Posted on 08/20/2004 8:49:30 AM PDT by votelife
Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2004 12:35 p.m. EST McCain: Hanoi Hilton Guards Taunted POWs With Kerry's Testimony
These days, former Vietnam War POW Sen. John McCain has nothing but praise for his fellow Vietnam veteran Sen. John Kerry, the Democrats' current presidential front-runner.
But after he was released from the Hanoi Hilton in 1973, McCain publicly complained that testimony by Kerry and others before J. William Fulbright's Senate Foreign Relations Committee was "the most effective propaganda [my North Vietnamese captors] had to use against us."
"They used Senator Fulbright a great deal," McCain wrote in the May 14, 1973, issue of U.S. News & World Report. While he was languishing in a North Vietnamese prison cell, Kerry was telling the Fulbright committee that U.S. soldiers were committing war crimes in Vietnam as a matter of course.
Sen. Ted Kennedy, a key Kerry presidential backer, was "quoted again and again" by jailers at the Hanoi Hilton, McCain said.
"Clark Clifford was another [North Vietnamese] favorite," the ex-POW told U.S. News, "right after he had been Secretary of Defense under President Johnson."
"When Ramsey Clark came over [my jailers] thought that was a great coup for their cause," McCain recalled. Months earlier, Sen. Kerry had appeared with Clark at the April 1971 Washington, D.C., anti-war protest that showcased his testimony before the Fulbright Committee.
"All through this period," wrote McCain, his captors were "bombarding us with anti-war quotes from people in high places back in Washington. This was the most effective propaganda they had to use against us."
McCain biographer Paul Alexander chronicled the Arizona Republican's anger toward Kerry during their early careers in the Senate together.
"For many years McCain held Kerry's actions against him because, while McCain was a POW in the Hanoi Hilton, Kerry was organizing veterans back home in the U.S. to protest the war."
In his 2002 book, "Man of the People: The Life of John McCain," Alexander says that the two Vietnam vets finally reconciled in the early 1990s after having "a long - and at times emotional - conversation about Vietnam" during a mutual trip to Kuwait.
Later, Kerry sought to minimize the rift, telling Alexander: "Our differences occurred when we were kids, or at least close to being kids. It was a long time ago, and we both came back and realized that there were a lot of difficulties in the prosecution of that war."
NewsMax gratefully acknowledges the help of U.S. Veteran Dispatch editor Ted Sampley for supplying McCain's revealing 1973 account in U.S. News.
hmm mcain should have been in the ad..LOL...
Bush surrogates should be shouting this from the rooftops.
McCain could be in a future ad? Though it would have to be against his will most likely.
Too bad McCain wasn't in the newly released ad. He must not have given his permission.
So let's e-mail this article around to our address books and make sure the word gets out.
McCain's boxed in.
My momma used to say that the Devil can quote scripture.
My thoughts, exactly.....it's going to be pretty hard for McCain to try to "one-up" these guys, P.O.W.'s all!! Just think of the guts it took for these Swifties to come forward to tell the truth and get it all out there, all the horrible memories their stories must have evoked!!!! God Bless you guys, we are behind you 1000%!!!!!!
Don't change article titles. One of FR's rules.
the Devil quotes scripture when he tempts Jesus in the desert. Your momma was right!
didn't know that was a rule, won't do it again.
mccain is so demented by now anything he has to say is nonsense, the pubbies should purge him and toss him to the demoncraps
I wonder what John Kerry's definition of kids is! Senator Kerry was born in December 1943, making him 25 during his Vietnam service time and 27 when, in 1971, he was badmouthing and lying about what was going on in Vietnam. Kerry was 29 when McCain was released!
Kids???
Good. What happens when you rewrite the title is that another poster may do a search on the article, not find the real title, and post another thread on the original; causes the article to be posted twice, wasting bandwidth.
~</:o)
well, McCain is one of the big speakers at the Bush convention. He'll really be on the spot now at the convention.
bttt
The way the Swifties have been prepared for this onslaught amazes me. They were ready, armed and waiting. They only needed Kerry and others to respond. Now that they have, we're seeing their response and it's really brilliant.
Then why numbnuts do you appear indifferent as to who becomes president? Why do you constantly pop up and protect the libs when you shouldnt? WHy do you muddy the water little man? You are truely a suedo conservative Jessie Jackson..Im getting tired of hearing and seeing you on the public stage. Go get a real job lil' hero.
very cool. At this point, I think donating to the Swift Boats is even better than donating to Bush.
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