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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (137427)	6/22/2004 12:12:04 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 281500

Mark Lane's book on alleged atrocities in Vietnam, "Conversations with Americans", was panned by James Reston and Neil Sheehan, neither of whom were war boosters. Sheehan demonstrated that many of Lane's "eyewitnesses" either had not served in Vietnam, or had not been there in the roles claimed. When Senator Mark Hatfield inserted the Winter Soldier testimony into the Congressional Record, he had the commandant of the Marine Corps attempt an investigation. Those they spoke to largely refused cooperation, or, when cooperating, failed to provide details helpful to investigators. Also, some of the grisliest reports had come from men who were found to be imposters. As for other matters alleged of vets: 86% of those who died in Vietnam were white and 12.5% black, when blacks of the right age made up 13.1% of the population. 2/3rds if those who served in Vietnam were volunteers, and volunteers accounted for 77% of combat deaths. The suicide rate for vets is no higher than for non- veterans. The same is true for rates of drug abuse, homelessness, and incarceration. More vets showed signs of post- traumatic stress syndrom after WWII than the Vietnam War. A comprehensive survey from 1980 reported that 91% of those who had seen combat in Vietnam were "glad they had served their country"; 80% disagreed with the statement that the "US took advantage of me"; and nearly two out of three would go again, even knowing how the war would turn out.

To: jlallen who wrote (137427)	6/22/2004 12:27:14 PM
From: Neocon	Respond to of 281500

o In his April 1971 speech to the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, John Kerry claimed that war crimes committed by the American military against Vietnamese civilians were "not isolated incidents, but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis..." War crimes in Vietnam were actually quite rare. o Kerry claimed that war crimes were committed "with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." The truth is that war crimes were never a matter of policy, and were prosecuted when discovered. o Kerry charged that the war in Vietnam was a racist war, that "blacks provided the highest percentage of casualties." In reality, casualty rates for black and white soldiers during Vietnam closely matched their proportions of America's overall population. o Kerry claimed that Vietnam was "ravaged equally by American bombs and search-and-destroy missions as well as by Viet Cong terrorism..." Later in his remarks, Kerry responded to a question about what might happen to the South Vietnamese after our withdrawal with "So what I am saying is that yes, there will be some recrimination but far, far less than the 200,000 a year who are murdered by the United States of America..." Yet according to historian Guenter Lewy in "America in Vietnam," "...the number of civilians killed deliberately by the VC is appallingly high. No counterpart to this death toll caused by communist terror tactics exists on the allied side." o Asked for a recommendation about possible courses of action for Congress to pursue, Kerry stated that he had talked with representatives from Hanoi and from the PRG (Viet Cong) at the Paris peace talks, and mentioned his support for "Madam Binh's points." Madam Win Thi Binh was at that time the Foreign Minister for the PRG. o Kerry was a leader, fund-raiser, and spokesman for Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), an organization that staged mock mass murders of civilians to dramatize American atrocities, and handed out flyers that read "if you had been Vietnamese" American infantrymen might have "burned your house" or "raped your wife and daughter" and "American soldiers do these things every day to the Vietnamese simply because they are 'Gooks.'" o Kerry's used "testimony" from the VVAW's "Winter Soldier Investigation" as the basis for his war crimes charges. Later investigators were unable to confirm the charges, and in fact discovered that a number of the witnesses were never in Vietnam, never in combat, or were imposters who had assumed the identity of real veterans. o The deception extended to the VVAW leadership. Executive secretary Al Hubbard claimed to have been an Air Force captain wounded piloting a transport over Da Nang in 1966. Hubbard was actually a staff sergeant who had never been assigned to Vietnam. o The Winter Soldier Investigation was financed by pro-Hanoi radicals such as Jane Fonda and Mark Lane, who hoped to undermine American support for the war by framing American soldiers as mass murderers. At the same time, the North Vietnamese military was torturing American prisoners of war to make them confess to identical crimes. At least one former POW has stated that Kerry's testimony was used by North Vietnam to demoralize American prisoners during interrogations. o The VVAW signed the People's Peace Treaty during Kerry's tenure -- the VVAW even sent a delegation to Hanoi. The document was a laundry list of North Vietnamese bargaining points, including the key concession that the United States must agree to withdraw all troops before any negotiations could take place for the return of American prisoners. o The VVAW was at the heart of the propaganda effort that so effectively smeared American servicemen in Vietnam as murderous, drug-addled psychotics that returning veterans were cursed and spat upon in the streets. In fact, as shown in B.G. Burkett's book "Stolen Valor," Vietnam veterans are more psychologically stable and successful than their civilian counterparts.