need to elect only ex-military personnel as our presidents. In fact, with the passing of the torch of the future presidency, from the WW II generation to the Vietnam generation, if this is the type of political campaign that we must look forward to every four years, I am one Vietnam Veteran who says, no thank you. If, however, in future years, the presidency is going to be handed to someone from the Vietnam era, I would hope that this Mesolithic two party system could be more selective, and intelligent, on whom they deem to be our heroes. While George Bush is not my idea of a prodigious leader, I would much prefer someone who spent their misguided youth chasing skirts, when he was supposed to be at those boring Air Guard meetings, than someone who spent theirs’ condemning my Brothers and I while lying under oath, treating with the enemies of my country, and cavorting with a bunch of radicals intent on assassinations and the overthrow of my Government. At this point I must ask the party of my father, and the party to which I have been so faithful for all these long years, the Democratic Party, why John Kerry? Why this man with his past traitorous behavior? Is this the best you have to offer? Is this truly the Democratic Party’s idea of a hero?
Sadly we already know the answers to these questions. Both of the two parties in our electoral system have discovered that the character of these men, they continue to run at us, no longer matters. They have found that with the right spin they can sell almost anyone to the American public as long as the person, they are selling, is presentable in appearance, is at least a bearable public speaker and appeals to some type of special interest group(s). In today’s political campaigns, ad men have become more important than policy writers, image more important than substance and character. While the spin-doctors explain away their illegal and inappropriate behavior of their youth, we who did the right thing at their age, and have had to pay for it, sit by and are told that it all didn’t mean a thing. Well I for one, want leaders who do not have to hire people to make excuses for their failure to live the life, that the rest of us are all held responsible for living, except for these few who seem to be above the moral and ethical standards to which the rest of us are so tightly held. Do not tell me that what Kerry did thirty-odd years ago does not mean a thing today. What he did at that time is just as relevant as what he will do tomorrow. Especially, when Kerry’s anti-war activities, were against the laws our Constitution, cost the lives and blood of my fellow countrymen, weakened my country and helped my enemies. There are no statutes of limitations on treason, and there should certainly be no award of the Presidency for treason either. It does not matter if the treason was during an unpopular war. Treason is still treason, even if a small percentage of our population is against the war and for our enemies.
We Veterans are anti-war. Knowing the hardships, the horror and the impending casualties which will be suffered by our fellow countrymen, and the civilians of the country in which the war is being fought, saddens and angers us. We never want to see our country have to go to war. We are especially incensed, when that war may be, what some consider, an unjust war. But what we also know is that, even in this age of civilization, we must defend ourselves. We know that America’s freedoms have been paid for with the blood and suffering of our Veterans and their families. We know that these young men and women, we now send to defend us, will also be forever changed by their experiences. The Vietnam Veterans know to well the betrayal by their fellow citizens upon our return, and the adverse effects, which occurred because of that betrayal. Today, thirty-one years after the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam, we Veterans have a new war, to fight the betrayal once again of the American people, who wish to put our betrayer in the White House, and to protect those who are fighting for us now from being betrayed themselves. They too will return thinking that they will be able to resume their young lives unchanged. They too will continue to suffer the ill effects of the experiences of their war, throughout the rest of their lives. But first we must see that they have every means and support to complete successfully their missions, with honor and with the whole-hearted thankfulness of the American people. If President, John Kerry will betray them while they are still in the field of battle, and again upon their return, just like he did the Vietnam Veteran. You can count on it.
"We make war that we may live in peace."
- Aristotle
America was so intent to avoid another Vietnam that it sat by and did little or nothing after countless attacks on our citizens, military and property. The seizure of the USS Pueblo by North Korea in 1968, the seizure by Cambodia of the USS Mayaguez in 1975, the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979, the attack on our troop’s peace keeping mission at the Marine Barracks in Beirut in 1983, the first bombing of the World Trade Center and our peace mission in Somalia in 1993, the attack on the USS Cole in 2000, numerous other bombings of our embassies and that of or allies all over the World. Yet all but the Mayaguez were met with little or no military response, while the Pueblo still sits in a North Korean harbor used as a museum to honor North Korean militarism. America we have been at war ever since Vietnam. Americans have been abducted and murdered, by both terrorists and sovereign states. Besides a few air strikes the only time in that period where we mobilized our Armed Forces and attacked was in Granada, Kosovo and the Desert War, the last two being sanctioned by the United Nations.
After Vietnam, the military remained shadowed in this country until the Gulf War. That war had everything the American public needed, sanctioned by the U.N., aggression by an evil dictator who had invaded a helpless neighbor, minimal, even though still painful casualties on our side and a fast paced one-sided victory. The only thing left lacking was a successful conclusion with the ouster of the evil dictator. Our military did us proud. Only the politicians lacked the courage to put an end to the evil dictator’s rule. Once the war was won our armies came marching home to a grand Patriotic reception. It was the way it should always be. After the Gulf War, Patriotism was in such high gear that a wave of emotion swept across America, with some people wanting to include the Vietnam Vets and finally welcome us home. But the Patriotic fervor soon died away, the attacks continued, WTC bombing, embassy bombings, Oklahoma City, Somalia, the Atlanta Olympics, the Cole and then 9-11. America at war abroad and within and we didn’t even know it, or least we would not admit it.
After 9-11 America finally, and justly, attacked the terrorists and the Taliban government in Afghanistan. Then came Iraq, to the American left we have come full circle. Never mind that Bush was given solid intelligence about WMD’s from three different sources, Britain, Russia and the U.S. Never mind, that Hussein was a murdering tyrant without whom the World is a far far better place. Never mind, that along with most of Congress, Kerry voted Yes on going to war with Iraq. Never mind, given the history between George, Sr. and Hussein, that anyone who did not think that Hussein and Iraq were not going to be brought into the equation somewhere after George, Jr. was elected has never seen a Western or heard of the Hatfield’s and McCoy’s.
So here we are again, in an unpopular war. The protesters are again protesting. In this election year, the politicians are again viciously condemning the current administration and digging up Vietnam. All the while the talking heads complain that, this Vietnam War stuff is just old news, yet they just can’t seem to pass up a new angle or to just let it go. The news media is printing and broadcasting all the bad news from the Iraq War they can find, and then some. Our military is once again doing what has to be done and doing us proud. Our enemies, knowing they cannot defeat us militarily, are again just holding on, killing and maiming as many of our sons and daughters as they can, with the hope that we will once again loose our collective will and remove the troops before the peace is won. America we have learned nothing from Vietnam, but our enemies sure the hell have.
So what can we do to insure that the political climate in our country, during this unpopular war, does not disintegrate into the lawlessness of the protester’s demonstrations and private meetings with our enemies? First we must look at some of the question that have never been answered about Vietnam and that includes Kerry’s participation in the anti-war movement.
When we young Americans were fighting for America in Vietnam, when those young Marines were standing on that dark and lonely fence line in Cuba, America, where were you? When we were facing the dangers and insuring your freedoms, who was watching our backs? Why did no one speak out against the slander that was being said against us? Why did no one question our accusers? Why was no one charged with their crimes and made to pay for the anarchy? Why did no one put an end to the lies?
America, we were your sons, your brothers, your husbands and your sweethearts. We were the kids who had lived next door. We were the kids who sat next to you in church for all those years. We were the football, baseball and basketball players on the local high school team you cheered. We were the kids who shoveled the snow off your sidewalk in the winter, cut your grass in the summer, delivered your newspapers and asked your daughters to the Friday night dance. We were the products of your society. You raised us with your values, your beliefs, your compassion for our fellow man, and your sense of duty and honor. You raised us with your sense of right and wrong and with the divine belief and faith in your God. Why would you believe that we would step onto the soil of Vietnam and forget who we were? Did you believe that we were all truly converted into some kind of insane opium drug adducts once we hit Vietnam’s shores? Only to kick the habit in our three to four day journey back home? Or maybe America just thought we were these lunatic killers because there was something in the water over there that changed us? How could America believe that her sons could do what was being said? When we were not here to defend ourselves from the lies and propaganda of our common enemies, why was there no one here to defend us? Your silence and lack of actions, against these false accusations of your Nation’s sons, only strengthened and legitimized their value and have helped them to endure. So why now, after all these years, if you do not believe what Kerry said about your sons, do you try to push this man upon us, who was so instrumental in the instigation and advancement of these lies and who, with the help of America’s silence, sustained our unwarranted conviction?
It did not really matter yesterday if these questions were asked or answered for the Vietnam Veterans. Time has pushed us pass these things. Why they must be asked and answered today is because some of you want to make Kerry our President and because America is about to treat our servicemen and women, who are fighting for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, like they treated the Vietnam Veterans.
For those of you backing Kerry, here are a few of the problems that you face with him. You can’t call the Swift Boat men dishonorable because they have spoken out against and slandered Kerry and then call Kerry honorable and courageous when he spoke out against the Vietnam War and slandered the Vietnam Vets. You can’t say you respect the Swifties, thank them for their service to our country and then call them liars. You can’t claim the Swifties are politically motivated with their accusations against Kerry, when Kerry is using his medals and war record to run for President. Kerry is politically motivated; he’s a Senator running for President, the Swifties are not running for anything. But if you insist on claiming political motivation, then both parties in this case must be politically motivated, so how can you accuse one side and not the other?
You can’t blame Bush alone for the war in Iraq, when Kerry voted to go to war with Iraq! How do you now place this war solely on Bush, simply because Kerry has now changed his mind about going to war? Since he voted yes to go to war with Iraq he is just as responsible for the war as Bush! How can you possibly explain the actions and consciousness of Kerry, who votes yes to send our sons and daughters into harms’ way, and then votes No for the funds they need to conduct the war and to help insure their safety? How do you explain Kerry’s audacity, of after voting yes to go to war and then voting no to the money that is needed to supply our sons and daughters with the protective equipment they need, only to then to stand in front of our Nation, speaking of Bush at the Democratic Convention, and say:
“You don't value families if you force them to take up a collection to buy body armor for a son or daughter in the service, ……” - John Kerry (Democratic National Convention Acceptance Speech, July 2004.)
He is absolutely right; he has proven that he does not value families. His vote for the war and his vote against the funding for the war, along with this audacious statement at the convention, would have by themselves cancelled any plans of my voting for Kerry if I had ever intended to.
However, here is the biggest dilemma that you face with Kerry. With his testimony in 1971, if you believe that America’s sons could and in fact did commit such war crimes on such a broad scale as Kerry has sworn, then you must believe that every man who went to Vietnam committed, witnessed or had knowledge of these war crimes. You must also believe that Kerry is a war criminal with the rest of us. You cannot pick him out from amongst us and make him the lone hero. His statements in his testimony were too vast; the wording he chose implicated everyone. If you do not believe that we went to Vietnam and committed mass murder, rape, torture and mutilations than you must believe that Kerry lied under oath. If he did indeed lie, he was helping the Communist defeat America, than you must see that he is a traitor to his nation and does not deserve to be the President. It is that simple. Either Vietnam Veterans are as a whole, war criminals with Kerry included or Kerry lied and is a traitor. Either or, you can’t have it both ways. Not this time. There was no confusion on his part when he made his accusations; he was neither merely mistaken nor overzealous in his youth. There were many fine men who fought in Vietnam who came home to protest the war because of the way it was being fought or because they did not want to see any more Americans die there. These men did not brand us all as war criminals as Kerry chose to do. Kerry calculated his words and actions, acted them out and told the lies. He knew at that time what he was doing and what the consequences would be. He knew that his words and actions were helping the NVA and he met with them after he came home from Vietnam. He has never apologized or has he recanted his testimony. He stands by it today as he did in 1971. So it is up to you. If Kerry is elected President we either have a self-confessed war criminal in the White House or a traitor in the White House. When it comes to Kerry being our President there is no other choice.
“Television was different. Its correspondents and cameramen, often at great risk, provided dramatic narrative and vivid, fleeting film snippets. They were allowed to explain to the audience more than they knew--or could possibly know. Their usual goal, then as since, was "impact"; this was especially misleading at Tet. Pundits in print or on television back home, like the US officials and their critics in Washington, were confronted by contradictions, ambiguities, and their own ignorance.”
- 'The News Media and the War in Vietnam - Myths and Realities' By Peter Braestrup
http://www.i-served.com/v-v-a-r.org/VietnamAndTheMedia_part03.html+
Without the slanted excess coverage of a biased news media, the few thousands of Vietnam anti-war protesters in a nation of over 200 million would have never succeeded nor would the false mythology of Vietnam have survived. When news cameras zeroed in on America’s campuses of that time they only focused on those few students who were demonstrating, while the majority of the students went about their academic routines unseen and unheard. When the protesters marched on Washington D.C., again they did not lack media exposure. Every news medium clamored to get the story and exploit its sensationalism. What was not seen, again, were the millions of Americans going about their daily lives, shaking their heads at these un-American activities. The news media and other protesters celebrated those very few Vietnam Veterans who joined their ranks like the coming of The Almighty Truth. Here were people who had been to Vietnam who had come home to speak out against the war. Every word these Veterans spoke was revered as if these men were all Christ incarnate. No one doubted a word they said; no one questioned their motivation or their harrowing gruesome tales of torture, rape and murder. For this was what these protesters and the media wanted to hear, it validated their beliefs, actions and their dogma. It must have been very heady stuff for the private, buck sergeant or a lieutenant, j.g. to have such celebrity and power over so many people and hanging on your every word. The only problem these Vets faced was how to keep up the interest. They learned quickly that to fuel the frenzy all that they needed were more lies, and the more outrageous the better. Again what the media did not show was the other two million plus Veterans who came home and did not protest. We other Vets had come home tired of war, but not believing that we or America had been wrong, nor were we willing to sell out our Country or our Brothers. Only a biased media could take these three groups of students, protesters, and anti-war Vets, representing such a very small percentage of their whole and make them look like an unstoppable force. Only a biased media could make them look like they and only they knew the truth of it all, while the vast majority of us, sharing the same experiences, were in the dark. Only a biased media could allow them to succeed and while the media at home sided with the protesters, some of their brethren in Vietnam followed this same course.
One such example in Vietnam is the case of the news media and the damaged planes during the siege at Khe Sanh and its airstrip. Khe Sanh was a remote Marine outpost, which was surrounded by elements of the NVA and VC who were determined to wipe out the Marines. The siege started on January 21, 1968 and ended on March 14, which coincided with the Tet Offensive. The Communists bombarded the base day and night and attacked many times, but the Marines held on. Being surrounded, the only way to re-supply the base was by air. Of course when the planes and helicopters would swoop down to land and unload the Communist increased the mortar, artillery and automatic and small arms fire on the base, with the hope of destroying the planes and helicopters. Hundreds of these re-supply missions were flown into the Marines at Khe Sanh. To their credit, there were also TV camera crews and reporters present. Of course with all these missions a C-130 was going to get destroyed sooner than later. When it happened and there was a lull in the fighting, these TV crews rushed out to get a film clip of their reporters standing in front of the burning plane, you know for effect as they say. These filmed reports went back to the world and showed up on the nightly news in America’s homes just in time for dinner. Always with a reporter telling how dismal the outcome of the battle was evolving for the Marines, how it was almost impossible to re-supply the base and without continued re-supply the Marines would not be able to hang on. Many times there was a reference comparing Khe Sanh with Dein Bein Fu, the ultimate French defeat in Vietnam. As you can see by the dates the siege lasted for almost three months and along with the Tet Offensive, it was all gloom and doom for the reporters and their reports going into the homes of America during the siege, always standing in front of burned out airplanes on the airstrip at Khe Sanh. To the people at home Khe Sanh was a disaster in the making. Night after night the troubling reports of the impending defeat of our Marines and the sight of all those wrecked airplanes came into their homes. But there were problems with these reports and the film footage. All those shots of the wrecked planes were of the same plane, just shot at different angles by the film crews. These different angles of the plane, whether on purpose or not, misled the people viewing these reports into believing that we were losing many planes at Khe Sanh. Although the Marines were in one hell of a fight and they suffered many hardships and ran short of everything, and the pilots of those planes and helicopters were braver than brave to be flying into this hell everyday, Khe Sanh was holding on. In all the planes made 480 re-supply flights into Khe Sanh but remarkably lost only 2 C-130’s and 3 C-123’s. When weather permitted the Marines in the hills surrounding Khe Sanh were re-supplied by CH-46 helicopters that would come in twelve at a time three times a day. Seventeen CH-46s were lost during the re-supply efforts. But there was only one C-130 that was sitting next to the airstrip at Khe Sanh. That was the one in all the filmed reports. By the end of the siege the media had already pronounced Khe Sanh was as good as gone, an American defeat. When the NVA pulled out and the siege was lifted to show it was an American victory, it received little or no press coverage. Varying estimates I have read list the Marine losses at around 250, other American servicemen at 500. While the NVA estimate is between 10,000 to 15,000 dead and the Marines still held Khe Sanh. NVA General Giap would say that his waste of troops at Khe Sanh was his biggest mistake. But the Americans back home would not be told that The Siege of Khe Sanh was an American victory. The American media had already moved on.
There are so many images of that time of war that have stayed with us over the years, maybe none more so than the picture of a 9-year-old Vietnamese girl named Kim Phuc. Photographer Nick Ut captured the child running naked down the road after she had ripped off her burning clothes. Her village of Trang Bang, that had been a battleground between NLF and South Vietnamese forces for three days, had been hit by a napalm strike in June of 1972. She was badly burned and as she ran down the road away from her village she cried, “Nong qua! Nong qua!”(“Too hot! Too hot!”) To his credit Ut dropped his camera after he took the picture and commandeered a vehicle to rush young Kim to a hospital, where her life was saved. When the picture of this horrible scene was published it soon became the ultimate condemnation of America in Vietnam. Even though there were no American forces present at the battle and it had been a Vietnamese plane that had mistakenly dropped the napalm on the villagers and its own ARVN forces. The reporters present had reported correctly in their initial reports, that no American forces were involved in the battle. Yet the story behind the picture, which spread across America and the rest of the World, was that American forces had burned little Kim. Later someone would add to the story false reports that nerve gas had been used in the village, it would become part of the legend. Ut was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for the picture and years later he would move to America and become a U.S. citizen, while Kim is now a Canadian citizen. In 1996 Kim Phuc was invited to speak on Veteran’s day at The Wall, her visit there coincided with a soon to be released Canadian documentary of her life. In her short speech, she never mentioned anything about forgiving America but said that if she would ever meet the pilot who had been responsible for her burns during the war, she would tell him it was part of history now. To some in the media and the makers of her documentary her sole purpose for being at The Wall was to forgive America. After her speech and away from the crowd, an American minister, who had served in Vietnam, confessed that he had been the officer who had ordered the air strike on Trang Bang and he would accept her forgiveness. Even though it had been reported accurately in 1972 that no Americans were involved in Kim’s bombing, American newspapers headlines were filled with her forgiveness of the American who had ordered the attack. Later the A&E Network would run the documentary with the misleading byline, “The American Commander Who Ordered The Bombing.” It was all a hoax. It would be proven that the Veteran minister could not have ordered the strike. Yet A&E would not retract its documentary and it has been shown more than once on their channel. Vietnam Veteran Ronald Timberlake, Major, U.S. Army, Retired, a man who was foremost in outing this scam, said of the minister:
“His story was that of the stereotypically troubled Vietnam Veterans. A divorced alcoholic. A failure at so much in life. Recently remarried and called to the Ministry. And now saved by the "forgiveness" of "his victim". With that terrible burden of guilt lifted from his overburdened shoulders. That stereotype fit what Americans have come to expect to hear about Vietnam veterans.”
Many in America and the World, still believe that American forces were responsible for the napalm that burned the little girl in the picture. There seems to be no end to the myths of Vietnam, no matter what proof you present. It can be argued, that Nick Ut’s picture is the most famous image to come out of the war in Vietnam. Likewise it can also be argued, that the most famous image to come out of WW II was Joe Rosenthal’s photo of the Marine flag raising on Iwo Jima. Both won the photographer the Pulitzer Prize and captured images of an American war that remains forever in the viewer’s consciousness. Both pictures have been fogged with controversy. But while Rosenthal’s picture has become famous for the bravery of America’s fight for freedom. Ut’s picture has falsely become famous for America’s inhumanity. Even though no American’s were involved. In the eyes of the World, how far we had fallen in just twenty-seven years.
Kerry: Part Three
“Copyright 2004. Michael E. Tank All rights reserved. No part of this document may be copied, faxed, electronically transmitted, or in any other manner duplicated without express written permission of the author.”
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