John Kerry and the Politics of Betrayal
E P I L O G U E
ADVANTAGE SWIFT VETS
In the concluding pages of Unfit for Command, we noted that our concerns about Kerry focused on the question of character and our conclusions were that Senator Kerry was unfit to be commander in chief. We believe Senator Kerry broke the trust indispensable to successful command and we expressed our concern that the pattern we had observed with Kerry’s history regarding the Vietnam War would only be played out again in the context of today’s international crises.
John Kerry undoubtedly calculated he could have it both ways — for those who wanted to see a war hero, he could tout his decorations — for those who were anti-war, he could point to his role as spokesperson for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War. What John Kerry never calculated fully was that a great number of the men and women who served in Vietnam simply wouldn’t buy the story. 37
To the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth, John Kerry was a betrayer, plain and simple. He betrayed the over two million men and women who served honorably in Vietnam when he testified to Senator Fulbright’s committee in April 1971 that they were the army of Ghengis Khan, committing war crimes on a daily basis, with their atrocities completely approved up and down the chain of command.
John Kerry wanted to be a war hero of a war he said was immoral. The self-contradiction implied in that statement never seemed to bother him. Put simply, he wanted to be an honored member of a select club, even though he insulted the club’s members and claimed to the world that the club itself had no legitimate moral authority.
Unfortunately for John Kerry, the most memorable speech of his life may prove to be one of his first, his 1971 testimony before Senator Fulbright’s committee. There he sat in street-theater military fatigues, claiming that the Vietnam War was a mistake, that the United States was a colonial power interfering in a civil war, that we were in Vietnam not to win a victory against godless communism but to protect a corrupt regime and a puppet dictator in South Vietnam.
John Kerry in that April 1971 testimony asked his most memorable public question: “How do you ask a man to be the last to die for a mistake?” But we know many comrades who died there who would count the trade of their lives for freedom as a fair bargain. Perhaps the ultimate mistake was his. To run for president with his Vietnam “war hero” story as the central pillar of his campaign invited the criticism that his true legacy was that of a Judas, a betrayer, who abandoned his brothers-in-arms on the field of battle and denigrated their honor once he secured the safety of home.
If the past is to be taken as prologue to the future, the parallels between John Kerry’s anti-administration rhetoric on Iraq today and his war-protest rhetoric of 1971 must be taken seriously. For Senator Kerry, terrorists are a nuisance, like gambling and prostitution.
This is not a surprise to the authors. By taking the side of the enemy, as he did in Vietnam, or reducing terrorists to the ranks of gamblers and prostitutes, as he does today, Kerry believes that Iraq is no more a war against terrorism than Vietnam was a war against communism. Indeed, John Kerry’s cynicism prevents him from understanding people’s desire for freedom.
John Kerry began his campaign at the Democratic National Committee a “war hero,” but as was the case with Vietnam, he has now shifted to his second phase, presenting himself as a vocal “anti-war” critic, this time of President Bush’s efforts in Iraq.
John Kerry clearly has no commitment to consistency, but he does have an unwavering ambition to win the presidential election in 2004, no matter what he has to say. The parallels to 1971 are all too apparent. How can we be sure that John Kerry will not end up this time where he ended up last time — betraying our troops by withdrawing from the field of battle at any cost should he ever get the chance to give the order?
Reviewing the controversy following the publication of our book, we hold fast to our original conclusion: John Kerry is truly unfit for command.
Advantage, Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.
APPENDIX
[PDF file with complete appendix available here.]
After-Action Report from Sampan Incident
After-Action Report from Silver Star Incident (page 1 of 2)
After-Action Report from Silver Star Incident (page 2 of 2)
Silver Star Citation Re-issued with John Lehman’s Autopen Signature
After-Action Report from Bronze Star Incident (page 1 of 2)
After-Action Report from Bronze Star Incident (page 2 of 2)
Casualty Report for Richard “Dick” Pees, Bronze Star Incident
Casualty Report for Leslie Lyle Vorpahl, Bronze Star Incident
Casualty Report for Kenneth Frank Tryner, Bronze Star Incident
Casualty Report for Earl Nathan Hollister, Bronze Star Incident
Casualty Report for John Kerry (buttock wound), Bronze Star Incident
Damage Report for Kerry’s Boat PCF-94
Damage Report for Larry Thurlow’s Boat PCF-51
NOTES
CHAPTER 1
1. Matt Drudge, “Anti-Kerry Vets Gather for Assault, Book Claims Kerry War Fabrications’”, THE DRUDGE REPORT, August 3, 2004, 21:35:02, eastern time.
2. Zachary Coile, “Vets group attacks Kerry; McCain defends Democrat,” SFGate.com, August 5, 2004.
3. “Politics as Usual,” New York Times, August 19, 2004, editorial page, 30.
4. Northern Alliance Radio Network, www.northernallianceradio.com, August 21, 2004.
5. Transcript available Online NewsHour, www.pbs.org, August 19, 2004.
6. Reported in Mark Holzer and Erica Holzer, Legal Terrorism, Front- PageMagazine.com, August 10, 2004.
7. Robert Novak, “Admiral speaks out, disputes Kerry’s account of 1st wound,” The Chicago Sun-Times, April 27, 2004.
8. Ibid.
9. “Political independent’ anti-Kerry vet Schachte contributed to George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004.” MediaMatters.org, August 27, 2004.
10. Brinkley, Tour of Duty, 189. The discrepancy was reported by Art Moore, “Kerry’s war journal contradicts medial claim? At least 9 days after Purple Heart, wrote he had not ‘been shot at yet.’” World NetDaily.com August 17, 2004.
11. The discussion of the third Purple Heart can be found in Unfit for Command on pages 86–89. Kerry throwing the grenade at the rice pile and being wounded in the buttocks by a fragment of his own grenade can be found in Brinkley’s Tour of Duty on page 313.
12. First reported by Art Moore in “Another discrepancy erodes Kerry’s story.” WorldNetDaily.com, August 31, 2004.
13. Unfit for Command, page 83.
14. Congressional Record, Senate, January 28, 1998.
15. The Sampan Incident is discussed in Unfit for Command on pages 53- 62. The report on the after-action report under discussion is drawn from Michael Kranish, Brian C. Mooney, Nina J. Easton. John F. Kerry: The Complete Biography by the Boston Globe Reporters Who Know Him Best (New York: Public Affairs, 2004), 136.
16. Tour of Duty, 269-270.
17. Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer, “John Kerry’s Mysterious Combat ‘V’” published in FrontPageMagazine.com, August 20, 2004.
18. Henry Mark Holzer and Erika Holzer, “John Kerry’s Puzzling Silver Star Citations,” published in FrontPageMagazine.com, August 24, 2004.
19. Ibid. Parenthesis added for explanation.
20. Ibid. Parenthesis in original.
21. Thomas Lipscomb. “Kerry citation a ‘total mystery’ to ex-Navy chief.” Chicago Sun-Times, August 28, 2004.
22. Ibid.
23. “William Rood’s first-person account,” published in the Chicago Tribune, August 22, 2004.
24. Ibid.
25. For a fair analysis of the Rood controversy, see: Joseph Farah, “Kerry Supported by Viet comrade. ‘Unfit’ author sees little contradiction between swiftboat book, new report.” WorldNetDaily.com, August 21, 2004.
26. “Kerry Defender Rood Contradicted by Crewmate,” NewsMax.com, August 21, 2004.
27. “Kerry camp: Candidate ‘inaccurate’ on Cambodia. Says senator mistakenly thought it was Christmas trip when he crossed border.” WorldNetDaily.com, August 12, 2004.
28. This section was drawn from Jerome R. Corsi, “John Kerry’s Secret Meeting with the Enemy,” WorldNetDaily.com, October 8, 2004.
29. Michael Kranish and Patrick Healy, “Kerry spoke of meeting netotiators on Vietnam,” Boston Globe, March 25, 2004.
30. Scott Swett, “Yesterday’s Lies: Steve Pitkin and the Winter Soldiers.” WinterSoldier.com, September 15, 2004. A film clip is archived on WinterSoldier.com showing John Kerry conducting a preliminary interview with Steve Pitkin, coaching him prior to Pitkin’s testimony in Detroit.
31. Ibid.
32. Affidavit of Stephen J. Pitkin, State of Florida, County of Palm Beach, September 15, 2004. Archived on WinterSoldier.com.
33. Vietnam Veterans Against the War, The Winter Soldier Investigation: An Inquiry Into War Crimes. Boston: Beacon Press, 1972, 161.
34. Speech of Steve Pitkin at the “Kerry Lied” Rally, held by the Vietnam Veterans for the Truth in Washington, D.C., on September 12, 2004. Speech arrived at WinterSoldier.com.
35. “Navy Tells Judicial Watch It Will Not Release Additional Kerry Documents,” JudicialWatch.org, September 16, 2004.
36. Ann Gerhart, “The Political Guns of August Are Firing.” Washington Post, August 27, 2004.
37. This section draws extensively from Jerome R. Corsi, “John Kerry and the Politics of Betrayal,” which appeared on WorldNetDaily.com, October 1, 2004.
Copyright © 2004 by John E. O’Neill and Jerome L. Corsi
