this is an excerpt out of a book written by B.G. Burkett called STOLEN VALOR from 1998.
the author was in a chapter writing about what WAS following Vietnam and what SEEMED to be.....
<<..In April 1971, the VVAW(Vietnam Veterans against the war)staged a demonstration it called Dewey Canyon III, a "limited incursion into the country of Congress." The protest was named after an operation in 1969 that sent elements of the 3rd Marine Division into Laos. ....................
after being blocked from holding a ceremony honoring the war dead at Arlington National Cemetery, the veterans marched to the capitol to present sixteen demands to congress. At the end of the day, they held a candlelight march around the White House. After a man who said his son died in Vietnam blew taps, the soldiers began flinging their war medals over a high wire fence in front of the Capitol: Purple Hearts, Bronze Star Medals, Silver Stars- bits of ribbon and metal hurled in the face of the government that had so betrayed them. Some, after throwing away what had cost them so dearly, broke down and cried.
One of them was JOHN KERRY(caps mine), Vietnam Navy veteran and aspiring politician who had been among those who organized the protest. Kerry flung a handful of medals--he had received the Silver Star, a Bronze Star Medal, and three Purple Hearts-over the fence. Kerry spoke later that week before the Senate Foreign Relations committee, putting a face on the antiwar movement far different than one seen before- the scruffy hippie or wild eyed activist. Kerry represented the all- american boy, mentally twisted by being asked to do horrible things, then abandoned by his government.
From start to finish, the public took Dewey Canyon III at face value, not understanding that they were watching brilliant political theatre. Kerry, a Kennedy protege with white hot aspirations, ascended center stage as both a war hero, and as an antiwar hero throwing away his combat decorations. His speech, apparently off the cuff, was eloquent, impassioned.
But, years later, after his election to the Senate, Kerry's medals turned up on the wall of his Capitol hill office. When a reporter noticed them, Kerry admitted that the medals he has thrown were not his. And his emotional, from the heart speech had been carefuly crafted by a speech writer for Robert Kennedy named Adam Walinsky, who also tutored him how to present it.
geocities.com
here is a link showing veterans tossing their medals.
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how much of a kennedy protege is Kerry?? read this from a supporters article: "Kerry - whose middle name is Forbes - happens to share the same initials and a background of heroic military service with that president, John Fitzgerald Kennedy."
just a reminder of those danged Democrats...... |
