Cleland was a “ hero” for his actions that earned the Silver Star. No question about it.
Kerry was very brave in the face of enemy fire so I’ll give him his due. However, it is the fudging of the stories about how he got “three” purples hearts is the heart of the problem. He lied about them or exaggerated about them.
He also lied about his commission of an accidential killing of a Vietnamese woman and her son on a boat, and covered it up.
He lied about what happened at Bay Hap River (and how he left a man behind). Much of this is in the book “Unfit for Command” by O’Neil and Corsi (I did some research for the book), and more is found in the follow-up book “Setting the Record Straight” by Scott Swett, son of a Vietnam vet and Tim Ziegler, a Viet vet).
Kerry was “no officer and gentleman.” He was an opportunist who advanced his own career at the expense of better men he betrayed in Vietnam, and then of all the Vietnam Veterans he betrayed on Television in April, 1971.
Also, his illegal contacts with the VC and No. Vietnamese in Paris constituted treason, and eventually this will catch up with Mr. Heinz.
Remember, Benedict Arnold was a “hero” before he became a “traitor.”
[Cleland should be left alone. He was more honest about his injury than was the mass media].
Madmax - Nam journalist
I'll leave him alone all he wants. I quoted his own words in that post that he wasn't a hero, and he reiterated that he was injured while picking up a live grenade. Did you click on that link? It Ann Coulter's response to the damnable lies the MSM perpetuated (and still seem to perpetuate, this is May 2009 right) about Cleland.
Amen to your facts about Kerry - and thanks to the Swift Boat and POWs for Truth, he was exposed (again, despite the MSM).
He was more honest about his injury than was the mass media.
That's why I included his quote in the link to the Ann Coulter piece.
Here we have an article, written this week, where another member of the MSM calls Cleland a "war hero" in order to defend a viscous, predatory, horrible pedophile. How do they choose to do that?
They falsely strut out a Democrat who they have constantly misrepresented for years as a "hero."
This nonsense has to stop, and when the MSM does it, they have to be called on it.
Not that is seems to be doing much good. The embarrassment of the press in this country is hard to achieve when that very press corps is shameless.