Boston Globe: Kerry's commanders speak out against him

[jfxgillis]

Set up:

WASHINGTON -- A group of former officers who commanded John F. Kerry in Vietnam more than three decades ago declared yesterday that they oppose his candidacy for president, challenged him to release more of his military and medical records, and said Kerry should be denied the White House because of his 1971 allegations that some superiors had committed ''war crimes."

Story:

The senator's campaign has long weathered criticism from some Vietnam veterans over Kerry's actions in Vietnam and as an antiwar leader, but yesterday's event was unprecedented because it included nearly all of his commanding officers.

Punchline:

In contrast to the commanders, all but one of the 15 or so men who served under Kerry's command have spoken highly of the senator, and many have said they eventually came to understand his opposition to the Vietnam War. ''John Kerry never backed down," crewmate Del Sandusky said yesterday. ''His philosophy was, `Attack, attack, attack.' "

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/articles/2004/05/05/kerrys_commanders_speak_out_against_him/

I'll take that matchup anyday. In a bumper sticker version:

The men who Kerry commanded love him. The men who commanded Kerry hate him.

[demnan]

1. I'll like to know

how many of those former commanders were approached by the Republican Party with large monetary gifts.

[still_one]

10. here is what was in the article

..."the news conference was handled by a public relations firm with ties to the Republican Party and President Bush."

[Loonman]

2. Kerry-hating Globe

The Globe is a worthless rag.

[HawkerHurricane]

3. Meanwhile, in Alabama...

The search goes on for someone, anyone, who even SAW Bushco while he was serving...

[deutsey]

4. I saw part of the press conference yesterday

and was struck by how one of the speakers was deluded (in my opinion) in his belief that Vietnam was a noble, winnable war and that those dirty peaceniks at home lost it. The Nazis used the same blame game with Germany's defeat in WWI, incidentally.

The Vietnam War was neither noble nor winnable and thank God the anti-war movement helped bring it to a close before even more death and mayhem resulted.

[mrgorth]

6. And that, friends, is the bottom line

the GOP is nazi-lite.

[jfxgillis]

7. Funny

I saw it too and "Deluded" was exactly the word that leapt to mind.

They had to resolve contradictions between:

1. Their own characters and Kerry's.

2. What they said about Kerry then versus now.

3. What a couple of them said in 1996 and what they said now.

4. The fatally flawed military/political situation they were in then.

5. What Kerry's documents said then versus what they say now.

6. What Kerry said against the war then and his apology for angry and excessive language now.

7. What all his subordinates say versus what all his superiors say.

It was all too too much. I couldn't even get angry. They were sad, deluded creatures.

[still_one]

9. The Vietnam War was also based on a lie by Johnson

and the Gulf of Token

It is amazing how know one calls them on it...

[Ruby Romaine]

5. isn't the "liberal"Globe owned by the "liberal" NY Times?

[still_one]

8. Just look who organized this and payed for their hotel rooms,

John O'Neill...

What I find amazing is that these officiers who supported Kerry in 1996 are now not supporting him. Doesn't that say that someone got to them like Paul O'Neal?

The most shocking thing is that after what the current administration has done to endanger our troops, i.e., not adequate supplies, equipment, and medical care, and involving us in a conflict based on a lie, they oppose Kerry because he said "some superiors had committed war crimes", is almost laughable if it wasn't sad, especially after what happened to the POWs in Iraq

[Sparkly]

11. How does this square with Kerry's military records?

I don't understand how all these "commanding officers" are slamming him now, when his military records have been released and no such criticisms were there, were they? If the media thinks it's so important to cover these jerks, why don't they ask them some questions about that, or about their own political interests since that time, or about how they know every single thing that happened in Vietnam (= thousands of other vets are lying?), or about how they remember each and every lieutenant and their wounds, etc...?

This just makes me sick. It shows the hypocrisy of the rightwing's pro-military "support the troops" crap. More like "exploit the troops." If any are Democrats, villify them.

[cindyw]

12. Roy Hoffman, who was there, was criticized as a showboater in the Tour of

Duty book. Here is a little writing to help you understand how Kerry may have pissed this guy off. I will give you an idea of why his commanding officers might hold a grudge.


"In charge of the campaign, dubbed Operation Sealords, was a figure straight out of Catch-22, Capt. Roy Hoffman. According to Brinkley, Hoffman "sought to convince his Swift boat skippers to do whatever it took to notch splashy victories in the Mekong Delta and thereby get him promoted." Up until Hoffman's arrival, Swift boat crews had broken the monotony of routine offshore patrols by dashing up the Mekong Delta distributaries, in areas swarming with Viet Cong, with guns blazing, just for sport. To Hoffman, it was a lot more than that--seeing in such theatrical operations his path to success and glory, he made those hell-for-leather dashes the key part of the little boats' mission.

Kerry came almost immediately to understand--as did almost everybody assigned to the Swift boats--that there was no point to these mad runs. The boats had no armor to protect them from enemy fire. They were accompanied by no infantry, save for occasional Navy SEALs hitching rides. Without infantry support, there was no chance of occupying Viet Cong territory or running down significant numbers of VC soldiers. The boats' engines were so noisy that when the wind was right they could be heard coming from three miles away, and, perhaps for that reason, had enormous trouble running down junks and sampans infiltrating weapons to the enemy. "For anyone wanting to smuggle contraband, we actually made the task easier," Kerry confided in his journal. "All they had to do was hide in a mangrove or in a small canal until we had passed by." The fact is, Kerry confessed, in all the time he served in his two Swift boats in Vietnam, he and his men never tracked down any contraband--not so much as a single rifle cartridge."

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:fZdcX7V5QU4J:www.washingtonmonthly.com/features/2004/0404.perry.html+roy+hoffman+brinkley&hl=en