A Letter to Senator Kerry on the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war

[Tela Zasloff]

A Letter to Senator Kerry on the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war

Dear Senator Kerry,

Thirty-six years ago, at age 27, you testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on behalf of veterans protesting the continuation of the Vietnam War. You astounded the Committee with your grasp of the problems facing America in trying to disengage from that war, prompting President Nixon to put you immediately on his Enemies List.

Some of the general points you made in your 1971 testimony:
“To attempt to justify the loss of one American life. . .by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom. . .is the height of criminal hypocrisy.”
“Each day, to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her hands of Vietnam, someone has to give up his life, so that the United States doesn’t have to admit something that the entire world already knows. . .we have made a mistake.”
“We are asking here in Washington for some action from the Congress of the United States of America, which has the power to raise and maintain armies, and which by the Constitution also has the power to declare war.”
“I do not believe that this Congress will, in fact, end the war as we would like to, which is immediately and unilaterally. . . I would say we should set a date that is the earliest possible. . .I do not believe it is necessary to stall any longer.”

Chairman Fulbright commented on your eloquence and its enormous benefit to the country, and Senator Pell said, “I hope, before Mr. Kerry’s life ends, he will be a colleague of ours in this body.”

And so you are today—a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the country is mired in another civil war on foreign soil. Appropriately, you are one of the Senators leading the charge for setting a deadline of a year for full withdrawal from Iraq. But, just as with Vietnam, we Americans also need to learn from our tragic mistakes and hold our politicians responsible. We badly need another Fulbright committee investigation of this war and this administration. Can you push this through for us?


Tela Zasloff, Williamstown, MA
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Author of "A Rescuer’s Story: Pastor Pierre Charles Toureille in Vichy France" (The University of Wisconsin Press, 2003) and "Saigon Dreaming, Recollections of Indochina days" (St. Martin’s Press, 1990).

[karynnj]

1. Amazing letter - I hope he takes you up on it

We need an investigation. (Your books sound interesting)

[Luftmensch067]

2. Excellent letter!

Simple, eloquent, direct. Thank you for sharing it with us.

If anyone can make such an investigation happen, it will be Senator Kerry!

[blm]

3. Has this been printed in a Mass paper?

.

[TayTay]

4. Tela, this is wonderful

I will, with your permission, also send this to Sen. Kerry's office.

Refresher on the Fulbright Commission Hearings: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulbright_Hearing

[Tela Zasloff]

5. Thank you, from Tela

Thanks, TayTay and other responders, for comments. (Hi, Karen.) And, yes, please send it to Senator Kerry's office. I've sent the letter to the Boston Globe. Don't know if they'll publish it.