Ark. Dem-Gazette: Kerry Avowal of War Horrors No Issue in ’71

[DeepModem Mom]

(Note: I am aware that the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette skews right, especially on its deplorable editorial page, but I think this article has value.)


Publication:Arkansas Democrat-Gazette; Date: 16 September 2004 ; Section:Front Section; Page:1

Kerry avowal of war horrors no issue in ’71

BY PAUL BARTON ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT-GAZETTE


WASHINGTON — Only a small part of John Kerry’s now famous 1971 testimony before former Arkansas Sen. J. William Fulbright and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee dealt with atrocities in Vietnam, and those remarks prompted no questions from panel members, a transcript of the hearing shows.

Thirty-three years later, however, the remarks are at the center of a firestorm in the presidential campaign pitting Kerry against President Bush, with some veterans accusing the Massachusetts senator of having slandered all veterans in his testimony....

***

But some Vietnam scholars, as well as the spokesman for Vietnam Veterans of America, have come to Kerry’s defense. They say his remarks about atrocities are being twisted for political purposes....

***

Kerry’s two-hour testimony in 1971 covered a wide range of other Vietnam topics — from the special burdens on black soldiers to rampant drug use among troops to ideas on how to bring the conflict to an end "immediately and unilaterally."

He was interrupted frequently by applause, once causing Fulbright to interject: "I hope you won’t interrupt. He is making a very significant statement."...

***

(A Vietnam scholar and a former Fulbright aide said the atrocity comments "probably didn’t raise the eyebrows of Senate Foreign Relations Committee members because atrocities were already much in the news that spring" -- Lt. William Calley had been convicted just a few weeks earlier for the deaths of civilians at My Lai. The Committee would have found plausible what Kerry reported from soldiers' accounts.)


http://epaper.ardemgaz.com/Repository/getFiles.asp?Style=OliveXLib:ArticleToMail&Type=text/html&Path=ArDemocrat/2004/09/16&ID=Ar00105

[Lovecrafty]

1. Well this was after the My Lai Massacre in '68..another CBS exclusive!

I believe the public sentiment had already begun to shift about Vietnam by the time Kerry gave his testimony. The shocking footage of the 500 murdered unarmed civilians in My Lai by US Soldiers had stunned the public and forever changed our "good guy" image we fostered for ourselves. Too bad you don't get that kind of outrage nowdays! People, I guess, were just more decent before the PAC takeover of the New Deal era in 1975!! Corporate interests and control of media has since desensitized us to violence..our age of innocence has been gone for quite some time now.

[UpInArms]

3. Sy Hersh exposed Colin Powell's part in My Lai

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/My+Lai+Massacre

excerpt:

Cover-up

Initial investigations of My Lai were undertaken by the 11th Brigade's CO, Col Oran Henderson, under orders from Americal's Ass't CO, BG Young.

Six months later a young soldier of the 11th Light Infantry (The Butcher's Brigade) named Tom Glen, wrote a letter accusing the Americal division (and other entire units of the U.S. military, not just individuals) of routine brutality against Vietnamese civilians; the letter was detailed, its allegations horrifying, and its contents echoed complaints received from other soldiers. Colin Powell, then a young US Army Major, was charged with investigating the massacre. Powell wrote: "In direct refutation of this portrayal is the fact that relations between American soldiers and the Vietnamese people are excellent." Later, Powell's refutation would be called an act of "white-washing" the news of the Massacre, and questions would continue to remain undisclosed to the public.

Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh broke the My Lai story on November 12, 1969 and on November 20 The Plain Dealer (Cleveland) published explicit photographs of dead villagers killed at My Lai. The carnage at My Lai would have gone unknown in history if not for another soldier who, independent of Glen, sent a letter to his Congressman. As is evident from comments made in a 1969 telephone conversation between National Security Advisor Henry Kissinger and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird, revealed recently by the National Security Archive, the photos of the war crime were too shocking for senior officials to stage an effective cover-up. Secretary of Defense Laird is heard to say, There are so many kids just lying there; these pictures are authentic.

[UpInArms]

2. thanks for posting this DeepModem Mom

The entire record can be read at

www.c-span.org/2004vote/jkerrytestimony.asp.

The Winter Soldier Investigation can be found here:

http://lists.village.virginia.edu/sixties/HTML_docs/Resources/Primary/Winter_Soldier/WS_entry.html

[Disturbed]

5. The young soldier...

who slipped the photos of Abu Graihib under the door has had to have have security protection because he got death threats. Without those photos the Prison Torture that was widespread, not just at that prison but many others would have been a background story and still has been given light attention thus far after the initial shock of the photos. Aprox. 1,000 other photos and some videos are being kept secret by the Defense Dept. and 2,000 pages of the Taguba report have still not been delivered to Congress after 4 moths. This is a Cover Up and an American War Crimes Disgrace!!!

[thebigidea]

8. not only kept secret by DOD...

... but also by our good old fashioned "liberal media" friends at the Washington Post.

[MaineDem]

4. He was saying what most people felt

It's impossible to look at those days through today's eyes. The context of the times is vital and it's missing in any current review of what happened then.

[DeepModem Mom]

9. Very important point, Maine Dem -- nt

[Connie_Corleone]

6. Very good article

n/t

[blm]

7. Sent it to my local paper

.