August 4, 2004
WHAT % OF HIS CURRENT SUPPORTERS EVEN KNOW HE OPPOSED THE WAR?:
Ex-POWs slam Kerry's war-protest activities (Richard Tomkins, 8/3/2004, UPI)
John Kerry's bid to become commander in chief of wartime America has opened old wounds among some former Vietnam-era POWs who bristle over Kerry's anti-war activism and atrocity allegations during the Vietnam conflict.Those activities and statements, pushed out of sight by a campaign that spotlights Kerry's service in Vietnam, were used by the POWs' North Vietnamese captors to sap the morale of prisoners and U.S. troops still in the field in South Vietnam, former POWs told United Press International.
"They were always talking about that (anti-war demonstrations), and they picked right up on Kerry's throw-away line, 'Don't be the last man to die in a lost cause, or die for a lost cause,'" said Kenneth Cordier, an Air Force pilot who spent 2,284 days as a prisoner. "They repeated that incessantly.
"They used these photographs and inputs, voice tapes, whatever, from these peace people to try to convince us the whole country had turned anti-war and we were showing a very bad attitude and would never go home."
Jim Warner, a prisoner of the North Vietnamese in the Hoa Lo prison complex -- known to U.S. servicemen as the Hanoi Hilton -- does remember. A North Vietnamese guard and interrogator the prisoners nicknamed "Boris" took Warner to the quiz shack in the complex's punishment camp called "Skid Row" in May 1971.
During a four-hour propaganda and harassment session, Boris pulled papers from his pocket and gave them to Warner to think about, he said. Some were clippings from a leftist newspaper in the United States. The other was a typewritten transcript of Kerry's testimony before a U.S. Senate panel in which he repeated allegations of U.S. troops routinely committing atrocities, attacking the war and saying communism was not a threat in Vietnam.
Four hours reading John Kerry? And folks fret about Abu Ghraib? Posted by Orrin Judd at August 4, 2004 6:12 PM
Abu Ghraib: Frats do worse things to their pledges for God's dake.
Posted by: Tom at August 4, 2004 7:14 PMAbu Ghraib: Frats do worse things to their pledges, for God's sake.
Posted by: Tom at August 4, 2004 7:15 PMKerry's worst nightmare would be a confrontation with a POW like this man - collegiality with John McCain cannot inoculate him from that hit. But the visceral nature of such a meeting means the press won't cover it, either.
Of course, Kerry's presence on the wall of heroes in the (North) Vietnamese memorial/museum to the war isn't going to be on CNN, anyway (though I would like to see someone ask any Democratic talking head about it). And are there photographs of Kerry's name/story/picture available for distribution?
Posted by: jim hamlen at August 4, 2004 7:23 PMKerry is Raymond Prentice Shaw; the original Manchurian candidate/faux war hero and Johnny
Iselin, the buffonish slanderous McCarthyite
(or Wallacite) Senator.
He does seem like a dim bulb for someone who purports to be so wise and discerning. Maybe he received a head wound in Vietnam that we don't know about.
Posted by: ratbert at August 4, 2004 9:52 PMAugust will be interesting with the publication of Unfit for Command in which other Vietnam vets go after Kerry. The GOP runs the risk of alienating voters by going after Kerry "the war hero" too much but since Kerry has made it the centerpiece of his campaign the Bush campaign probably has no choice.
Posted by: AWW at August 4, 2004 10:03 PMForgot to mention - McCain could be really useful here in rebutting Kerry. The media has put McCain on a pedestal so they would either have to believe him or knock him off the pedestal which would get ugly.
Posted by: AWW at August 4, 2004 10:04 PMThanks to ~Campaign Finance Reform~, all the GOP has to do is keep its distance from these guys, and let them go after Kerry on their own. If nothing else, it counters the Mooreons, the movers-on and all the Soros funded organs of the Dems.
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at August 4, 2004 10:17 PM