QandO

February 13, 2004

Context and perception. Thanks John Kerry.
Posted by McQ

I’m sorry folks. I’m mad. I’ve been sitting around for two days now, getting more and more upset. Let me lay it out for you. Its been building in me to the point that I have to get it off my chest.

I’m sick and tired of this John Kerry, Vietnam hero crap. John Kerry indeed did his duty in Vietnam, and some would say it was heroic. But what he did to me, and others like me AFTER his service, washed all of that down the drain as far as I’m concerned.

Back in early ‘70s when I was a young infantry officer, it was, to state it mildly, a bad time to be in the armed forces. When we traveled we always traveled out of uniform, not that it wasn’t obvious by our hair-cuts, what we were. We never went off post in our uniforms, mainly because we just got tired of the muttered obscenities and the questioning of our judgement and the like.

And yes folks, we did occasionally hear the term “baby killer” tossed out at us, usually from a group of people not much older than us. And although the garrison towns surrounding army posts weren’t quite as bad as other cities in the country, it was still very tough to be in the army then. It was hard to be proud of an institution and its members which seemed to be so universally despised and reviled by the citizens of the country it represented.

How in the world did this come to be, you ask?

There’s no context available today to understand that sort of perception with the way we now admire and support our troops. Its so convenient to try to forget how it really was then. To forget that there were radical groups who were actively trying to get soldiers to desert the army or mutiny. To forget that there were also groups encouraging soldiers to kill their officers and blow up military installations. That there were raids on military depots to steal weaponry and attempts to unionize the military . Its hard to imagine that time if you didn’t live through it, and its particularly hard to imagine it if you weren’t in the armed forces.

B.G. Burkett, who authored the book “Stolen Valor: How the Vietnam Generation Was Robbed of its Heroes and its History,” points to this perception of the veterans of that era:

“For agreeing to serve their country in Vietnam, an entire generation of veterans had been tainted with the labels of victim, loser, and moral degenerate. The men who had served in the military only 20 years earlier during World War II had received honor and respect for their efforts. Why had Vietnam been so different?

Well, in my estimation, we can ask the current “Winter Soldier” who would be president.

It all began THERE. In cooperation with Jane Fonda, he helped stage the “Winter Soldier investigation”, an anti-military propaganda event with “testimony” from supposed Vietnam vets which highlighted “war crimes” it contended were routinely committed on a daily basis by our soldiers in Vietnam with the full approval of the chain-of-command . I can tell you, from personal experience, that the premise is a flat-out LIE.

Although later investigation proved that many of those who testified hadn’t been to Vietnam and some weren’t even vets, the damage it did to the reputation of those in the military at that time was so profound it took a generation to repair. Honorable men and women who had served in Vietnam were all painted with the horrific broad brush of “war criminal”, “psycho”, and “baby killer” by that sham affair. While I have no problem with principled opposition to a war, this wasn’t that. It was disgustingly irresponsible and horribly damaging to the armed forces of the era.

And yes, to answer the unasked question, I was called all of those things at one time or another back then ... simply for having the temerity to serve my country in uniform.

Kerry then further compounded this problem of his creation by testifying before congress in 1971 where he enshrined the lie in the congressional record. The news media didn’t question it. They, by then, had already decided on their agenda and this fit it neatly. Hollywood didn’t question it. Again, for the majority out there, this was perfect. The myths and stereotypes perpetrated by this “Winter Soldier” were further enshrined in such movies as Apocalypse Now, The Deer Hunter, and Platoon. They found their way onto bookshelves, in newspaper stories, and on the TV news. They tainted the honor of an entire generation of soldiers.

By this time most of us had learned not to admit service in Vietnam or even the armed forces. It just wasn’t worth it. You’d seen the looks and heard the words enough that you just didn’t want to go through it again. To this day, some are wary about admitting they were in Vietnam. They just don’t want to chance hearing “welcome home, baby killer” ever again.

So thanks, John Kerry. Thanks for your “principled stand” against the war. Thanks for your effort to cast all your former “comrades-in-arms” ... your “band of brothers”... as degenerate, baby-killing psychos. Thanks for contributing to the building of a myth that almost destroyed our armed forces and did destroy the honor those who fought in Vietnam deserved.

You’re a sham and a fake. You’re unprincipled and gutless. You didn’t even have the intestinal fortitude to throw your OWN medals away ... medals of which, in my opinion, you have now become unworthy.

And now you want to use what you were so supremely ashamed of back then as a positive in your run for the highest office in the land?

God help us all if you become President of the United States.

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