[Vision2020] John Kerry's Statement to the Senate

[thansen@moscow.com]

Holy revelations, Batman!

We now not only know that LT John Kerry was present when somebody said 
something threatening at a VVAW meeting during the war (WOW!  What are the odds 
of that?), he also communicated with the delegations of both Vietnams at the 
Paris Peace Talks.

I say let's not waste another second.  String him up now before peace breaks 
out.

Tom Hansen


> Tom,
> 
> You need to continue into the question and answer period following Kerry's 
opening
statement.
> 
> Copied and pasted from:
> http://ice.he.net/~freepnet/kerry/index.php?topic=Testimony
> 
> The CHAIRMAN. Do you support or do you have any particular views about any 
one of them you
wish to give the committee?
> 
> Mr. KERRY. My feeling, Senator, is undoubtedly this Congress, and I don't 
mean to sound
pessimistic, but I do not believe that this Congress will, in fact, end the war 
as we
would like to, which is immediately and unilaterally and, therefore, if I were 
to speak I
would say we would set a date and the date obviously would be the earliest 
possible date.
But I woUld like to say, in answering that, that I do not believe it is 
necessary to stall
any longer. I have been to Paris. 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 it has been stated time and 
time again,
and was stated by Senator Vance Hartke when he returned from Paris, and it has 
been stated
by many other officials of this Government, if the United States were to set a 
date for
withdrawal the prisoners of war would be returned.
> 
> 
> 
> At 05:06 PM 4/28/04 +0000, you wrote:
> >Copied and pasted from 
> 
>http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Manifesto
s
> >/VVAW_Kerry_Senate.html
> >
> >
> >I would like to talk on behalf of 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. These were 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 and the feelings of the men who were 
> >reliving their experiences in Vietnam. They relived the absolute horror of 
what 
> >this country, in a sense, made them do.
> >
> >They told stories that 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 Ghengis 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.
> >
> >We call this investigation the Winter Soldier Investigation. The term Winter 
> >Soldier is a play on words of Thomas Paine's in 1776 when he spoke of the 
> >Sunshine Patriots and summertime soldiers who deserted at Valley Forge 
because 
> >the going was rough.
> >
> >We who have come here to Washington have come here because we feel we have 
to 
> >be winter soldiers now. We could come back to this country, we could be 
quiet, 
> >we could hold our silence, we could not tell what went on in Vietnam, but we 
> >feel because of what threatens this country, not the reds, but the crimes 
which 
> >we are committing that threaten it, that we have to speak out....
> >
> >In our opinion and from our experience, there is nothing in South Vietnam 
which 
> >could happen that realistically threatens the United States of America. And 
to 
> >attempt to justify the loss of one American life in Vietnam, Cambodia or 
Laos 
> >by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom, which those misfits 
> >supposedly abuse, is to us the height of criminal hypocrisy, and it is that 
> >kind of hypocrisy which we feel has torn this country apart.
> >
> >We found that not only was it a civil war, an effort by a people who had for 
> >years been seeking their liberation from any colonial influence whatsoever, 
but 
> >also we found that the Vietnamese whom we had enthusiastically molded after 
our 
> >own image were hard put to take up the fight against the threat we were 
> >supposedly saving them from.
> >
> >We found most people didn't even know the difference between communism and 
> >democracy. They only wanted to work in rice paddies without helicopters 
> >strafing them and bombs with napalm burning their villages and tearing their 
> >country apart. They wanted everything to do with the war, particularly with 
> >this foreign presence of the United States of America, to leave them alone 
in 
> >peace, and they practiced the art of survival by siding with whichever 
military 
> >force was present at a particular time, be it Viet Cong, North Vietnamese or 
> >American.
> >
> >We found also that all too often American men were dying in those rice 
paddies 
> >for want of support from their allies. We saw first hand how monies from 
> >American taxes were used for a corrupt dictatorial regime. We saw that many 
> >people in this country had a one-sided idea of who was kept free by the 
flag, 
> >and blacks provided the highest percentage of casualties. We saw Vietnam 
> >ravaged equally by American bombs and search and destroy missions, as well 
as 
> >by Viet Cong terrorism - and yet we listened while this country tried to 
blame 
> >all of the havoc on the Viet Cong.
> >
> >We rationalized destroying villages in order to save them. We saw America 
lose 
> >her sense of morality as she accepted very coolly a My Lai and refused to 
give 
> >up the image of American soldiers who hand out chocolate bars and chewing 
gum.
> >
> >We learned the meaning of free fire zones, shooting anything that moves, and 
we 
> >watched while America placed a cheapness on the lives of orientals.
> >
> >We watched the United States falsification of body counts, in fact the 
> >glorification of body counts. We listened while month after month we were 
told 
> >the back of the enemy was about to break. We fought using weapons 
> >against "oriental human beings." We fought using weapons against those 
people 
> >which I do not believe this country would dream of using were we fighting in 
> >the European theater. We watched while men charged up hills because a 
general 
> >said that hill has to be taken, and after losing one platoon or two platoons 
> >they marched away to leave the hill for reoccupation by the North 
Vietnamese. 
> >We watched pride allow the most unimportant battles to be blown into 
> >extravaganzas, because we couldn't lose, and we couldn't retreat, and 
because 
> >it didn't matter how many American bodies were lost to prove that point, and 
so 
> >there were Hamburger Hills and Khe Sanhs and Hill 81s and Fire Base 6s, and 
so 
> >many others.
> >
> >Now we are told that the men who fought there must watch quietly while 
American 
> >lives are lost so that we can exercise the incredible arrogance of 
Vietnamizing 
> >the Vietnamese.
> >
> >Each day to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her 
hands 
> >of Vietnam someone has to give up his life so that the United States doesn't 
> >have to admit something that the entire world already knows, so that we 
can't 
> >say that we have made a mistake. Someone has to die so that President Nixon 
> >won't be, and these are his words, "the first President to lose a war."
> >
> >We are asking Americans to think about that because how do you ask a man to 
be 
> >the last man to die in Vietnam? How do you ask a man to be the last man to 
die 
> >for a mistake?....We are here in Washington to say that the problem of this 
war 
> >is not just a question of war and diplomacy. It is part and parcel of 
> >everything that we are trying as human beings to communicate to people in 
this 
> >country - the question of racism which is rampant in the military, and so 
many 
> >other questions such as the use of weapons; the hypocrisy in our taking 
umbrage 
> >at the Geneva Conventions and using that as justification for a continuation 
of 
> >this war when we are more guilty than any other body of violations of those 
> >Geneva Conventions; in the use of free fire zones, harassment interdiction 
> >fire, search and destroy missions, the bombings, the torture of prisoners, 
all 
> >accepted policy by many units in South Vietnam. That is what we are trying 
to 
> >say. It is part and parcel of everything.
> >
> >An American Indian friend of mine who lives in the Indian Nation of Alcatraz 
> >put it to me very succinctly. He told me how as a boy on an Indian 
reservation 
> >he had watched television and he used to cheer the cowboys when they came in 
> >and shot the Indians, and then suddenly one day he stopped in Vietnam and he 
> >said, "my God, I am doing to these people the very same thing that was done 
to 
> >my people," and he stopped. And that is what we are trying to say, that we 
> >think this thing has to end.
> >
> >We are here to ask, and we are here to ask vehemently, where are the leaders 
of 
> >our country? Where is the leadership? We're here to ask where are McNamara, 
> >Rostow, Bundy, Gilpatrick, and so many others? Where are they now that we, 
the 
> >men they sent off to war, have returned? These are the commanders who have 
> >deserted their troops. And there is no more serious crime in the laws of 
war. 
> >The Army says they never leave their wounded. The marines say they never 
even 
> >leave their dead. These men have left all the casualties and retreated 
behind a 
> >pious shield of public rectitude. They've left the real stuff of their 
> >reputations bleaching behind them in the sun in this country....
> >
> >We wish that a merciful God could wipe away our own memories of that service 
as 
> >easily as this administration has wiped away their memories of us. But all 
that 
> >they have done and all that they can do by this denial is to make more clear 
> >than ever our own determination to undertake one last mission - to search 
out 
> >and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war, to pacify our own hearts, 
to 
> >conquer the hate and fear that have driven this country these last ten years 
> >and more. And more. And so when thirty years from now our brothers go down 
the 
> >street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we 
> >will be able to say "Vietnam" and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene 
> >memory, but mean instead where America finally turned and where soldiers 
like 
> >us helped it in the turning.
> >
> >
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