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“Swift Boat Veterans for Truth”, claim still to be furious about Kerry’s 1971 Senate testimony against the war in which he spoke about atrocities in Indochina’s “free fire zones.” Behind the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are veteran corporate media consultant and Texas Republican activist Merrie Spaeth, eternal Kerry antagonist and Dallas attorney John E. O’Neill, law partner of Spaeth’s late husband, Tex Lezar; and retired Rear Adm. Roy Hoffman, a cigar-chomping former Vietnam commander once described as “the classic body-count guy” who “wanted hooches destroyed and people killed.” |
War of Words
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5 responses to “War of Words”
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I think its a waste of time to drag up Kerry’s service record, just like it was a waste to drag up Bush’s service. But to label this as another right wing attempt to smear Kerry is the height of hypocrisy considering how much the left has tried to defame Bush over his service and almost EVERYTHING else for the last 4 years…
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That’s the thing though – Kerry served. Bush partied. There’s enough other stuff to defame Bush with already anyway. -
no, I believe it was Clinton that “partied” during Vietnam. After watching the Vietnam veterans on C-Span yesterday explain why they are coming forward with criticisms of Kerry now, I don’t blame them. They are a group of honest, decent men who served our country and are rightfully angry and upset at the way Kerry smeared their reputations back in 1971 with allegations of atrocities that never happened. Now that Kerry is using his war background to help him get elected, in the very least he owes these men an apology.
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But Clinton is not running.
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yeah, but its so easy pointing out liberal hypocrisy…
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copy of the vets letter to Kerry:
Senator Kerry
We write from our common heritage as veterans of duty aboard Swift Boats in the Vietnam War. Indeed, you should note that a substantial number of those men who served directly with you during your four month tour in Vietnam have signed this letter.
It is our collective judgment that, upon your return from Vietnam, you grossly and knowingly distorted the conduct of the American soldiers, marines, sailors and airmen of that war (including a betrayal of many of us, without regard for the danger your actions caused us). Further, we believe that you have withheld and/or distorted material facts as to your own conduct in this war.
We believe you continue this conduct today, albeit by changing from an anti-war to a “war hero” status. You now seek to clad yourself in the very medals that you disdainfully threw away in the early years of your political career. In the process, we believe you continue a deception as to your own conduct through such tactics as the disclosure of only carefully screened portions of your military records. Both then and now, we have concluded that you have deceived the public, and in the process have betrayed honorable men, to further your personal political goals.
Your conduct is such as to raise substantive concerns as to your honesty and your ability to serve, as you currently seek, as Commander-in-Chief of the military services.
It is vital that the American public have as much information as possible about candidates for President of the United States. In various ways, you have rightly called upon President Bush to be fully accountable and to provide full disclosure. In the same spirit, now that you are the presumptive nominee of your Party, we believe it is incumbent upon you to make your total military record open to the American people.
Specifically, we the undersigned formally request that you authorize the Department of the Navy to independently release your military records (through your execution of Standard Form 180), complete and unaltered, including your military medical records. Further, we call upon you to correct the misconceptions your campaign seeks to create as to your conduct while in Vietnam. Permit the American public the opportunity to assess your military performance upon the record, and not upon campaign rhetoric.
Senator Kerry, we were there. We know the truth. We have been silent long enough. The stakes are too great, not only for America in general but, most importantly, for those who have followed us into service in Iraq and Afghanistan. We call upon you to provide a full, accurate accounting of your conduct in Vietnam.
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