Why John Kerry turned against the Vietnam War

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | Sunday, March 7, 2004 | Gerald Nicosia

[secretagent]

Bobby Muller, the paraplegic Vietnam veteran and former Marine lieutenant who founded Vietnam Veterans of America and later won a Nobel Prize for the campaign to eliminate land mines, once told me that he had asked thousands of Vietnam vets about their views about the war.

[secretagent]

The URL has "archive" in it, so I don't know how old this piece really is. It has a current publication date.

Nicosia states that the Winter Soldier Investigation turned Kerry changed Kerry's mind on the frequency of US atrocities in Vietnam.

[secretagent]

Nicosia and the Chronicle doing their part to keep the WSI prominent.

[muawiyah]

He was a young man in those days, and typically young men simply do not believe that people develop insanity and tell us about their visions. He probably didn't understand very well about the use of hallucinogenic drugs.

On the other hand, Algore knew that part really well!

Kerry had the resources and presumably the intelligence to go seek other sources. Instead he bought into Bobby Muller's nonsense, probably because the guy is tied down to a wheelchair.

On an issue this serious, you sometimes have to say to yourself "gee, the guy in the wheelchair could be right, but what if he has a secret agenda". Kerry didn't. He's one of those guys who makes the worst sort of boss ~ you know the one ~ last person he talked to had God's own truth!

[VadeRetro]

Kerry totally opposed the event because, at the time, he did not believe Americans had committed any atrocities in Vietnam, beyond the notorious massacre of 500 Vietnamese women and children at My Lai.

But he was involved anyway and I believe was a speaker at the event. And if the quoted sentence is true then his testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was all hearsay, a thing he forgot to mention.

[Mike Darancette]

Kerry was anti-war before he went into the Navy, even writing tracts while in Yale.

[secretagent]

Kerry supposedly got turned around on atrocities because of the "Winter Soldier Investigation".

I don't think Muller had anything to do with that. According to Nicosia's "Home to War", Muller kept his distance from the protests those days.

[billhilly]

While Kerry, Fonda and their symphatizers did succeed in terminating the Vietnam war, and in the process, the lives of millions of Southeast Asians, not to mention thousands of american GIs, it was worthwhile to them, because it propelled their careers.

These days we see the same things at play. The 3,000 American deaths in New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 are once again the personal playground of John Kerry. His media apparatus, his wife's wealth, and the zeal of his Left Wing Bush haters are busy at work trying, once again, to show what a horrible country the United States of America is.

[Brilliant]

Why? I'm sure it's because he saw anti-war activism as a springboard to power.

[secretagent]

Although anti-war, Kerry had a huge perception shift because of the "Winter Soldier Investigation".

For a critical look at the WSI, see FR's wintersoldier.com:

http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/

FR's Hon also keeps track of Kerry's WSI days.

[muawiyah]

Could be, but that didn't mean he wasn't influenced by Muller indirectly.

Remember our first parade when we dedicated The Wall? VVAW was at the tail end of the parade.

I ended up there because my adrenalin kicked in and I just had to shoot about 20 rolls of 35 mm film trying to get everybody in the parade. Really exciting day for me. There I was, at the tail end, and there were the VVAW guys, and I knew a bunch of them. They weren't any angrier about it than I was. We all wanted to take McNamara out then and hold a trial and see if somebody would waste some rope.

The "Winter Soldier" crowd was long gone by then. Muller was rolling around somewhere although I didn't get to meet him. THere were some other wheelchair guys around who seemed to be well known to a lot of folks.

Didn't see Kerry though. Where was Kerry? Only politician there was John Warner.

Guess Kerry only comes around when there are some crazy vets telling stories about their visions.

[optimistically_conservative]

Funny she doesn't mention that Hubbard was proven a fraud, as well as many of those Kerry claimed to have "grilled" and validated "bona fides".

"There were enough bona fides in many of these people: you saw their DD- 214s (discharge forms), you know where they'd served, you could talk to them and see the anguish -- you could cut through what was bull and what wasn't. And it was a very, very heavy, difficult kind of thing to listen to. And it was painful."

[secretagent]

I don't know the motivations of Kerry, but I suspect "moral agonizing" in front of millions has something to do with it.

While Kerry, Fonda and their symphatizers did succeed in terminating the Vietnam war, and in the process, the lives of millions of Southeast Asians, not to mention thousands of american GIs, it was worthwhile to them, because it propelled their careers.

Kerry doesn't want to debate the aftermath, I bet.

[secretagent]

Why? I'm sure it's because he saw anti-war activism as a springboard to power.

Hard to deny that motive.

[secretagent]

You're right that Nicosia doesn't mention Hubbard's debunking in this article. He (not she) does mention it in his book "Home To War".

I differ with you on the WSI witnesses having any proven frauds. I haven't seen any yet, although it wouldn't surprise me if some get uncovered.

Debunking the WSI would cause quite a stir.

[secretagent]

You were there. Have you considered writing a letter to FR's own wintersoldier.com?

http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/

They might have a role in the coming election, and beyond.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

"They (American troops) had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads,.....

Note that this was hearsay testimony........Kerry telling what others said, not what he had seen.

I don't hear the press make this point made very often.

[Republic If You Can Keep It]

Make that:

"I don't hear the press make this point very often."

(Sorry)

[moonman]

Thanks for thr post.

After reading his article, I'm asking .... Heh? Where is Paul Harvey's 'The Rest Of The story'?

[secretagent]

("Kerry totally opposed the event because, at the time, he did not believe Americans had committed any atrocities in Vietnam, beyond the notorious massacre of 500 Vietnamese women and children at My Lai.")

But he was involved anyway and I believe was a speaker at the event. And if the quoted sentence is true then his testimony in front of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee was all hearsay, a thing he forgot to mention.

I disagree that he mislead the SFR Committee into believeing that he had personally witnessed the Calley-like crimes.

He cited others, the witnesses at the WSI, as his source for the gruesome atrocity allegations.

[VadeRetro]

You could be right. I was working from memory of what I'd seen posted.