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The truth about Kerry, part 3 John Kerry boasts that he volunteered to serve in Vietnam and volunteered for dangerous Swift Boat duty. But, as most things with John Kerry, the truth tells a different story. The truth is Kerry despised the war before his involvement in it, and his draft status prompted him to join the U.S. Navy Reserve as the least likely option to take him to Vietnam. Unlucky for him, his unit was activated and he was sent to Vietnam. Kerry volunteered for Swift Boat duty when they were used for relatively safe work on the high seas. Unlucky for him again, soon after he volunteered the Navy ordered Swift Boats into the rivers and canals of Vietnam to search and destroy the enemy. Kerry found himself in the close contact combat he tried to avoid. Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with joining the Reserves or the National Guard; that is important service. And I have no quarrel with Kerry’s selecting lower risk duty; that is completely rational. But he cannot help but promote himself with false claims. Kerry spins his false testimony to the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee on pervasive U.S. atrocities in Vietnam as helping to end the war and save lives. But there is plenty of evidence Kerry and the radical anti-war left prolonged the war and encouraged the enemy that was killing America’s sons. North Vietnamese General Giap tells of times our enemy was near defeat, but encouraged by the U.S. anti-war movement to redouble their efforts and rebuild their forces. Our former enemy now tells us of a formal program they had called “Dich Van,” meaning, “Action among the enemy,” to funnel resources and support to the anti-war movement in the U.S. They knew they could not defeat the U.S. on the battlefield but said they would win the war on the streets of New York. Kerry helped them do just that. Kerry’s antics did not bode well for our POWs. I’ll tell you about two of them I am proud to say are my friends. Mike Benge, now living in Falls Church, Va., was a civilian economic development officer in Vietnam’s Central Highlands working on water projects when he was taken prisoner in 1968. Of his five years in captivity, Mike spent a year in a small cage in Cambodia, a year in a “black box” in Hanoi and 27 months in solitary confinement. Mike clearly remembers hearing John Kerry’s voice for the first time on the camp’s propaganda loudspeaker, testifying to the U.S. Senate and accusing U.S. troops of widespread atrocities. Mike was stunned that an American could be so irresponsible to tell such tales. When Ho Chi Minh died in late 1969, the worst physical torture of our POWs stopped after power shifted and policy changed. It seems our enemy expected America to withdraw sooner or later and did not want our POWs to bear the physical evidence of torture when released. Jim Warner, a prominent corporate attorney living in Maryland’s East Shore, was a Marine jet pilot, shot down over North Vietnam and a POW for six years. For three of those years they tortured him mercilessly, and like the others he held out as long as he could before signing false confessions. As any of the POWs will tell you, they found that each of them had a different breaking point, but every man breaks sooner or later. In the spring of 1971, over a year after the torture had stopped, Jim was in a place they called “Skid Row” along with John McCain and a group of 35 other POWs taken out of the “Hanoi Hilton” for special treatment as “troublemakers.” Jim tells of the relentless interrogations in Skid Row, the constant demands to confess to war crimes. Jim’s blood ran cold with fear and disbelief one day when his interrogator showed him newspaper reports of John Kerry testifying before the U.S. Senate about pervasive U.S. atrocities in Vietnam. When his captor told him this former U.S. Navy officer says the war is immoral, he says you deserve to be punished, Jim feared the worst. Jim said you don’t know what fear is until you’ve been tortured and expect it again. While the North Vietnamese brutalized our POWs, Kerry’s radical left anti-war group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), was suspected of coordinating their activities with the enemy. The only direct evidence was Kerry’s 1971 purported honeymoon trip to Paris, during which he met with the enemy in violation of U.S. law, and in violation of the Uniform Code of Military Justice since he was still a U.S. Naval Reserve officer. Fortunately for Kerry, and later for Jane Fonda, there was no political will at the time to prosecute treasonous activities related to the Vietnam War. The same week Kerry told his famous lies to the U.S. Senate, he dishonored his medals by publicly throwing them over a fence labeled “trash” at the Capitol. Years later when a reporter discovered Kerry’s medals displayed on his Washington, D.C., office wall, Kerry explained he threw away someone else’s medals that day, not his own, as if that mended everything. Now in his political campaigns he claims pride in those medals and the service for which he told the U.S. Senate he was ashamed. A reasonable person might wonder if all this could be attributed to youthful indiscretions long ago, political passion mixed with the naivete of a young activist. If that were true I would not be writing this. Kerry stands by his actions and says he is proud of his record. But when he now talks about Vietnam he tips his hand to those who fought in that war that he is a shameless fraud. Kerry takes advantage of an unknowing TV viewing audience as he explains how terrible Vietnam was because of “Free Fire Zones,” and talking heads who don’t know better take the bait in horrified wonder about zones where U.S. troops were free to shoot women, children, anything that moved, thereby bringing to life another Kerry lie. Here’s the truth. In Vietnam we had to have permission from higher authority by radio before firing at the enemy unless they fired first, and as a result the enemy often escaped. A designated free fire zone, by contrast, was an area of known enemy activity and few noncombatants. In a free fire zone we were allowed to use our own judgment if and when to fire, but even in a free fire zone intentionally killing noncombatants was still a war crime. Kerry tells similar tales about “U.S. abuses” such as harassment and interdiction fire (truth: using artillery to keep the enemy awake at night), search and destroy missions (truth: find the enemy and engage him) and firing .50 caliber machine guns at enemy personnel (truth: we shot at them with any weapon we had). To the uninformed TV viewer, Kerry looks and sounds earnest in his belief these things are morally wrong, but as Kerry knows they are just fundamental tactics and tools of war. If Kerry took a different approach and said war is a dirty, nasty business, I would agree with him. But Kerry prefers to twist the truth to promote himself by deceiving those blessed with little knowledge of war. If you are young and still with me here, you probably started wondering earlier why you should care about Kerry’s ancient history in Vietnam. The answer is that when you examine his record to find the betrayal and fraud long ago, it is not so hard to discover he still completely misrepresents who he is. In Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign he claimed to be strong on defense and national security. Such a claim could be high comedy if not so sad since Kerry has one of the worst records on defense in the U.S. Senate. While Ronald Reagan was staring down the Soviet Union, Kerry was publicly arguing for unilateral U.S. disarmament. He has opposed the military at almost every turn. Over the years Kerry has voted against the B-1 Bomber, the B-2 Stealth Bomber, the F-14, the F-15, the F-16, the AV-8B Harrier Vertical Takeoff And Landing Jet Fighter, the AH-64 Apache Helicopters, the Patriot Missile, the Aegis Air Defense Cruiser, the Trident Missile System for U.S. Submarines, the M-1 Abrams Tank, the Bradley Fighting Vehicle the Tomahawk Cruise Missile and other important weapon systems. In 1994 Kerry’s attempts to gut defense and intelligence spending brought the fierce opposition even of senators in his own party. There is one thing consistent about John Kerry – he is never who he says he is. Anyone who considers voting for John Kerry deserves to know the truth they will never hear from him, and the mainstream media did a poor job presenting the truth about Kerry in 2004. Perhaps they will do better this time. In 2004 a group of former POWs produced a video titled “Stolen Honor,” to tell you their opinion of John Kerry. But you never saw the video because Kerry’s gaggle of lawyers managed to intimidate theater owners and cable outlets to prevent its showing before the election. Whether you are a Democrat or Republican, whether you believe or doubt what I have told you, do yourself a favor and order your own copy of “Stolen Honor” from the Web site www.stolenhonor.com. If there is any group that deserves to be heard, it is our POWs who endured years of misery on our behalf. Listen to them before you decide what to believe about Kerry. As for me, I will oppose John Kerry for any office because his disgraceful past and fraudulent character disqualify him, in my view, for any office at all, from president to dogcatcher, whether Democrat or Republican. login to post comments | Terry Garlock's blog
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