Letter: John Kerry's assertions have discredited honorable, heroic service of Vietnam veterans
This is a response to the letter that appeared in the Daily Globe on August 26 from Evelyn Steimel, a person whom I respect and admire. I also have the utmost admiration for the heroic service her son Gregg and for the Distinguished Service Cross he received for his courage and sacrifice. I can hardly imagine the grief that comes from losing a son.
I am not in a well-informed position to question the validity of the medals and combat awards presented to the Democratic presidential nominee, John Kerry. But it seems to me that it is John Kerry who, by his public assertions, has discredited the service of all Vietnam veterans but the untruths he has told about actions of U.S. soldiers and sailors during the war.
I will accept that John Kerry served honorably in Vietnam while commanding a Navy Swift boat in the Mekong Delta for four months (the normal tour of duty in Vietnam for soldiers and Marines was twelve and thirteen months.) But when he returned, he contended that atrocities against the enemy were common practice by U.S. troops. He protested the war (which was his right), accused his fellow serviceman of committing atrocities on a routing basis, and threw his medals away as part of his protest (although he now says that they were only symbols and, I understand, has his medals framed and on display.) He has claimed to have been in Cambodia on Christmas of 1968 (out of bounds, unbelievably, to U.S. forces at that time as part of the insane policy of allowing the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong to use Cambodia as a sanctuary) a claim now proven to be untrue. His assertions about widespread atrocities have so incensed other Swift boat veterans that 250 of them have come forth to refute his statements. American POWs held in North Vietnam have testified to the devastating effects his claims and anti-war stance had on their morale and tenuous well-being.
There is now a full blown controversy concerning the response of these 250 Swift boat veterans who contest Kerry's claims. Democrats call them "attack ads" and want them suppressed. I question that these ads are part of a Bush orchestrated campaign. They may well be the legitimate voices of Swift boat veterans disgusted by Kerry's false claims. Are these voices to be suppressed in the political process, ugly as it has become?
I, too, am a Vietnam veteran and I teach a course on the Vietnam War at Dodge City Community College. I was with the First Infantry Division in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967. For six months I served in a combat infantry battalion, the 1st Bn, 2nd Infantry, as a company commander and battalion operations officer. I saw young soldiers - some of them my own - killed and maimed. But I never saw an atrocity committed against an enemy soldier or an innocent civilian. War is an ugly business and I concede that young soldiers in Vietnam under incredible stress could and did on occasion, commit acts that were regrettable and even despicable. But to contend, as John Kerry has, that these acts were commonplace, I believe to be a lie - a lie that discredits the honorable and heroic service of every Vietnam veteran, including Gregg Steimel, far more than those who question the validity of Kerry's awards.
I am a moderate Republican, but I don't have tunnel vision about politics. I probably voted for as many Democratic candidates in the last state election as Republican. I don't agree with everything George Bush has done as president and I think that he needs to increase the range of advice he receives to include a broader spectrum of views. But I too am incensed by Kerry's Vietnam falsehoods. George Bush may or may not deserve my vote in November, but I assure you John Kerry will not get it.
Larry Burke
Dodge City |
