John Kerry and Vietnam
Michelle Malkin posted a video of one Jason Mattera talking to Senator John Kerry about a new project, initiated by anti-war activists, in which they’ll investigate whether American soldiers committed crimes against humanity during the war in Iraq. That’s not the only thing they talked about, however, Mattera also asked Kerry about some of the things he said back in 1970, about the way US troops behaved in Vietnam.
The project is called “Winter Soldier II.” You can read about it at their official website.
Winter Soldier: Iraq and Afghanistan will feature testimony from U.S. veterans who served in those occupations, giving an accurate account of what is really happening day in and day out, on the ground.
The four-day event will bring together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan - and present video and photographic evidence. In addition, there will be panels of scholars, veterans, journalists, and other specialists to give context to the testimony. These panels will cover everything from the history of the GI resistance movement to the fight for veterans’ health benefits and support.
It seems that some are afraid that the witnesses will slander US troops; that they’ll make allegations without being able to tack those allegations up with facts.
Personally, I don’t know enough about this subject to have an opinion about it; I’m just reading and being informed about it. Luckily for all of you, these people do have opinions on this matter (several conservative bloggers).
Here’s the transcripts of the video (in case you can’t watch it):
Opening slate: On January 31, 1971, John Kerry organized the Winter Soldier Investigations, a media event that falsely accused American soldiers of routinely raping, torturing, and murdering innocent Vietnamese civilians.
Second slate: From March 13-16, 2008, Iraq Veterans Against the War has coordinated a second Winter Soldier Investigations in an effort to assail the U.S. Military in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Third slate: On March 11, 2008, Jason Mattera of Young America’s Foundation confronted Senator Kerry (D-MA) about Winter Soldier II and the Senator’s shady past.
MATTERA: Hey, Sen. Kerry! Jason Mattera with Young America’s Foundation. How are you?
KERRY: Jason. How are you?
MATTERA: I was wondering: Do you have any advice for the new group of activists who are organizing Winter Soldier II?
KERRY: I haven’t [unintelligble] what they’re doing or where they’re at. I just don’t…
MATTERA: Do you think this crop of anti-war activists, do you there’ll be any frauds like Al Hubbard?
KERRY: I have no idea. I hope not.
MATTERA: Do you think that they will make slanderous accusations–accusing the troops of raping women, pillaging villaging, just like you did to the Fulbright committee?
KERRY: Uh, I didn’t make those.
MATTERA: You didn’t?
Audio clip, John Kerry, 4/22/71: [They told the stories at times] they had personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages in fashion reminiscent of Genghis Khan, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam in addition to the normal ravage of war, and the normal and very particular ravaging which is done by the applied bombing power of this country.
Kerry claims Winter Soldier Investigations were substantiated by further investigation.
MATTERA: Did you ever verify those –
KERRY (crosstalk): I’ve been misquoted about that hundreds of times.
MATTERA: So you never substantiated those charges before you–
KERRY: I proposed–I gave them to the committee because I felt that they ought to be investigated and that’s exactly what I said. These are the–many of those charges, incidentally, were subsequently verified by different entities.
Slate: No criminal charges were filed as a result of any of the [Army’s Criminal Investigative Division] investigations into Winter Soldier.
A bit of added information for you and your readers on who Jason Mattera is: http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Jason_Mattera
I was in Rhode Island when this young man was getting his first taste of notoriety and it was clear to me then that he had a thirst for publicity. You can see a report on his activities on Fox TV here: http://www.newshounds.us/2007/05/23/smarmy_chickenhawk_homophobe_jason_mattera_back_on_fox_news_this_time_as_global_warming_arbiter.php
Unlike this publicity-seeker who insists that "the reason he was not serving in the Iraq war he professed to support was because he was “fighting the culture war at home” John Kerry volunteered to serve his country and did so bravely, risking his life and saving the lives of others. He was then brave enough to come home and protest with other veterans against a war he had seen firsthand and in order to try to protect his brothers in arms, still serving. He has worked for almost 40 years to support all veterans and serving troops, not only championing their safety while they are "in harm’s way" but also their care and the welfare of their families when they return home.
The continued smearing and hounding of this excellent public servant comes to you straight from the Nixon White House which cooked up a campaign to try to neutralize the public relations threat he represented to their war in Vietnam. The vet they groomed to try to discredit Kerry, John O’Neill, is still part of the attacks against him, and many in the Bush government (including Karl Rove) cut their venomous teeth in the Nixon era. Right-wing publicity hounds like Michelle Malkin and Jason Mattera are all too happy to continue the lies if they can get attention with them.
Their own link to the Fullbright hearing shows that John Kerry is telling the truth and they are distorting it. Their video of John Kerry’ testimony starts, midsentence, listing crimes - leaving out the context that he was reporting what others said. Here is what they left out. "I would like to talk, representing all those veterans, and say that several months ago in Detroit, we had an investigation at which over 150 honorably discharged and many very highly decorated veterans testified to war crimes committed in Southeast Asia, not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command. It is impossible to describe to you exactly what did happen in Detroit, the emotions in the room, the feelings of the men who were reliving their experiences in Vietnam, but they did. They relived the absolute horror of what this country, in a sense, made them do. They told the stories at times they had personally" Here is where their quote starts to intentionally mislead a viewer who did not see the entire thing - just as they did in 2004. In 1971, John Kerry was invited to speak before the Senate on that Winter Soldier hearing. What he did instead was to speak of that hearing in a few emotionally charged few paragraphs, then to use the rest of the time to speak to greater issues. The Senate, not a 27 year old vet, had the power and the authority to investigate whether these actions occurred. Whether the US conservative bloggers want to admit it or not, the military changed their procedures due to these abuses in Vietnam. The My Lai massacre occurred - http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/vietnam/trenches/my_lai.html And it was not an isolated case, as this series of prize winning articles show. http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?Category=SRTIGERFORCE Kerry made the case that Americans and Vietnamese continued to die in a war that could not be won just so President Nixon could avoid being the first President to lose a war. MacNamara, an architect of that war wrote in "Fog of War" that he knew the war was lost in 1968. This was before half the Americans and more than half of the Vietnamese killed in the war died. It was also 2 or 3 years before Kerry spoke. Kerry spoke of the neglect the returning veterans faced. They were given very little help re-entering American life and the medical and psychological treatment available was disgracefully inadequate. Senator Kerry has continued this fight for other veterans for his entire 24 years in the Senate. He then ended the speech with a passionate call to action to change American foreign policy. This also has an echo in his Senate career. In 1971, Kerry’s testimony was widely praised by the Senators he spoke before. Now, his 1971 question, "How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake? is being asked about the Iraq war. In 1971, the Nixon administration was secretly taping what Nixon and aides said. Because of Watergate, those tapes became public. What they show is that President Nixon himself was impressed by the future Senator’s testimony. It was because he was effective and had spoken truth to power that the Nixon people investigated him (finding that he was clean and a genuine war hero) and then tried to destroy him. The conservatives here argue that he hurt the reputation of the American soldiers. In fact, as a college student at that time, I know the opposite was true. On college campuses in 1971, the image of the American soldier was set by Lt Calley, who was convicted of the My Lai massacre. Kerry greatly improved the image of the men who fought among college students, who were the majority of the anti-war movement.
Adding this:
Their opening slate is inaccurate. Kerry did not organize the Winter Soldier hearings. He simply attended and was mostly an observer. It was his idea to go to the nation’s capital to speak out. As to being a media event, the Winter Soldier Hearing got relatively little media coverage when it occurred.