My uncle is a good guy

[LovetoCamp]

I've always had a hard time believing that American soldiers did the cutting corpse's ears and fingers off in Vietnam. Half of my first platoon served in Vietnam, they worked hard, followed the rules, and were mostly good guys. This guy spells out why Vietnam Veterans have been maligned for the last 33 years.

 

GUEST OPINION

 

 

My wife had rotator cuff surgery earlier this year, and the recovery is terribly painful. Then, she developed a staph-epi infection, and they had to cut the same scar open and operate on her again. Just thinking about the pain and anxiety of facing that painful surgery a second time in the same wound, makes me cringe. That experience, however pales in comparison to what I am going through right now, in my heart.

 

The old hurts are surfacing and the feelings of betrayal by fellow citizens, and their leader stirring them up, are breaking my heart again. I am being cut in the same scar. How did we who served in Vietnam suddenly become cold-blooded killers, torturers, and rapists, of the ilk of the Nazi SS or the Taliban? Most of us were American soldiers who grew up idolizing John Wayne, Roy Rogers, and all the other heroes. That was why I volunteered. But for political expediency, John Kerry has rewritten history, again. After spending only four months in the country of Vietnam, John Kerry testified before Congress in 1971 with these exact words about incidents he supposedly witnessed or heard about from other vets: They personally raped, cut off ears, cut off heads, taped wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turned up the power, cut off limbs, blown up bodies, randomly shot at civilians, razed villages, shot cattle and dogs for fun, poisoned food stocks, and generally ravaged the countryside of South Vietnam."

 

I was a green beret officer who volunteered for duty in Vietnam and fought in the thick of it in 1968 and 1969 on a Special Forces A-team on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, just for starters. We were the elite. We saw the most action. Everybody in the world knows that. But we did not just kill people, we built a church, a school, treated illnesses, passed out soap, food, and clothing, and had fun and loving interaction with the indigenous people of Vietnam, just like our boys did in Normandy, Baghdad, Saigon, and everywhere American soldiers ever served. We all gave away our candy bars and rations to kids. Our hearts to oppressed people all over the globe.

 

My children and grandchildren could read your words, and think those horrendous things about me, Mr. Kerry. You are a bold-faced, unprincipled liar, and a disgrace, and you have dishonored me and all my fellow Vietnam veterans. Sure, there were a couple bad-apples, but I saw none, and I saw it all, and if I did, as an army officer, it was my obligation to stop it, or at the very least report it. Why is there not a single record anywhere of you ever reporting any incidents like this or having the perpetrators arrested? The answer is simple. You are a liar. Your medals and mine are not a free pass for lifetime, Senator Kerry, to bypass character, integrity, and morality. I earn my green beret over and over daily in all aspects of my life.

 

Eight National Guard green berets, and other National Guard soldiers, have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, and you totally dishonored their widows and families by lumping National Guard service in with being a draft-dodger, conscientious objector, and deserter, just so you can try to sabotage the patriotism of our President who proudly served as an Air National Guard jet pilot. I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now, and his wife serves honorably in the Air National Guard, just like President Bush did, and I am as proud of her as I am my son. I volunteered for Vietnam and have no problem whatsoever with President Bush being our Commander-In-Chief. In fact, I am proud of him as our leader.

 

John Kerry, you personally derailed the Vietnam Human Rights Bill, HR2883, in 2001, after it had passed the House by a 411 to 1 vote, and thousands of pro-American Montagnard tribespeople in Vietnam died since then who could have been saved, by you. Earlier, as Chair of the Senate Select Committee on MIA/POW Affairs, you personally quashed the efforts of any and all veterans to report sightings of living POWs, when you held those reins in Congress. You have fought tooth and nail to push for the US to normalize relations with Vietnam for years. Why, Mr. Kerry? Simple, your first cousin C. Stewart Forbes, CEO, of Colliers International, recently signed a contract with Hanoi, worth BILLIONS of dollars for Colliers International to become the exclusive real estate representative for the country of Vietnam.

 

Hanoi John, now that it works for you, you beat your chest about your Vietnam service, but to me, you are a phony, opportunistic, hypocrite. You are one of those politicians that is like a fertilizer machine: all that comes out of you is horse manure, and you are spreading it everywhere.

 

Medals do not make a man. Morals do.

 

Don Bendell

 

Canon City, Colorado

 

 

 

Don Bendell served as an officer in four Special Forces Groups, is a best-selling author with over 1,500,000 copies of his books in print worldwide, a 1995 inductee into the International Karate Hall of Fame, and owns karate schools in southern Colorado.

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Pounder, I dont know if this will make you feel better, but I have not seen much malignment of Vietnam Veterans, could just be the circles I run in.

 

A long time ago I heard the term "class of 45" or perhaps it was 46 versus "class of 69", always thought it was quite accurate. Perhaps someone with experience could expound on it

[evmori]

Consider the source! I don't agree with what Kerry said nor do I endorse it. Just consider the source.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[LovetoCamp]

Apocolypse Now, Platoon, Full Metal Jacket, The Deer Hunter.....all chock full of crazed Americans in Vietnam.

 

National Guard. When my unit arrived in Saudi Arabia, we were issued two liters of water and bussed to our waiting vehicles. We rolled west out into the desert. Our first stop was a fuel point. Tennessee National Guard. Tennessee flags flying. The First Sergeant and the CO were helping direct traffic. Topped off the tanks and thumbs up and off we went. Wow, I thought, that Guard unit was high speed. Motivated, dedicated, to the cause! A week later a howitzer unit drove by. Guess who. Tennessee National Guard. I don't remember who they were, but they were a battalion of self-propelled M109s attached to VII Corps. Half the tracks were flying Tennessee flags from their antennas. I think the entire State of Tennessee was taking on the Republican Guard. They weren't but if they were, I'll bet it wouldn't have taken 100 hours to whip their butts and our guys wouldn't have had to fight the Medina Division again in 2003.

 

I saw the National Guard in action and they were supurb.

[Hunt]

You can read more about this at:

 

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_john_kerry2.htm

 

and form your own conclusions. I think it's interesting that McCain also opposed the Vietnam Human Rights Act mentioned in the piece.

[acco40]

Politics, politics. For those who did not live during those devisive years of Vietnam, don't try and judge the actions of 40 - 50 years ago by todays standards.

 

The Vietnam "experience" and how it was portrayed in the media is vastly different that what occured during WWII. First, except for news reports, very little was written and filmed about Vietnam until quite a bit afterwards. Yes, John Wayne starred in The Green Berets, but that was one of the few popular movies made about Nam until much later. It was a conflict that many felt the USA "lost." It was not embraced by popular culture until many years later.

 

At first, the veterans were thought of as baby killers, deranged, and battle scarred who could not return stateside and lead a meaningful life. The Bruce Dern/Jane Fonda movie, Coming Home (78) and the Streep/De Niro movie The Deerhunter (78) amplified that stereotype. But notice that those movies were made many years after our countries involvement in the conflict.

 

Now advance a few years and the memory of the conflict fades. We have the Iranian hostage crisis, oil embargos, the might of the US is questioned. How is the vet now portrayed? As a hero! Look at Rambo. He made the transisiton in popular culture from a vet who was just "nuts" as in the movies previously mentioned to one who had honor and strength. Magnum PI, Simon and Simon, etc., the vet is now glorified as a brave, macho guy. It acts as a salve to our psyche.

 

Now many, many years later the upcoming election looks like it will pit two individuals who come from amazingly similar backgrounds. However, look at how the attitude of the student population at Yale changed in just two years (difference between Bush and Kerry)! The view of the war changed dramatically on campus. Please, lets not return to those devisive years that tore our country apart.

[Eamonn]

Have you seen "We were soldier's" With Mel Gibson?

Eamonn