Vietnam Atrocities
By William Fielder | October 20, 2004
Investigative Service also conducted a query, which came to the same conclusion as Burkett—that most of the testimony was either pure deceit, or heresay.
In June 1988, Dan Rather of CBS News hosted a special TV program entitled "The Wall Within," which featured a psychologically damaged supposed Vietnam veteran who committed so many "atrocities," and experienced so much guilt, that he had completely withdrawn from society. The Vietnam veteran was an imposter who was later exposed, but the program was unchallenged in the "mainstream media" probably because it reflected the widely held view that many veterans were social outcasts or drug crazed ne'er-do-wells who were unable to cope in normal society.
This popular myth was a result of the efforts of an organization called Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), which was the brainchild of current Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry, himself a veteran of the war. VVAW was financed initially by well-publicized anti-war activist Jane Fonda. VVAW held a convention called "Winter Soldier" wherein an assemblege of campus activists, and a few Vietnam veterans, met to create an urban legend concerning the Vietnam experience. Scenarios depicting various atrocities were devised, and impersonators were coached to subscribe to them as personal experiences. In a film or video of the period, one bandana-clad participant, when reminded of a "personal experience," smirkingly comments...."oh yeah, how could I ever forget that one..."
The co-chairman of VVAW, Al Hubbard, represented himself as a US Air Force pilot who had "napalmed villages." Hubbard had been in the Air Force, but was not a pilot, and had never been to Vietnam. Steven Pitkin, who was actually an infantryman in Vietnam, participated in the charade. In mid-September 2004, he appeared on the Hannity and Colmes TV program to reveal the deceit behind his testimony, and to state that Kerry and others had "coerced" him into lying about his Vietnam experience. He apologized to his fellow veterans whom he had slandered by implicating them in phony charges. Investigative journalist B.G. Burkett, recontacted many of the Winter Soldier participants and wrote a book, "Stolen Valor," which details these findings. The Naval
Investigative Service also conducted a query, which came to the same conclusion as Burkett—that most of the testimony was either pure deceit, or heresay.
Yet, in April 1971, John F. Kerry appeared before the Congress of the United States and testified regarding hideous atrocities committed by member of the US Forces in Vietnam—attributing the concocted stories from the Winter Soldier event as the basis. He called our troops "murderers"..."rapists"...and "monsters," and said that leaders..."at all levels of command"...allowed these outrages to take place.
No war is free of atrocities, but in the US military, such outrages are normally quickly ended, and the participants brought to justice. To suggest that this activity was normal and sanctioned in Vietnam is a deceitful and false statement that slanders the troops in the field and their commanders. Regardless of the purposes of this conspiracy, it adversely effected morale, to the benefit of the communists. Vo Nugyen Giap, communist forces commander, wrote in his 1985 memoir that the anti-war movement in the US kept hope alive in North Vietnam. Colonel "Bud" Day, a prisoner in the "Hanoi Hilton," also writes that Kerry's efforts probably lengthened his ordeal, and provided the communists with "evidence" of atrocities that adversely effected POW treatment.
The real atrocity was the communist victory that many Vietnamese risked their lives to escape. Jane Fonda eventually apologized to veterans for her part in the 1970's guerrilla theater. Yet, to this day, John F. Kerry has never apologized to the veterans he falsely accused of murder, rape, and mutilation. In contrast, Kerry has assumed the mantle of honor he has denied the veterans he holds hostage, by characterizing his Vietnam service as "heroic" to further his presidential ambitions, and through his "reporting for duty" charade. To seriously consider him as commander-in-chief, Kerry must free the hostages by apologizing to the families of the 58,000 dead that he deceitfully besmerched—and make amends to the thousands of us still living that he smeared, maligned, and left behind. |
