Kerry and Agent Orange

[dArKeR]

Mach 8 issue - The Swift Boats, like the one John Kerry captained, were sitting ducks. Hiding in the dense jungle along the riverbanks of the Mekong Delta, the Viet Cong could open up on the Americans with machine guns, mortars and rockets—and vanish before the Americans could effectively shoot back. So the U.S. military adjusted, dropping tons of herbicide on the foliage to strip the enemy of its cover. "They just told us they sprayed something to kill the bushes," recalls Mike Medeiros, who served with Kerry aboard PCF (Patrol Craft Fast) 94 in the winter of 1969. "It looked like a moonscape ... You saw skeletal remains of trees everywhere. It was like, whatever they're using is some serious stuff."

Some of Kerry's men, contacted last week by NEWSWEEK, don't recall being directly sprayed, or saw planes or choppers dropping the herbicides in the distance. Other Swift Boat crews patrolling near Kerry's boat say they were doused. But everyone, including Kerry, realizes today that they fought in a highly toxic environment. "We know they used defoliants, at least I knew they used defoliants, because it was all around us," says Kerry. "We'd often see the C-130s flying over us—they'd come down along the river and drop this stuff on us," recalls Wade Sanders, who served with Kerry in the delta, on different boats but sometimes on the same patrols along the Cambodian border. "The wind would carry the mist right onto us. But they didn't tell us what it was. We thought it was mosquito spray." The "stuff" was Agent Orange, which, over time, can be lethal to humans as well as to most other living things. "We used to bathe in those rivers and swim in the water to cool off," says Sanders. "Agent Orange was everywhere, all around us, but no one ever told us not to go in the water." Over the years, says Sanders, he and Kerry "have had many discussions about our exposure to Agent Orange."

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4410098/

There was a report that about 100 'veterans' were protesting outside Kerry's NY? campaign headquarters because he was a 'Vietnam coward' or something like that. Why don't the Media Whore find out exactly who these people are? Rove operatives? Robertson's brainwashed? Delay staffers?

[cindyw]

1. Ted Sampley's people. Same guy who smeared Kerry and previously

McCain before him. You know the guy with the Vietnam Vets Against Kerry website. This is not a movement people. It is a few guys who seem to rail against all Vets who run for high office. I cannot see a reasonable reason for them to have opposed McCain. So, it is a smear group, but not a very big one.

Vietnam Veterans Against John Kerry and Vietnamese-American Organizations Coalition Announce Plans For A Protest Demonstration Against John Kerry
Where: New York City, 373 Park Avenue South (between 26the and 27the Streets) across from Kerry's campaign headquarters
Date: February 28, 2004
Time: 12:00 noon
Coalition spokesman:
Jerry Kiley, New York spokesman and demonstration coordinator can be reached at 845-947-3058.
Mike Benge, a US POW in Vietnam for 5 years is available for interviews at 703- 698-8256
Peter Nguyen, General Council of the Vietnamese Community of NY, will be available for interviews at 718-892-9500

[JoFerret]

2. Good call

There are such people but no where near as many as chickenhawks like to imagine. Rather like outraged Florida voters who work as staffers for Taxas congresspeople.