March 25, 2004
SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY:
Kerry spoke of meeting negotiators on Vietnam (Michael Kranish and Patrick Healy, 3/25/2004, Boston Globe)
In a question-and-answer session before a Senate committee in 1971, John F. Kerry, who was a leading antiwar activist at the time, asserted that 200,000 Vietnamese per year were being "murdered by the United States of America" and said he had gone to Paris and "talked with both delegations at the peace talks" and met with communist representatives.Kerry, now the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, yesterday confirmed through a spokesman that he did go to Paris and talked privately with a leading communist representative. But the spokesman played down the extent of Kerry's role and said Kerry did not engage in negotiations.
Asked about the appropriateness of Kerry's saying that the United States had "murdered" 200,000 Vietnamese annually when the United States was at war, Kerry spokesman Michael Meehan said "Senator Kerry used a word he deems inappropriate."
Meehan said Kerry "never suggested or believed and absolutely rejects the idea that the word applied to service of the American soldiers in Vietnam." Meehan then declined to say to whom Kerry was referring when he said that the United States had murdered the Vietnamese; Kerry declined to be interviewed about the matter. [...]
When Kerry was asked by committee chairman Senator J. William Fulbright how he proposed to end the war, the former Navy lieutenant said it should be ended immediately and mentioned his involvement in peace talks in Paris.
"I have been to Paris," Kerry said. "I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam and the Provisional Revolutionary Government and of all eight of Madam Binh's points . . . ."
The latter was a reference to a communist group based in South Vietnam. Historian Stanley Karnow, author of "Vietnam: A History," described the Provisional Revolutionary Government as "an arm of the North Vietnamese government." Madam Nguyen Thi Binh was a leader of the group and had a list of peace-talk points, including the suggestion that US prisoners of war would be released when American forces withdrew.
Hard to know whether he was a dupe or a traitor. Posted by Orrin Judd at March 25, 2004 9:05 AM
I wonder if all of this Vietnam stuff coming out now is helping Kerry. Unless one of these charges sticks it will be forgotten or easily dismissed by September when people really start paying attention. And then Kerry and the media will say "old news, move on" and it won't have any impact.
Posted by: AWW at March 25, 2004 9:27 AM...though it was interesting that the Globe saved this story for release until the senator returned from his snowboarding adventures out west. I guess that while the paper is still ideologically on the left, having to deal with Kerry for three decades may have made them amiable to getting in a few well placed jabs here and there, at least until the campaign gets really serious in the fall.
Posted by: John at March 25, 2004 10:16 AMKerry can chant "old news" but the vets who will roar when they hear about it will make enough noise to get media attention.
If Kerry's sycophants want to re-fight Vietnam, after the killing fields and the boat people, let them try.
Posted by: jim hamlen at March 25, 2004 10:38 AMSo when they accuse Bush of being a deserter he can answer "Hey, it's better than being a traitor."
Posted by: Foos at March 25, 2004 10:48 AMDupe or Traitor?
When it comes to casting my vote, the answer to that question would be an excellent example of a distinction without difference.
Posted by: Jeff Guinn at March 25, 2004 12:02 PMW would be a hero to the left if only he were a deserter and a traitor.
Posted by: David Cohen at March 25, 2004 12:02 PM> Hard to know whether he was a dupe or a traitor.
Clearly I'm I joiner rather than a splitter, because whenever I see this kind of choice posed, my first reaction is to ask, "Why can't it be both?"
What Jeff said. But whatever; how the hell did he got there after four months in "combat?' Beats me. Could he have had a hidden agenda?
Posted by: genecis at March 26, 2004 12:29 AMDupe or traitor? Orrin, you KNOW the answer....let me help you....
Goes to France and kicks their behinds over hill and dale in their own Super Bowl 5 times in a row, now THAT is a patriot!
Goes to France and imitates Lance Armstrong's saddle, now THAT is John Kerry!
Posted by: Budd White at March 26, 2004 7:29 AM