"The best approach is to just shut up."
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Kerry: The Ultimate Veteran
...."Winter Soldier" was, in fact, a set-up organized by a JFK-conspiracy theorist, the fabulist Mark Lane.
And it was quickly exposed as a lie by journalists James Reston and Neil Sheehan - themselves harsh critics of U.S. policy - who discovered that many of its supposed eyewitnesses never even served in Vietnam.
To date, John Kerry has never disavowed the Winter Soldier Investigation - or apologized for his role in propagating its notorious falsehoods.
....But it is now known that Kerry's speech was in fact carefully crafted by Adam Walinsky, a one-time Robert Kennedy aide and speechwriter - who also coached Kerry in how to deliver it for maximum emotional impact.
That is, for utmost political effect.
John Kerry, you see, had carefully planned a political career - and decided to use the war as his signature issue.....<font size=3>
thesakeofargument.com
Kerry's anti-war vigor is lauded and questioned
The Baltimore Sun
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....James Wasser and Bill Zaladonis, both crewmen two
years earlier under then Lieutenant Kerry on his Navy
Swift boat, a 50-foot aluminum craft that patrolled the
waters of the Mekong Delta, were bitter and angry when
they first saw television coverage of his testimony.
"Absolutely upset," said Wasser, who recalled no such
atrocities. "I felt betrayed."
Said Zaladonis, "I didn't like the idea. I certainly
didn't believe that all Vietnam veterans were baby-
killing, women rapers. Most people I know agree with me,
they didn't see it."....
....Clearly, war crimes were committed in Vietnam, said
Owens, pointing to the My Lai massacre. What upsets Owens
and some other veterans is the scale of the purported
atrocities discussed by Kerry as well as whether they were
officially condoned by top U.S. officers. He noted that
between 1965 and 1973, 201 soldiers and 77 Marines were
convicted of serious crimes against Vietnamese, although
he concedes that not all war crimes are reported.
Both Owens and Zaladonis, the Kerry Swift boat crewman,
doubt there were anywhere near as many war crimes as
portrayed by those who took part in the "Winter Soldier"
investigation, which was organized by the Vietnam Veterans
Against the War in early 1971 in Detroit and formed the
basis for Kerry's later testimony before the Senate.
After Kerry testified before the committee, Sen. Mark O.
Hatfield, an Oregon Republican, asked for an investigation
into the alleged atrocities.
In his book, "America in Vietnam," author Guenter Lewy
cited a subsequent inquiry by the Naval Investigative
Service that found that many of the veterans who spoke in
Detroit refused to be interviewed even when offered
immunity and some who reported the most grisly atrocities
were fake witnesses who had used the names of real
veterans.
Lewy, in an interview, termed the Winter Soldier
project "completely unreliable and untrustworthy" and
doubts that Vietnam War atrocities were officially
condoned or as widespread as the Detroit testimony
indicated.....
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dailycamera.com
Message 19862007
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John Kerry’s Radical Past
....it’s likely just the opening salvo in exposing the
truth about the outlandish actions of Kerry and his
comrades as part of an anti-war group known as Vietnam
Veterans Against the War (VVAW).....
....there is evidence suggesting that many of the
atrocities routinely touted by VVAW were, well, made up.
An excerpt of historian Guenter Lewy’s book According to
America posted on WinterSoldier.com discusses the results
of a government investigation that attempted to
corroborate the claims made at the VVAW event in Detroit.
The investigators couldn’t.
According to Lewy, the VVAW had told its members not to
cooperate with the government inquiry—a probe that was
initiated by Sen. Mark Hatfield of Oregon in order to
verify gruesome claims made at the VVAW-sponsored event.
The historian also notes that government inspectors found
veterans whose names had been used by people testifying in
Detroit that were not actually there.
In other words, some of the “witnesses” in Detroit were
impostors, tarnishing the names of real soldiers.....
townhall.com
Message 19862007 |
