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There is a large group of "walking dead" in our midst . . . and I cannot get them off my mind and heart. We ignored them once, and I pray we won't do it again. If this past presidential election did nothing more than bring to the fore a story that we've not heard . . . we cannot in good conscience ignore it. One, lone soldier, told his story several years ago, and we listened with "bated breath." But recently when the other side of the story was told, we slightly turned our heads and called it politics....

Nov. 15 issue - The attack of the swift boat vets did not catch the Kerry campaign by surprise, not entirely at least. Kerry's operatives had worried from the beginning that some right-wing group would try to use his old Vietnam antiwar speeches against him. In the summer of 2003 the Kerry campaign had quietly made some inquiries with C-Span, asking the cable network not to release old videotapes of Kerry as an angry young vet fulminating about war crimes and atrocities. Portions of his sometimes overwrought testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1971 could be twisted into...

Honor to the Soldier, and Sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country's cause. Honor also to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field, and serves, as he best can, the same cause - honor to him, only less than to him, who braves, for the common good, the storms of heaven and the storms of battle. -- President Abraham Lincoln, December 2, 1863 In 1971, a Vietnam veteran wrote a speech defending the honor of the servicemen and women who served in that war and its surrounding theaters of operation. He hoped to present it before Congress,...

For three years as a Military Police Lieutenant Colonel, I was assigned to Headquarters U.S. Army, Criminal Investigation Command, Washington DC. From Dec. 1971 to Jan. 1975 I was responsible for monitoring all war crime investigations conducted by the CID. On Apr 22, 1971 Lieutenant (jg), John F. Kerry, USNR, testified to a Senate Committee concerning supposed war crime atrocities committed by U.S. Military Personnel. He claimed that we: raped; tortured; acted "in a fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan"; murdered 200,000 each year; and were "more guilty than any other body" of violating the Geneva Convention. The U.S. Navy Criminal...

All, Today's Des Moines Register includes an interview with John Kerry. We can't post from the Register on FR, so I'm writing this up as a vanity. At one point the reporters ask him, "What are the main mistakes you’ve made during your time in public office?" Kerry actually proposes broadening the question to include the period before he entered public office, saying "Oh, gosh. Can I include before I got in? Because that was a big mistake. I mean, how I got in was a mistake." After digressing a bit (to take a shot at Justice Scalia), Kerry explains...

Maine advertisers pull ad over station’s airing of Kerry film PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Several businesses have pulled advertising from WGME-TV in response to the station’s plan to televise a critical documentary about John Kerry’s anti-Vietnam War activities. The Lee Auto Malls, and the law offices of Joe Bornstein withdrew their advertising indefinitely, according to the Portland Press Herald. Hannaford supermarkets also decided to withdraw advertising, but it reversed its position on Friday. "We recognize that WGME has been placed in an untenable position," spokeswoman Caren Epstein said in a statement. "It was never our intention to politicize this issue...

Federal News Service APRIL 25, 1991, THURSDAY HEADLINE: HEARING OF THE EAST ASIAN AND PACIFIC AFFAIRS SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE SUBJECT: PROSPECTS FOR NORMALIZATION OF US-VIETNAMESE RELATIONS CHAIRED BY: SENATOR ALAN CRANSTON (D-CA) SEN. CRANSTON: It's now my pleasure to call on Senator John Kerry, who has been a leader in this area as in so many others. And it was a special reason and background for his deep interest in a more sensible policy toward Vietnam. John? SEN. JOHN KERRY (D-MA): Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this hearing which you and I talked...

Those who dismiss critics of John Kerry's Vietnam service as just a bunch of right-wing Republicans out to advance George W. Bush's cause don't know what they are talking about -- or they are engaged in wishful thinking. Okay, I may have once thought that about the critics, too. But after poring over the large volume of e-mail I received after my Aug. 28 column, "What Matters About Kerry and Vietnam," I don't any longer .....Bill Clinton appointed Coleman to the Pentagon post, in which he served from 1994 to 1998. Somehow, despite our running into each other over the...

VIETNAM WAR VETERAN JOHN KERRY'S TESTIMONY BEFORE THE SENATE FOREIGN RELATIONS COMMITTEE, APRIL 22, 1971 Editorial Notes by Dr. Ernest Bolt, University of Richmond   By April 1971, with at least seven legislative proposals relating to the Vietnam war under consideration, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee chaired by Senator William Fulbright (Democrat-Arkansas) began to hear testimony. On the third day of hearings, six members of the committee heard comments by John Kerry, a leader of the major veterans organization opposing continuation of the war. Kerry was the only representative of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) who testified on April...

They told the stories at times they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.

I am looking for sites with videos of Kerry’s testimony to congress in 1971and 72 and any other videos from around the same time. Links to sites will help me with a discussion I’m having with my wife. She hasn’t seen any of them. If good responses are received, this may very well become a single location for all Freepers to collect good web sites on this topic.

Just wondering: Matthews' Hardball segment on 9/9/04 suggested in part that Kerry's testimony didn't really affect the fate of currently held POWs. Even tho that appears to some (like Matthews) as debatable, I'm not so sure it can't be proved that Kerry's testimony did affect their treatment and did affect Nixon's plans to get them home earlier than '73. The National Advertising Council agreed to create and distribute print and radio ads entitled "Send a letter to Hanoi" some time in '71. The idea was to highlight the request of the families, the government and the International Committee of the...

Every time I have heard the replay of Kerry's testimony I am galled as much by Kerry's phony accent as by what he says. Does this bother anyone else? When talks about see "atrocities" and committing "atrocities." Just the delivery makes me want to commit an atrocity.

TIGER FORCE - Ex-officer may face justice for atrocities - Army lawyer calls for war-crime charge By JOE MAHR, BLADE STAFF WRITER Three decades after an Army platoon repeatedly executed unarmed civilians and prisoners in Vietnam, a military lawyer has recommended the unit's former commander be brought up on a war-crime charge. In what would be an unprecedented event, retired Maj. James Hawkins could face a military court-martial regarding his actions commanding a platoon known as Tiger Force that killed hundreds of unarmed men, women, and children 37 years ago, The Blade has learned. As the scope of war crimes...

...we are probably angriest about all that we were told about Vietnam and about the mystical war against communism. We found most people didn't even know the difference between communism and democracy. ...if you read carefully the President's last speech to the people of this country, you can see that he says, and says clearly: "But the issue, gentlemen,the issue is communism, and the question is whether or not we will leave that country to the Communists or whether or not we will try to give it hope to be a free people." But the point is they are not...

Click here to watch the video of the testimony. Click here for the audio. Transcript Thanks to Orange and White Video for digitizing and Short Consulting for the hosting. Anyone else wanting to mirror the files, feel free to contact me. Cross-posted: Our Life

Vietnam veteran-turned-military analyst Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney said Thursday that John Kerry's 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee portraying Vietnam soldiers as "monsters" would have been consider ground for treason charges in an earlier day. "There is deep, deep anger for a man who, if he had done this during World War II, would have been tried for treason," McInerney told ABC Radio's John Batchelor. Noting that two of his brothers also served in Vietnam, where one died, McInerney said, "He betrayed us . . . He betrayed not only my personal family but my [West Point] classmates...

(CNSNews.com) - Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry's 34-year-old testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee will be broadcast Thursday night at 8 pm Eastern time on C-Span.   See schedule

STILL USEFUL AFTER ALL THESE YEARS [Ramesh Ponnuru] The Vietnamese government used Kerry's 1971 testimony as evidence of American war crimes--two months ago. (See the sixth paragraph.) http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/2004-06/10/Stories/16.htm

Please excuse if this notice is posted in the wrong place. FYI - Interesting stuff.

On C-SPAN at 8:00 P.M. & 11:05 P.M. EDT

Here is the John Kerry Testimony including questions.(John Kerry Testimony) Here is the Testimony in .pdf formatTestimony pdf

Vietnam-era POWs are lining up to join the Swift Boat Veterans in attacking John Kerry’s readiness to lead the country. The POWs are breaking their silence on how John Kerry’s controversial anti-war activities -- particularly his testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee -- were used to torment them while in captivity. The extent and fallout of Kerry’s anti-war activities are outlined in Unfit for Command, the fast-selling new book by John O’Neill and Jerry Corsi. (Human Events Online reported yesterday the book will vault onto the top of the New York Times Bestseller’s list on 9/5/04.) A...

Swift Boat Vets ads will air at 8:01 ET, followed by his full and complete testimony..

I heard on Bill Bennett's radio show this a.m. that CSPAN will televise John Kerry's 1971 appearance in it's entirety before the Senate at 8:00PM tonight.

.......Many of those who condemn Kerry for opposing the Vietnam War are too young to have been politically aware during that period. The rest are fighting very old battles. But the fact is that the argument over Vietnam was settled long ago, and a majority of Americans decided that Kerry was right. Members of the Swift boat group and like-minded Americans are free to try to re-litigate the basic Vietnam question. They say, from the comfortable perspective of 2004, that the antiwar movement emboldened the enemy and thus lengthened the war. That's their premise: We could have won the war...

Text of John F. Kerry's testimony before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on April 22, 1971.

"May 18,1971"--(Evil Exists) April 22, 1971 -- John Kerry testifies on behalf of the VVAW before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs. He claims that American soldiers had "personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan..." ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Every action produces a reaction. It's simple really.......... ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ You couldn't really call it a village. I'm not really sure what you would call it. It was just a collection of lean-to's...tents...

In the Vietnamese Communist War Remnants Museum (formerly known as the "War Crimes Museum") in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), a photograph of John Kerry hangs in a room dedicated to the anti-war activists who helped the Vietnamese Communists win the Vietnam War. The photograph shows Senator Kerry being greeted by the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Do Muoi. Senator Kerry may argue today that his anti-war protests did not render support to the enemy in time of war and that his activities did not violate the definition of treason given in Article III, Section 3,...

Kerry Lied......Good Men Died!! In sworn testimony before a Senate committee, John Kerry falsely accused American soldiers of atrocities in VietNam. He also admitted that HE committed atrocities in VietNam. If Kerry lied to Congress, he should be held in contempt, and charged with perjury. If he told the truth he should be arrested and court martialed. Read his entire testimony, and make sure you vote in the poll: Should a man who falsely accused American troops of atrocities be Commander-In-Chief?? The hypocracy of John Kerry is staggering..........

A new, 40-page (148K bytes) PDF of John Kerry's 1971 Senate testimony has been posted at WinterSoldier. The PDF is also blogged at my weblog. Unlike the widely publicized PDF of images of the Congressional Record pages, this one is neat, clean, and legible.

<p>Discrete facts, to say nothing of truth, have a rough time in presidential campaigns.</p> <p>When Sen. John Kerry called President Bush's supporters "the most crooked lying group I've ever seen," his campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter said Mr. Kerry didn't regret his words and then accused the "Republican attack machine" for smearing the Democrats. Such exchanges may be par for the course in a hotly contested presidential race, but overheated rhetoric may not be Mr. Kerry's most grievous fault.</p>

Thank you very much, Senator Fulbright, Senator Javits, Senator Symington and Senator Pell. I would like to say for the record, and also for the men sitting behind me who are also wearing the uniforms and their medals, that my sitting here is really symbolic. I am not here as John Kerry. I am here as one member of a group of 1,000, which is a small representation of a very much larger group of veterans in this country, and were it possible for all of them to sit at this table, they would be here and have the same...

An Open Letter to John KerryBy Larry PurdyFrontPageMagazine.com | March 26, 2004 Benedict Arnold was a war hero, wounded in battle---before he turned against his country.  Hitler        was likewise a decorated and wounded veteran of the First World War.  Being a war hero is not a lifetime . . . exempt[ion] . . . from responsibility for what you do thereafter. -- Thomas Sowell. [1]Not that long ago you wrote a letter to President Bush in which you accused him of reopening the wounds of the Vietnam war for “personal political gain.”  Putting aside the stunning hypocrisy of your claim in view...

From B. G Burkett's great book, "Stolen Valor," pp. 130-138:The TribunalsOn January 31, 1971, an organization called Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) convened what came to be known as the Winter Soldier Investigation. Some of the major organizers included Jane Fonda, Dick Gregory, Phil Ochs, Graham Nash, David Crosby, and actor Donald Sutherland. For four days in a hotel in Detroit, "veteran" after veteran told grisly tales of horror of using prisoners for target practice and throwing them out of helicopters, of cutting off the ears of dead VC, of burning vil­lages and gang-raping women. Lawyer and activist Mark...