[Vision2020] Kerry Lied about Vietnam and Vietnam Veterans

[Melynda Huskey]

With respect, Cliff, Kerry's testimony to Congress as part of VVAW was *not* 
personal testimony.  He reported that at the Winter Soldier Institute other 
soldiers declared that *they* had done the horrible things detailed in your 
quotation.   Kerry was there as a moderator, not as a participant.  He 
listened to and asked questions of the men who participated.

As a result of Kerry's testimony, which was technically second-hand, Senator 
Mark Hatfield called for an investigation of the WSI.  The investigation 
found that most of the men who had described their experiences there were 
frauds.  Kerry didn't know that at the time; neither did other members of 
VVAW.  His reporting of what he heard, believing as he did that atrocities 
were taking place, was clearly appropriate.

In fact, the historical record demonstrates that there were indeed 
atrocities taking place in Viet Nam, as there have been in every war.  My 
Lai is, of course, the most famous example. William Calley was found guilty 
of killing fifty unarmed civilians and attempting to murder a child.  Calley 
served three years under house arrest and then served part of one year in 
prison before going free.   The Toledo Blade just got a Pulitzer for 
reporting on a seven month killing spree conducted by the Tiger Force elite 
unit in Viet Nam--none of whom were punished or even interrupted in their 
horrifying excesses, despite a lengthy investigation by the Army.

http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031020/SRTIGERFORCE/110190136

Very few soldiers in Viet Nam were war criminals--after all, the vast 
majority of soldiers never even saw combat, serving in rear-support 
positions.  Very few combatants were war criminals.  It is, after all, a 
fairly technical term.  But war is, by definition, an evil, wicked, 
life-destroying business which forces people to do horrible things and calls 
them "patriotic," "legal," and "good."  Neither Viet Nam, nor Afghanistan, 
nor Iraqs I & II are exceptions.  Kerry and his fellow VVAW members were 
right to denounce the war, and they did so out of personal conviction that 
the war was wrong.  To blame them for the traumatic wound inflicted on the 
U.S. by the Viet Nam war is blaming the victim.

Melynda Huskey

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