An Open Letter to Senator John McCain from a Vietnam Veteran

Senator McCain,

I begin this missive with an embrazo, as we call it here in Texas, for your service to our country, as a warrior, as a prisoner of war and as a United States Senator. You have served far better and endured far more in the service of America than most men will ever do. For that, this old sergeant salutes you.

That said, as a Vietnam ground combat veteran, I must take issue with you on the situation of John Kerry and the Swift Boat Veterans. You have labeled these men “dishonest and dishonorable,” and that, Sir, is nothing more than your opinion based on no direct knowledge of the events they dispute. For you to so condemn these men publicly, without any firsthand knowledge of John Kerry’s performance in their midst and under their professional observation, is unfair to them and all veterans who share their view that John Kerry is unfit to command. Who was best qualified to evaluate you as a naval aviator, those senior officers who flew with you or the enlisted men who serviced your aircraft? Who had the experience, training and knowledge to make a professional military judgment of your performance in the air, the trained naval aviators on your wing or the enlisted flight crew back on the carrier? Certainly the enlisted men were vital in performing the mission but observing and rating your performance was not their role.

It is my understanding that you originally shared our animosity towards John Kerry, but during your senatorial service, you came to know John Kerry more personally and chose to forgive him for his labeling you a war criminal. That you are able to forgive a man even though he had denounced you and your fellow aviators as you languished in North Vietnamese prisons, with your captors using his testimony to try to break your will, is truly commendable. I admire you for your ability to turn the other cheek. However, I must point out that your forgiveness of John Kerry is purely personal and imposes not one iota of obligation to forgive him on those of us who still consider him contemptible.

You carry no mandate to speak for us. Your personal feelings are yours and yours alone; but, emphatically, you do not speak for us. You spoke up to defend your friend and your friend has turned your words into talking points. It is truly reprehensible how the Kerry campaign and the mainstream media are hiding so cynically behind your condemnation of the Swiftvets, using your statement as an excuse to dismiss their claims as baseless, smear politics. Honestly, Senator, did you really intend to provide this kind of cover for those who are so desperate to prevent the truth from coming out?

With all do respect, since you weren’t there to observe John Kerry first hand as were these Swiftvets, may I humbly suggest that the honorable thing for you to do, is to stay out of this fight and allow them and us to have our voice. Moreover, there is one thing you could do to level the playing field: acknowledge that you have no true knowledge of events the Swiftvets describe and that your immediate condemnation of these men was premature. Call on the mainstream media to investigate all parties fairly and determine whose version of events is true. I understand John Kerry is your friend, but that places him neither beyond accountability nor above the truth. You have a unique ability at this moment in America’s history to make a difference. You have long been a dutiful warrior and servant of the people.

Please, do your duty now.

/s/ Russ Vaughn
2d Bn, 327th Parachute Infantry Regiment
101st Airborne Division
Vietnam 65-66

I would request that all who agree with the sentiments expressed here copy this letter and send it to:
http://mccain.senate.gov/

John Kerry feels the pain of those in the path of Hurricane Charley.

John Kerry told survivors that he too had been in a Hurricane, while George Bush had not.Kerry reported for the first time a secret mission that put him in a Hurricane[*] on his Swift Boat in Vietnam (or maybe Cambodia - he’s not sure). The purpose was to put an undercover special forces weatherman as close to the eye as possible, to evaluate the use of Hurricanes[*] as weapons. Kerry said he was personally ordered to this mission by Chuck Colson of the Nixon Administration, just before Christmas, 1968, while recovering from his wounds from Cam Rahn Bay that earned him his first purple heart. Admitting that the use of Hurricanes as weapons of war was a war crime, Kerry said “we all did war crimes, day by day, with the full knowledge of our superiors at all level. So what’s the big deal?”

[Note: Only Typhoons hit the west Pacific north of the Equator]

Because Bush’s military record keeps coming up, and this link provides pretty comprehensive coverage, this post exists to maintain a link to it.

Given the high level of antipathy towards Kerry from the officers and men who fought with hiim, the loyalty of all but one surviving Kerry crew member has been a mystery.

These are the guys who are with Kerry at campaign stops, and who spoke up for him at the convention. They include all but one of his surviving former crewman. The one remaining crew member, Steven Gardmer is a member of Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, the 250 strong group of Kerry’s fellow warriors now disputing Kerry’s accuracy and honesty.

So if so many hold Kerry in contempt, why do his crew members support him? A strong motivation can be found in an old Boston Globe article…
Read the rest of this entry »

On the one side we have former Commander George Elliott who claims that the Globe’s Michael Kranish misquoted him as retracting his charges against John Kerry. George Elliott is a combat veteran.

On the other side, we have Michael Kranish, who has long written about Kerry, should know his subject well, and yet reported that Kerry received an Honorable Discharge in 1970, conveniently before most of his anti-war activities. In fact, as was revealed when some of Kerry’s military records were posted, Kerry didn’t get his Discharge until 1978, and thus was in the Navy Reserve from 1970 until 1978, including the years he met with the enemy and defamed his “brothers in arms” and all Vietnam Vets. Oh, and apparently until it came out, Kranish was going to write the intro to the campaign book for Kerry/Edwards.

I know where my trust would go.

The Swift Boat Vets for the Truth have been attacked by many in the media, including those not usually favorable to John Kerry, for running a powerful advertisement about John Kerry.

John Kasich on Fox News said the ad should be pulled. John McCain, our woolly headed Senator, had harsh words for it, even though it was a direct result of McCain’s campaign finance bill (which takes away our 1st amendment rights). O’Reilly thought it was despicable. Others have made similar comments.

What the hell is wrong with these people? What rule did the Swifties violate? All they did was provide their personal experience and opinion. Where is the equivalent condemnation of those on the left who accused Bush of all sorts of things - false charges?

The men making the ad fought in Vietnam and knew John Kerry. They have opinions and information about Kerry that contradict’s Kerry’s carefully prepared image, which was heavily based on his short tour in Vietnam. The critics aren’t a group rounded up by political operatives. This is a true grass roots organization.

Horrors! The politicians thought they had gotten rid of annoying citizens by tinkering with campaign finance rules.
Read the rest of this entry »

Scary John Kerry has produced a slide show that you want to see. Go here and hit the arrow at the bottom right.

You don’t have to be a Vietnam Vet to make a donation to VVT. We need your help!

VIETNAM VETS FOR THE TRUTH NEEDS YOUR HELP!

Recently an ad hoc group of Vietnam veterans, Vietnam Vets for the Truth (VVT), broke a story that the Internet samizdat has broadcast across the nation. It was the account of the esteem in which the Vietnamese communists hold John Kerry because of the efforts he made on their behalf during the Vietnam War. Focal point of the article was a photo of Senator Kerry conversing with the chairman of the Communist Party of Viet Nam, a photo which hangs in a room honoring foreigners who contributed to the communist victory in Vietnam.

A courageous American visiting Vietnam was responsible for taking these fascinating photos, making several trips back to the “War Crimes Museum” at the request of VVT. His activities aroused the suspicion of the Vietnamese authorities sufficiently for them to assign an agent to follow him on his travels. Upon his return to the States, this Vietnam veteran will provide more detail about what he saw.

VVT is involved in a number of activities besides the “Saigon Photo” story. Its centerpiece operation is the planning and execution of the “Kerry Lied Rally,” an event that will draw the attention of all Americans to the lies John Kerry told about US servicemen and –women during the Vietnam War. Featured in the Rally will be a number of speakers whose lives were directly affected by Kerry’s lies.

Another activity is “Operation Kerry Lied,” an effort in which local activists are assisted in assembling and displaying information in their hometowns about the lies Kerry told. In most cases, those activists are Vietnam veterans.

Jeffrey M. Epstein, VVT’s Media Affairs Director, notes that the organization has initiated a major fund-raising campaign to enable it to accomplish its mission of exposing John Kerry’s lies to the American public. Says Epstein: “It would be a tragedy of monumental proportions if the truth about John Kerry is not told because of a lack of funds. VVT’s effectiveness will be in direct proportion to the financial support we receive. We encourage all Vietnam veterans to hold Kerry accountable by contributing any amount, large or small.”

Vietnam Vets for the Truth, LLC, is an IRS- and FEC-designated “527 Political Action Committee” incorporated in the State of Delaware.

Contributions may be mailed to:

Vietnam Vets for the Truth, LLC
Box 49
Mt. Vernon, VA  22121

Mr. Epstein may be contacted at jepstein2@snet.net. The VVT website, which currently features the “Saigon Photo” story, may be viewed at http://kerrylied.com/.

A Microsoft Word form of this document can be downloaded from here.

Help Spread the Word!

As a Vietnam Veteran, I believe that this information needs to be provided to all Americans. We didn’t serve so that a an enemy sympathizer and propagandist would become President of the Country he hurt so badly. I have joined Vietnam Vets for the Truth, and you can help us. We need donations (see the web page), we need volunteers to put out the word, and we need folks to go to our September 12 rally.

THE KERRY STORY

Looks Good if you Believe The Media
To veterans and military people, Kerry seems like a good bet: A war hero (he’ll tell you that if you listen 5 seconds), a long time Senator and a Vietnam Veteran. He has a number of what he calls his “brothers in arms” at every campaign stop.

Only The Good is Reported
But this is a very misleading look at John Kerry. His real record is of somebody no serviceman would want in his unit, and no American would want in charge of the country.

The Real John Kerry - Damage to Vietnam Veterans and His Country
But although all of this is public record, most Americans and too many veterans don’t know the true depth to which this man descended in his quest for office in the early 70s, the lies he told to all that slandered every one of us who participated in the Vietnam War, that caused many Vietnam Veterans to be unable to get jobs and others to be considered as potential nut cases, while our great nation’s reputation was dragged through the mud, mud that clings to Vietnam Veterans, every serviceman from that time until today, and most importantly, to the reputation of our country.

The Real Kerry - Slandering Veterans and our Country
How many Americans and Vietnam Veterans know that while our POWs were in the Hanoi Hilton, Kerry was traipsing around the country, slandering all American soldiers and our country’s reputation. [NOTE to skeptics: The link is to an article which contains a link to the original CSAN transcript of Kerry’s charges when made, to the US Senate]

The Real John Kerry - Used in Anti-American Propaganda This Month
How many Americans know that just this month, the communist Vietnamese government attacked US policy in Iraq, in an article which” proved” that the United States fought using atrocities as a daily routine event, using the name and quotes from John Kerry. [NOTE: the article linked is on a web site in Vietnam, run by the Vietnamese News Service, controlled by the Vietnamese Government]

The Real John Kerry - POWs Don’t Want Him Elected
How many know that Hanoi Hilton POWs have written letters (Jim Warner, Joe Crecca, Admiral and former Senator Jeremiah Denton)asking people not to vote for Kerry. Among other things, Kerry’s speeches were played by their captors to demoralize the POWs.

The Real John Kerry - Dictators Want Him Elected
Leaders in the tyranical regime of Vietnam think we should elect John Kerry.

The Real John Kerry - Honored by Vietnamese for Helping the Communists Win
How many know that the communist tyranny in Vietnam has Kerry’s picture in a place of honor - a room dedicated to foreigners who helped the communist victory. [We have had direct contact with the person who took these pictures, and some of the ones showing context were taken on our request.]

The Real John Kerry - Denounced by his Chain of Command and 200 Fellow Swift Boaters
How many realize that those who knew Kerry best, all of his commanders up to the CINCPAC, and 200 other Swift Boat sailors gave a press conference and signed a letter claiming that Kerry was unfit to be Commander in Chief? Additional Report

The Real John Kerry - Trying to Hide The Stain of his Perfidy
How many know that Kerry himself views his anti-war activities so harmful to his presidential bid that he covered up the fact that he was an officer in the US Naval Reserve the whole time, including when he met with the enemy? He even got the Boston Globe to publish that he was given an honorable discharge in 1970, when he didn’t actually get one until 1978. [I disccovered this coverup in process. Several of us were curious about why his public biography had a 2 year gap in service. Now we know. The Boston Globe article still has the false discharge date - you can find it, and then compare it to the military records on John Kerry’s own web site.

Where to Keep Track of the Truth about John Kerry
For up-to-date complete information on Kerry’s war and anti-war record, see wintersoldier.com. See Vietnam Vets for the Truth for news and activism information. Keep an eye on this blog for updates also.

Breaking through the Media Iron Curtainl - We Need Your Help
We are determined that even in the face of the Iron Curtain of the pro-Kerry press, the truth will come out. Americans and especially veterans need to understand that John Kerry slandered our nation and our veterans, and that the stain remains to this day on us and our nation. We insist that the media show the truth.

If you can help, please contact your local TV stations, talk and news radio, and your local newspaper, and ask them why Americans are not being told the truth. It is best if you send a fax or make a telephone call, not just email. Please let others, especially Vietnam Veterans know about this site and the other two given here.

If you think American democracy functions best when both sides are heard, please help. Kerry has the support of leftist billionaire George Soros and the pro-Kerry press. Whe have nothing except you and those you inform.

Please Let Us Know About Your Efforts
Finally, if you make the effort, please let us know what you did and how it worked out. You can leave a comment at the “contact” entry here.

Please Help Vietnam Vets for the Truth
Again, we need your help - you can donate and you can find out about our programs at Vietnam Vets for the Truth.

Thank you very much.

John Moore
USNR 1966-1972, Vietnam 1968