Fact Check on Kerry Testimony:
Kerry's 1971 Testimony Was Relating the Stories He Heard From Fellow Vietnam Veterans -- Incidents Which Have Been Openly Admitted & Investigated Since
Kerry Spoke About Testimony He Had Heard From Vietnam Veterans. "I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit, the emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam, but they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do." -- John Kerry (Senate Foreign Relations Committee Testimony, 4/22/71)
-- Toledo Blade Wins 2004 Pulitzer for Series Exposing American Atrocities in Vietnam. "Three (Toledo) Blade reporters won the Pulitzer Prize -- journalism's highest honor -- for uncovering the atrocities of an elite U.S. Army fighting unit in the Vietnam War that killed unarmed civilians and children during a seven-month rampage. Michael D. Sallah, Mitch Weiss, and Joe Mahr received the investigative reporting prize for their series -- 'Buried Secrets, Brutal Truths' -- which detailed how the Army failed to stop the atrocities after commanders were told about them. The reporters also discovered that the Army failed to prosecute soldiers who killed unarmed civilians after an investigation found the platoon had committed war crimes. (Toledo Blade, 4/6/04)
-- Newsweek: "Record Shows Atrocities Did Occur." "The historical record shows that atrocities did occur in Vietnam, as in the My Lai massacre or the so-called Tiger Force activities that were recently uncovered." (Newsday, 2/22/04)
-- Gen Tommy Franks: Certain that activities described by Kerry did take place: "I think we had a lot of problems in Vietnam. One was the lack of leadership of young people like in - - in John Kerry's position. He was a young officer over there, and I'm not sure that -- that activities like that didn't take place. In fact, quite the contrary. I'm sure that they did. ...I wouldn't say that the things that Senator Kerry said are undeniable about activities in Vietnam. I think that things didn't go right in Vietnam." (Hannity and Colmes, 8/3/2004)
In 1971 Kerry Condemned America's Political & Military Leadership-Not His Fellow Veterans
Kerry's Testimony Was an Indictment of America's Political Leadership-Not Fellow Veterans. "We are also here to ask, and we are here to ask vehemently, where are the leaders of our country? Where is the leadership? We are here to ask where are McNamara, Rostow, Bundy, Gilpatric and so many others. Where are they now that we, the men whom they sent off to war, have returned? These are commanders who have deserted their troops, and there is no more serious crime in the law of war. The Army says they never leave their wounded. The Marines say they never leave even their dead. These men have left all the casualties and retreated behind a pious shield of public rectitude. They have left the real stuff of their reputation bleaching behind them in the sun in this country." - John Kerry (Senate Foreign Relations Committee Testimony, 4/22/71)
Kerry Believed Responsibility Did Not Lie With Vetrans. Mr. Kerry: My feeling, Senator, on Lieutenant Calley is what he did quite obviously was a horrible, horrible, horrible thing and I have no bone to pick with the fact that he was prosecuted. But I think that in this question you have to separate guilt from responsibility, and I think clearly the responsibility for what has happened there lies elsewhere. I think it lies with the men who designed free fire zones. I think it lies with the men who encourage body counts. (Senate Foreign Relations Committee Testimony, 4/22/71)
Kerry Clearly Referred to the Political Leadership at the Time. JUDY WOODRUFF: "They are saying, in effect, you were accusing American troops of war crimes." JOHN KERRY: "No, I was accusing American leaders of abandoning the troops. And if you read what I said, it is very clearly an indictment of leadership. I said to the Senate, where is the leadership of our country? And it's the leaders who are responsible, not the soldiers. I never said that. I've always fought for the soldiers. In fact, not only did we oppose the war, but we proudly stood up and fought for the additions to the GI Bill so that vets would be able to use it. We fought for the V.A. Hospitals. I wrote the Agent Orange legislation with Tom Daschle. I helped with the post-Vietnam stress syndrome outreach centers. I'm proud of the record of fighting for soldiers and for veterans. And the fact is if we want to redebate the war on Vietnam in 2004, I'm ready for that. It was a mistake, and I'm proud of having stood up and shared with America my perceptions of what was happening." (CNN, Inside Politics, 2/19/04)
Kerry's Testimony Was Well Received and Complimented by Senators of Both Parties:
-- I believe they deserve to be heard and listened to by the Congress and by the officials in the executive branch and by the public generally. ... I want also to congratulate Mr. Kerry, you, and your associates upon the restraint that you have shown, certainly in the hearing the other day when there were a great many of your people here. I think you conducted yourselves in a most commendable manner throughout this week. (Senator J. W. Fulbright (D-AR))
-- I think that this committee, and particularly Chairman Fulbright, deserve a huge debt of gratitude from you and everyone of your men who are here because when he conducted hearings some years ago when we were fighting in Vietnam. ... Finally, in connection with Lieutenant Calley, which is a very emotional issue in this country, I was struck by your passing reference to that incident. Wouldn't you agree with me though that what he did in herding old men, women and children into a trench and then shooting them was a little bit beyond the perimeter of even what has been going on in this war and that that action should be discouraged. There are other actions not that extreme that have gone on and have been permitted. If we had not taken action or cognizance of it, it would have been even worse. It would have indicated we encouraged this kind of action. (Senator Claiborne Pell (D-RI))
-- Mr. Kerry, thank you too for coming. You have made more than clear something that I think always has been true: that the war never had any justification in terms of Indochina itself. (Senator Clifford Case (R-NJ))
-- The moral and morale issues you have raised will have to be finally acted upon by the committee. I think it always fires us to a deeper sense of emergency and dedication when we hear from a young man like yourself in what we know to be the reflection of the attitude of so many others who have served in a way which the American people so clearly understand. (Senator Jacob Javitz (R- NY))
Kerry Has Stated That His Words Were Those of An Angry Young Man Determined to End a War
Kerry on His Use of the Word "Atrocities" KERRY: I thought a lot, for a long time, about that period of time, the things we said, and I think the word is a bad word. I think it's an inappropriate word. I mean, if you wanted to ask me have you ever made mistakes in your life, sure. I think some of the language that I used was a language that reflected an anger. It was honest, but it was in anger, it was a little bit excessive. (NBC, Meet the Press, 4/18/04)
Kerry On His Use of the Words "War Criminals" KERRY: It was, I think, a reflection of the kind of times we found ourselves in and I don't like it when I hear it today. I don't like it, but I want you to notice that at the end, I wasn't talking about the soldiers and the soldiers' blame, and my great regret is, I hope no soldier--I mean, I think some soldiers were angry at me for that, and I understand that and I regret that, because I love them. But the words were honest but on the other hand, they were a little bit over the top. And I think that there were breaches of the Geneva Conventions. There were policies in place that were not acceptable according to the laws of warfare, and everybody knows that. I mean, books have chronicled that, so I'm not going to walk away from that. But I wish I had found a way to say it in a less abrasive way. (NBC, Meet the Press, 4/18/04)
Kerry on His Relating the Stories Told By Other Vietnam Veterans. MR. RUSSERT: But, Senator, when you testified before the Senate, you talked about some of the hearings you had observed at the winter soldiers meeting and you said that people had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and on and on. A lot of those stories have been discredited, and in hindsight was your testimony... SEN. KERRY: Actually, a lot of them have been documented. MR. RUSSERT: So you stand by that?
SEN. KERRY: A lot of those stories have been documented. Have some been discredited? Sure, they have, Tim. The problem is that's not where the focus should have been. And, you know, when you're angry about something and you're young, you know, you're perfectly capable of not--I mean, if I had the kind of experience and time behind me that I have today, I'd have framed some of that differently. Needless to say, I'm proud that I stood up. I don't want anybody to think twice about it. I'm proud that I took the position that I took to oppose it. I think we saved lives, and I'm proud that I stood up at a time when it was important to stand up, but I'm not going to quibble, you know, 35 years later that I might not have phrased things more artfully at times. (NBC, Meet the Press, 4/18/04)
John Kerry Worked With John McCain to Learn the Truth About America's POW/MIA's
John Kerry & John McCain Led the Bipartisan Investigation into Vietnam POW/MIA. John Kerry and John McCain, both veterans of the Vietnam War, teamed up to investigate the issue of POW/MIA's in Vietnam. Kerry was Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs and traveled to Vietnam on several occasions to search for evidence of American POW/MIA's in Vietnam. Kerry and McCain "doggedly investigated" an important and volatile issue which some described as an "unglamorous task that nobody else wanted." After the investigation, the bipartisan committee ultimately declared that there were probably soldiers left behind in Vietnam, but there was no compelling evidence that any were still alive." Regarding the investigation, John McCain said, "John Kerry handled the chairmanship of that committee with tremendous skill and sensitivity." (Boston Globe, 6/21/03; Congressional Quarterly Weekly, 4/24/03; The Hill, 11/29/00; The New Republic, 6/3/02)
Kerry was Part of First Bush Administration's Joint Commission on POW/MIAs. John Kerry's commitment to the men and women in the U.S. military also extended to joining the Commission started by President George H. W. Bush in 1992. Kerry was part of the bipartisan group to cooperate in finding the whereabouts of U.S. service personnel missing over the past 50 years. "The USRJC was established in March 1992 by agreement between Presidents Bush and (Russian President) Yeltsin to determine the fates of American servicemen from World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War, who may still be missing on the territory of the former Soviet Union or about whom the Russians may have information." (Department of Defense press release, 12/6/94)
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