More about the effects of John Kerry on POWs - Long

[RACastanet]

Sorry Panther. This is long bt deserving of the space...

Author - Kate O'Beirn

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September 10, 2004, 9:06 a.m.
Honor Reclaimed
POWs have their say.



If the powerful documentary featuring highly decorated Vietnam POWs recounting how Lt.(jg) John Kerry's antiwar activity affected them was seen by the huge audience it deserves, Massachusetts's junior senator wouldn't get elected to a sanitation commission. In Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal, 13 POWs, whose cries of pain, defiance, and despair went unheard during their hellish captivity, share their stories about the betrayal they felt when a fellow officer claimed American forces were guilty of widespread war crimes. Over 30 years ago, antiwar veterans (both faux and real) basked in the media spotlight; now proud veterans who endured their slanders, along with years of cruelty and abuse, are having their say. These indisputable heroes include two Medal of Honor winners, one of whom explains, "This is an effort that was long in coming, but would not have come about if not for the Democratic candidate 'reporting for duty.'"

The 45-minute film opens with scenes of the dank cells at the Hanoi Hilton where the oppressive silence would only be broken by "cries of pain." One POW recalls the intense pain of the torture they suffered, explaining that "the rope was the worst." Following one such session, designed to win a confession of war crimes, another explains that for days afterward he was unable to move his body from his shoulders down. Ken Cordier, held for over six years, explains that they would be brutally manacled until they "screamed loud and long enough" to be released in exchange for information and confessions. Any injury was specifically targeted in order to break the captives more quickly. Tapes of Jane Fonda accusing them of being war criminals were played in their cells.

Mary Jane McManus had eloped in Hawaii and was married for three days when her husband Kevin returned to Vietnam to complete his tour. She didn't see him again for almost six years. While she kept her lonely vigil, she witnessed the charges being leveled by John Kerry and others. She couldn't fathom that anyone would believe American troops were capable of routinely committing atrocities, because "they were our husbands, and sons and brothers."

James Warner, held for over five years, recalls being made to stand motionless inside a small chalked circle on the floor. He lasted for 97 hours, during which he had a view of the camp's front gate. He saw the author Mary McCarthy and Tom Hayden enter the camp. His mother attended the Winter Soldier hearings and issued a statement criticizing the war, which his captors shared with him along with statements by John Kerry. He explains that Kerry met with his mother and sister and thinks it was a "contemptible act" to take advantage of a "grieving old lady and manipulate her grief to promote your own political agenda." He adds, "He burned up his Band of Brothers membership card when he did that."

When John Kerry was the prized spokesman for the Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), there were 700 American POWs in Vietnam. Many of those involved in this documentary, funded by $200,000 in donations from Pennsylvania veterans, believe that antiwar activists encouraged their captors to hold out because the "war would be lost in the streets of America." They point out that the immediate withdrawal of troops demanded by the VVAW would have abandoned them to whatever fate their captors chose when they were no longer bargaining chips in a negotiated end to the war.

Paul Galanti, who flew 97 combat missions before being shot down on June 17, 1966, spent over six and a half years as a POW. Referring to the Winter Soldier hearings that have been thoroughly debunked, Galanti says that John Kerry "should have known those guys he was with were frauds." The film includes a short clip from the Winter Soldier hearings that drew chuckles from the audience. An alleged veteran is having his memory refreshed about an alleged atrocity he was having trouble recalling. Galanti reminds the audience that "the cruelties of My Lai were exposed by the soldiers there."

Leo Thorsness, who was awarded the Medal of Honor, talks about the strict rules of engagement governing pilots flying over North Vietnam, ruefully noting that as a result the enemy had "plenty of chances to shoot us down."

Colonel George "Bud" Day, who also won the Medal of Honor and is considered one of the most decorated veterans of the last century, recalls being outraged to learn that veterans were warned not to wear their uniforms when they returned home. The film depicts protesters waving signs reading, "No Parades for Murderers" and "See Nixon's War Criminals" in front of veterans. "Right to this day we still have not recovered our good name," Day angrily declares. He charges that John Kerry wants them to forget the role he played in blackening the name of all Vietnam veterans. "I can never forget," he says.

The documentary is available on the Stolen Honor website. Its producer, Carlton Sherwood, a Pulitzer Prize wining journalist and Marine Vietnam veteran, points out that "there is no fog of war here" given the public testimony of John Kerry. He explains that the motivation is "deeply personal" rather than political.

An Army Vietnam veteran recently told me, "When John Kerry loses, it will be the parade we never had." They've earned it.





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http://www.nationalreview.com/kob/kob.asp

[Mills75]

I'm glad i got a chance to read this and it was very informative.I watched the veterans against John Kerry rally in Washington D.C. on C span and it was also very powerful.I am on the side of the veterans and I'm thankful for them and proud of them.I agree with Veterans like house Rep. from Texas Sam Johnson in his assesment of Kerry.It sickened me to see Kerry and those men hold the American flag upside down and mock the flag being raised on Iwa Jima.I wish Ira Hayes was still around to smack Kerry right in his mouth and spit in his eye for doing that and being such a traitor and sacrificing his men his honor and his country.I really only have disdain for Kerry and all he represents which i'm not even sure what those things are he represents and i'm not so sure he knows either.What ever he represents I want on the other side of it.

Jeff

[Mills75]

John Walker Lindh is in jail serving time for aiding the Taliban in Afghanistan so why is it that we can have a presidential candidate or even someone who holds public office for that matter and that person is John Kerry who has committed the same offense with the North Vietnamese? Just saw a story about Lindh again tonight and the thought crossed my mind what makes Lindh and Kerry any different? Lindh didn't fight against America or carry any weapons in Afghanistan but he sits in jail for aiding the Taliban while Kerry is running for U.S. president when he aided the North Vietnamese.

Jeff

[Bill MacDonald]

With all due repect, I am tired of the lame attacks on the character of John Kerry. To be critical of his positions on the issues is one thing but referring to him as a traitor because he came to disagree with the way the war in Vietnam was fought, is foolish.

If being critical of the way the military fights our wars makes you a traitor, then the greatest traitor of all time must be Abraham Lincoln. He came to believe that the military leaders screwed up most of the battles during the Civil War. He was constantly critical of the way the war was prosecuted. He ended up firing all of the generals he had picked to lead the Army of the Potomac until he found U.S. Grant late in the war. Speaking your mind when you see mistakes being made isn't necessarily treason sometimes it is the height of patriotism!

[Mills75]

I do respect your point but I feel speaking up in a way that might help your cause is patriotic but acting in a way to bring more harm to your own soldiers and calling them criminal babykillers in my view doesn't help end the war and it only serves to put fuel on the fire he claims he so wanted to put out.Good intentions sometimes pave the road to hell.Maybe he had good intentions but his execution and plans i believe in how he went to set his intentions into action was very poor and cost alot of soldiers.

Jeff

[Panther]

With all due repect, I am tired of the lame attacks on the character of John Kerry. To be critical of his positions on the issues is one thing but referring to him as a traitor because he came to disagree with the way the war in Vietnam was fought, is foolish.

It wasn't his disagreement with the war that is at issue. It was his involvement with the North VietNamese in Paris, his involvement with the "winter soldier" project which was and has been shown to have no credibility, and his testimony to the Senate where he claims to both have first-hand knowledge of war crimes AND have personally COMMITTED war crimes. Either he lied in his recorded testimony before Congress OR (believing in the authority of the UN and World Court as he has said he does) could face trial for his self-admitted war crimes... perhaps they could save time and use the same court that is trying Slobadan Milosevic... There are plenty of folks that were against the war in VietNam... and plenty who protested against that war... But only a handful that went to North VietNam or to the Paris talks to back up the Viet Cong.

If being critical of the way the military fights our wars makes you a traitor, then the greatest traitor of all time must be Abraham Lincoln.

Well actually, there are those who believe just that... and (interestingly enough) they aren't all from the South. There are plenty of documented actions that Lincoln committed that were either unConstitutional or questionable.

Speaking your mind when you see mistakes being made isn't necessarily treason sometimes it is the height of patriotism!

Couldn't agree more.

As stated before... It is dangerous to be right about something when those who are in power are wrong.

[Bill Glasheen]

Right Wing Attacks on Senator Kerry

Bill

What do you feel inside when you see this picture?





Fine... Now, what do you think whenever this man uses the word "liberal" to describe those he doesn't agree with?

Save the inflammatory language. It insults those who paid dearly for their country. Furthermore, the immediate effect is to label you as a biased source, and undermine your own credibility. I don't think that's what you want.

I may not agree with everything these heroes say, but I am going to treat them with the respect and open mind that they deserve. To do otherwise is to contribute to one of the most collosal mistakes of the Vietnam era - trashing those that did all the hard work and suffered the most severe consequences.

- Bill

[Tim H]

I feel that because he served in Viet Nam, then he has the right to say whatever he wants. Bush and Cheney both avoided it. And Lindh went to fight in a civil war before most in the US even heard of Taliban or discovered where Afghanistan is, he was just on the wrong team when we stepped in.

[RACastanet]

Tim said: "I feel that because he served in Viet Nam, then he has the right to say whatever he wants."

Not if it aids the enemy's cause. Not if it caused severe mental and physical trauma to American POWs.

I personally know a vet held captive for over 6 years - Paul Galanti. As he and other POWs were tortured the NVA played comments made by Kerry and Fonda and others, and held up newspapers and magzines with their stories, as they pressured the POWs to sign confessions. Kerry and his ilk encouraged this behavior and the NVA increased the pressure on the POWs.

Tell you what Tim, let me starve and beat you for a few years, then increase the suffering based on what someone who once was your compatriot in arms but now agrees with me says.

Sound like the correct thing to do?

Sounds like sedition to me.

Rich

[Tim H]

I don't agree with what he's done, but I think his vioce on these matters bears attention, as does the person that did something heroic but said nothing, the person who did something heroic and told the world, the ones that did bad things or nothing at all, All of the opinions of those involved are a part of the picture.