Another Warrior Against Kerry
Mon February 23rd, 2004 15:13 MSTFrom Don Bendell:
My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart.
The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was why I volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten history, again. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: “They 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, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam.”
I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.
My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life.
Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.
John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human Rights Bill, HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POW’s, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Collier’s International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam.
“Hanoi John,” now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.
Medals do not make a man. Morals do.
Don Bendell
Canon City, Colorado
Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a best-selling author with over 1,500,000 books in print, a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in southern Colorado.
[Reprinted with permission from Don Bendell’s site - thanks to Ed Kostiha for the tip]
I understand the hurt and concern expressed here; Nobody has the right to tar an entire group of people that suffered and died for their country with the same brush.
At the same time, atrocities against Vietnamese people by American soldiers did occur; to deny that would be to deny the very nature of conflict that has shaped our civilization for milennia.
War, no matter what kind of war, still results in innocents being hurt.
The problem is, the issue is not black and white. Most politicians won’t admit that, since that would mean challenging voters’ brains too much. Kerry’s simplistic characterization of what went on in Vietnam is wrong, but so is denying of the reality of the situation.
Did atrocities occur? Yes. Where all American troops responsible? Of course not. Is it Ok to suddenly demonize that entire conflict by, in turn, demonizing the people involved in it? No.
But the nature of armed conflict does not allow me to take either side. Because war, essentially, equals grief for both opposing sides and the people caught in the middle.
My grandfather fought the Nazis in WWII. His views on war were not simplistic. He disapproved when I, as a child, referred to Nazi Germans as “evil,” because he had seen the enemy up close and observed their own confusion and pain and despair. He could see, in 1945, as the tide against Germany finally turned, that these were human beings, duped by their radical government into starting a conflict with ramifications they did not understand, driven mad by the violence around them into creating more violence.
After 4 years of blood and gore and after 25 million dead (by conservative estimates), my grandfather still had enough wisdom to view his own war as something more than a quest to squash the “evil Nazis” who were invading his land (invading, mind you. This was not a conflict fought far away. This was blood being spilled on his own soil).
After the war, my grandfather continued his service in the army, eventually becoming a General. Even as a big-shot, awarded great honours by the army, his private views on armed conflict remained as complex as ever. I was lucky that he lived long enough to pass them down to me.
Thank you. I’m off my soapbox now.
It’s not the point that atrocities didn’t happen in that war. The point is that Kerry presented it as though such things were routine and condoned, even ordered, by our armed forces.
Kerry paid lip service to the notion that they were only following orders, but we all have heard that excuse and disgarded it. What he implied was that all of our troops in Vietnam were like this. Maybe it was really true of the Vets Against the War, but if that were true, he should have said so explicitly.
My thanks go to Don Bendell and all of his fellow vets, for their service.
After what the media put Bush through, regarding his service, I want to see the scars of John Kerry’s war wounds. If the scars are severe, then his three hearts will be well earned, and I will accept them as worthy. If, however, his scars are unidentifiable, then he will be revealed as one who used a deception to achieve an escape from the war zone. If that is what he did, he is no Winter Soldier in the spirit of those who never broke faith with us, the Valley Forge veterans of 1777.
Paul
I said it to Peggy Noonan, and I’ll say it here.
George Bush is Commander in Chief of 100,000 ambassadors.
John Kerry would be Commander in Chief of 100,000 killers and rapists.
Natalia said: “But the nature of armed conflict does not allow me to take either side.” To the contrary, my view is that Massachusetts farmers and shopkeepers took their weapons down to Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1775, to resist British gun controls. Following which the militias invested the British army in Boston until St. Patrick’s Day, 1776, when the Brits abandoned the city. Since then, U.S. troops have made you a free person, and every generation of U.S. troops have kept you a free person. U.S. arms cleared the way for the Declaration of Independence, the U.S. Constitution, and the Bill of Rights. Furthermore, our revolution taught the French soldiers who fought beside us about democracy and our struggle energized the liberty movement in Britain. Recently, we have liberated Afghanistan and Iraq. We are the last, best hope of humanity.
Paul
What transpired at any level was WAR. Some will feel it was morally justified ,others not so;what they and I did in S.E Asia we will carry forever in our souls, not easy for anyone never in combat maybe to understand, any critques out there, sorry you were not in our shoes, better “you than me! was the survival mantra,till you got the time to reflect,that was the guy who gave you a swig from his canteen.When I was in the Nam I did what I was requested to do. It didn’t mean nothing, but get back to the country. The current issues are not much different, every American really better support our Troops,we need them as our family and all of you need them to keep the country safe and strong. PEACE is only spoken from a point of weakness,(oh I’ll settle)Only the Victor is Free.SAT CONG.
I agree with Paul. If he has wounds I want pictures. Don’t go snowboarding, mountainbiking, and play hockey if you aren’t going to let us see the wounds. It just tells me one thing it never happened and I had life easy enough that at my age I can still do these things. I listened to the democratic boston gathering and if they think they can get away with those lies then they are calling Americans stupid to their face. What a load of crap. When looking at a president you need to think about what his cabinet is or will be. We can see Bush’s right now and it is pretty solid, heck I’d vote for Colin Powell for president or Rumsfield any day. Course Colin wouldn’t get it for a similar reason Hillary wound’t. You put Kerry in office and who’s going to be his cabinet members? He’d probably put Michael Moore in as secretary of education. Don’t even ask me about him.
e-mail wrong…
John Kerry is a treasonist traitor and unworthy to be Commander in Chief of our men and women in uniform. It is amazing that 30 years after seeing to it that there would be no Vietnam War Heroes that all of a sudden he is a self anointed Vietnam War Hero. The only place he is acknowledged and celebrated as a Vietnam War Hero is Hanoi. I suggest he take his campaign there. Veterans PLEASE STAND UP ELECTION DAY IN NOVEMBER and quash this attrocity. George Bush so far has provided total support to the military to secure Iraq. There is work yet to be done that will be best served more expediently with our full support. The enemy is trying to play on the disention provoked by John Kerry. This is costing more lives. When they realize we mean business they will capitulate sooner. We can debate the injustices after everyone is safe at home. War ain’t pretty, but neither were the activities of Sadam Hussein. Keep the politics out, give the military the support it needs. People that were not in Vietnam need to reserve judgement and comment and listen to those who served their term there and then some in some cases. John Kerry didn’t see anything while he was there. To have come home and do what he did to those of us left there, there is no way. John Kerry and Jane Fonda showed us thirty years ago that a house divided will fall. Let us repeat history, but not that history. We label our selves the UNITED States. We have enjoyed many great accomplishments as such. Again George Bush has not taken this quest against terrorism as an internal mission, but as a GLOBAL mission with fantastic support from the Brittish Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is suffering some of the same heat in the UK. But Bush and Blair have worked diligently to bring us closer together as a Global Community. Something John Kerry has no grasp of.