Just for the record, I didn’t vote for Bush in 2000. And just for the record, I don’t plan to vote for Bush this time around either. That may come as a surprise to many, who know me as a pretty staunch conservative. The president’s had a rough couple of years since he took office, and I’ve defended – indeed, in many cases still do defend – his policies, to include the war in Iraq. I have a few beefs with the president, but the one that lost him my vote was the business of his military service. What I find even more damning than the accusation that he was AWOL is that he forced his way into the National Guard during the Vietnam War using his father’s political influence. National Guardsmen were rarely deployed to Vietnam, and the particular jet that the unit flew was considered too obsolete to send to the combat zone.
But that doesn’t let John Kerry off the hook. It’ll be a cold day in hell before I vote for him. In fact, I think his story is more important to tell, mostly because the liberal media has given him a free pass that they did not extend to the president. It seems that Kerry can hardly even take a breath without mentioning his military service in Vietnam, and yet the media has been loathe to turn the spotlight onto Mr. Kerry’s service record.
John Kerry is a self-described war criminal. Yep. Check out this quote from NBC’s “Meet the Press,” April 18, 1971:
“There are all kinds of atrocities, and I would have to say that, yes, yes, I committed the same kind of atrocities as thousands of other soldiers … I took part in search and destroy missions, in the burning of villages. All of this is contrary to the laws of warfare, all of this is contrary to the Geneva Conventions and all of this is ordered as a matter of written established policy by the government of the United States from the top down. And I believe that the men who designed these, the men who designed the free fire zone, the men who ordered us, the men who signed off the air raid strike areas, I think these men, by the letter of the law, the same letter of the law that tried Lieutenant Calley, are war criminals.”
Actually, from the text of it, it almost sounds as if Kerry is pointing the finger at the higher brass, despite the fact that it was he and his men who were actually doing the dirty deeds. Interesting … well that’s the same defense that the Nazis used at Nuremberg in 1946. It didn’t work for those guys, but apparently it worked for John Kerry.
His comment about Lieutenant Calley is even more puzzling. Who was Lieutenant William Calley? He was the man charged with the 1968 slaughter of My Lai village. He commanded the platoon that razed the entire village without a single shot fired in resistance. Opponents of the war knew the case well, and were actively trying to convince America that incidents like My Lai were commonplace. The problem is that Kerry and Calley were of the same rank, and held equivalent positions. Calley may have been an officer, but he was not a big shot by any means. If Kerry believes that Calley is responsible for all of the war crimes committed beneath him, then Kerry must take responsibility for whatever atrocities he committed personally, as well as those committed by his crew. There can be no passing the buck on this one.
Ironically though, I don’t believe that Kerry really is a war criminal. Sure, he indicted himself on national television, but he had a different set of motivations at that time. Involved in Vietnam Veterans Against the War, he spent most of the early 1970s attending anti-war rallies that bordered on treason. His commitment to losing the war in Vietnam required that he paint a very negative picture of Vietnam for Americans. He wanted America to believe that My Lai was the norm, and so he even went as far as to say the he was guilty as well.
I wonder what Kerry would say if he were confronted with that quote today. He’s been running for so long as Candidate Kerry the War Hero, I’m guessing that he might even deny that he ever said it. It might not be good for the polls if people thought that he used to burn down Vietnamese villages full of innocent civilians.
Who knows what really happened to John Kerry in Vietnam? For that matter, who knows what really happened to anyone in Vietnam? Were atrocities commonplace, or were they isolated incidents? Did the upper echelons of command condone them, or were they committed by rogue soldiers? Having never served in Vietnam, I’d have to say that I don’t know. Even Vietnam vets themselves don’t seem to agree on the point.
No matter, though. In either case, John Kerry is an extremely dishonorable man. If he is guilty of what he claims, then he’s a despicable murderer. If it was all a lie, then he’s guilty of smearing his fellow servicemen and doing the work of the enemy to break our American will to fight. I can’t say that I want either type of man in the Oval Office come next January.
Ben Duffy is a UMass student.
