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View Full Version : Vietnam War has no place in 2004 election



thedrifter
08-26-04, 07:14 AM
Posted on Wed, Aug. 25, 2004 <br />
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Vietnam War has no place in 2004 election <br />
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By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY

radio relay
08-26-04, 08:58 AM
Ok Joe.

Then how about telling your candidate (I assume it's Kerry) to shut his yap about his glories on the "battlefield", stop with the limp wrist salute, and get to the "real" issues you mentioned. I'm ready for it!!!

MillRatUSMC
08-26-04, 09:18 AM
I think Joe has the best interest of the Nation.
He correct on many issues and he correct that we shouldn't be dissecting what one did in Vietnam.
For many that a non-issue and soon it will turn many of the disinterested from the party attacking, if it hasn't already.
What we should address is the present and the future as Joe says.
Yet we would be re-missed, if we did not address what John Forbes Kerry did after returning from Vietnam.
Yesterday, I was thinking, "Where's the voice of the POW's from Vietnam"?
What he said and gave testimony to while a member of the Vietnam Veteran's Against the War.
Must have been used against them and broadcast to them over the radio or speakers.
Yet we haven't heard from that group as a whole.
Wonder why?
I for one had never hear of these 528 groups and who fund who.
All this hoopla is camouflage from the issues we face today.
Bring up the dirt from past, to distract from the issues that should be addressed...

Semper Fidelis/Semper Fi
Ricardo

vance
08-26-04, 09:27 AM
I agree,. It has been a mistake to bring up the Vietnam war and to divide the country again. And I don't like to see Vietnam Veterans divided either .

al20852
08-27-04, 09:45 AM
While I agree, the press appears to believe that it is the Swift Boat veterans and the Republicans who have injected Viet Nam into the election. As I recall, Kerry did that at the convention. Whatever his motivations, he must now be regretting it. The situation we face today, both here and aborad, is far too important to get bogged down in what happened back then.

Namvet67
08-27-04, 10:56 AM
I don't think Kerry realized how his war record would come across to the general public. I'm sure he assumed it would get him some votes just because he was a Vietnam vet. He shoud have left it like that and not try to make himself into some kind of war hero. It's going to cost him some votes no doubt. Of course I would not vote for him anyway (vet or not). I'm getting tired of hearing about Vietnam every single day. I lived there for 36 months and I don't want to be having flash backs every time I turn on the tv or radio. Vietnam was and is still important but not a platform for the election. Semper Fi

Sparrowhawk
08-27-04, 12:38 PM
Originally posted by vance
I agree,. It has been a mistake to bring up the Vietnam war and to divide the country again. And I don't like to see Vietnam Veterans divided either .

he has not changed. he continues to divide the country today. Kerry wants it his way no matter what the cost, then and now.

There has never been anyone including Jane Fonda that I despise more then Kerry because of what he did after he left the service and for gloifying his service with lies about his service in a country too many Marines died with honor trying to help the Vietnamese enjoy the same type of freedoms we enjoy.

onlyamarine
08-27-04, 02:53 PM
John Kerry wrote a book called, "The New Soldier." He wrote it twenty years ago and he does not want the public to get ahold of it. It talked about Vietnam War and the way it would of been with the new soldier. The book is hard to find, and some are being sold on ebay from $500 to $2500.

yellowwing
08-27-04, 03:14 PM
Anyone who wrote anything about their experiences in Vietnam, would be torn to shreds if they were targeted by a group with the million dollar financing and PR organization of these Swift Boats Vets.

onlyamarine
08-27-04, 03:54 PM
I read you loud and clear, I believe he spoke about a second vietnam war with the new soldier, and that was 20 years ago.

hrscowboy
08-27-04, 05:37 PM
Gentlemen least we forget it dont matter who the president of the united states is, I have said and will say it again if you want change in this country you need to raise hell with the congress. It is beyond me why we keep putting the same old ones back in congress. Congress needs term limits also and that means everyone but they dont seem to want term limits so i say after 8 years in congress kick there arses out of there. Vote them out

Sparrowhawk
08-27-04, 06:15 PM
Originally posted by yellowwing
Anyone who wrote anything about their experiences in Vietnam, would be torn to shreds if they were targeted by a group with the million dollar financing and PR organization of these Swift Boats Vets.

They received $150,000 from rich Republicans to begin with and then Veterans began sending in all @ million that now have.


Meanwhile the Democrats have spent over 6 million with attack ads against Bush, but you see those ads are outright lies and distortions and only Democrats belief them, so they haven't gotten the milage the TRUTH about Kerry has gotten by 250+ Vietnam veterans that said the truth.

And the whinner strikes back at Bush who has nothing to do with those ads, to distract from the contents of the truth.


Kerry won't respond to the truth. latest Congressional Records released show numerous more times Kerry has lied about his Vietnam experiences...

If he can't handle 250 Vietnam Veterans how is he gona handle terrorism?


Run-n-hide like he has before, run to mama Teresa ?

He is "Unfit for Command" humm.... someone should write a book witht hat title about John Kerry

CAR
08-27-04, 07:01 PM
I don't know about you but I have yet to hear a straight answer form any of the political "spokesman". Every time they are on the panel they do a good job of mixing in the arguments of ALL the medals and try to dismiss the argument by saying the media has shown them to be false. Wrong. I have watched and read several things on what the Swifties have said and they keep it simple. One point at a time. The oposition keeps distorting it by balling all of the points together and then simply dismissing them. I want to hear real answers to every point they make.

I know that this is getting old, but in a way don't the politicians count on it. They figure the public will get tired of it and it will pass. I for one, want to know! I respect that Kerry was there, But I know how much it bugs me when ANYONE walks around with "Liberty Ribbons". Just as WE honor our Eagle, Globe and Anchor so do we Honor all those who have truly earned their medals. I am not ready to dismiss or dicount 250 Nam vets (Decorated Vets) just because I'm sick of hearing about it. I want the Vets to get their answers.

The iSSUE is not whether he exagerated his records as much as it is about did he Do it all for Political reasons. If so doesn't that scare you? To know we need answers.

Kerry's camp has said, They are mad that President Bush cause he has allowed the Swifties to question a Hero's war record. Isn't that exactly what the Kerry camp is doing to 250+ Nam Vets by saying they are "flat out lying".

Makes me mad!

Sparrowhawk
08-29-04, 08:02 AM
Put up or shut up, Sen. Kerry <br />
Ben Shapiro (archive) <br />
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August 25, 2004 | Print | Send <br />
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In Jewish thought, there is a concept called &quot;midah k'neged midah&quot; -- literally, &quot;measure for...

CMyr
08-29-04, 09:30 AM
But it is history now. Not only in our country but in Vietnam as well, where you would think the bitterness of losing over a million people killed would last forever.

Special Report
Little Saigon Eyes Kerry
By Pete Peterson
Published 8/27/2004 12:06:01 AM


DATELINE: SAIGON -- Little Saigon that is. In the largest Vietnamese enclave outside of Vietnam they remember the Vietnam War as the American War. Spanning the three Orange County, California cities of Westminster, Garden Grove and Santa Ana, the residents of this communist-free (by legislation) stronghold have little use for War Hero candidate John Kerry. Chock full of beauty schools, cafes, and ubiquitous Pho restaurants (the classic Vietnamese soup), the pre-communist national flag proudly waves next to the Stars and Stripes above the Veterans memorial at Westminster City Hall.

In "America's Most Republican County" (350 elected officials; registration 48.5% Rep./30.6% Dem.) Senator Kerry is considered a traitor to the Vietnamese cause. His anti-war antics that helped launch a thousand boats, coupled with his shelving of the 2001 Vietnam Human Rights Act (a litmus test for a majority of Vietnamese no matter what party), gives President Bush a golden opportunity to woo an often overlooked minority voting block.

"Kerry's action burned bridges nationwide" within the Vietnamese community, according to Garden Grove councilman and Republican California State Assembly candidate Van Tran. Sponsored in the House by Christopher Smith and co-sponsored by the unlikely bipartisan duo of Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) and Loretta Sanchez (D-CA, whose district crosses into Little Saigon), the human rights act passed by a margin of 410-1. Kerry, then ranking member of the Senate subcommittee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, did not allow the legislation to come to the floor for a vote.


Tran, a Vietnamese-American, is readying for a cross-country trip to New York City as a first time delegate to the Republican National Convention. He told this writer that he had taken advantage of this year's option of registering as a GOP delegate via the Internet. Elected to the Garden Grove City Council with more votes than any other candidate in city history, Tran also picked up the Republican nomination for State Assembly with a 2-1 edge (66% to 33%) over fellow Councilman Mark Leyes. He is also a member of Rep. Ed Royce's Asian Pacific Congressional Advisory Board.

For those of us who have been content to let the bad dream of the Vietnam War fade into national unconsciousness (until the Kerry campaign), the strength of the battles still going on in our midst may seem surprising. In early 1999, Truong Van Tran (no relation) placed a picture of Ho Chi Minh and the communist Vietnamese flag in the window of his video store in the Westminster portion of Little Saigon. Seven weeks of subsequent protest garnered national attention and culminated in Truong's arrest for pirating Vietnamese soap operas. This event was a turning point in the political participation of the locals. After serving as a liaison between the community and the Westminster police, Van Tran decided to make a run for city council in his neighboring hometown of Garden Grove.

"It is intriguing about this election that Vietnam is coming in to play," Tran muses. "Vietnamese-Americans haven't forgotten John Kerry's anti-war stance. It would not be too much to say there is some hatred for him in the community." With a population of over a million in the U.S., and almost half of that in California, this sizable and vocal minority voting block may have some resonance during this election cycle.

Lan Quoc Nguyen, the first Vietnamese-American to be elected to a local school board in California (Garden Grove, nach), has a more "nuanced" view of his struggles with Kerry. "Senator Kerry is a deeply principled man that believes that the war was wrong," he says, "and he's trying to undo the damage that the U.S. did to the country." That doesn't mean that Nguyen believes that Kerry is right, or that Kerry is listening to the Vietnamese community. "It is difficult to approach him. Anyone who gets in his way is viewed as a leftover from the Southern regime."

Nguyen believes that the war was wrong in the way that it was fought, not in its intent. He says that the war cause was just, and that the actions of the North afterwards demonstrate that. "We fought to prevent what actually happened. Senator Kerry has ignored the aftermath of the war, the wholesale persecution in the south, the tragedies and the torture.

"In the south, we accepted the fact that we lost. The communist government did not forget that it won. It did not reconcile with the south. It cracked down with a vengeance on all who were involved, including the religious organizations. This never registered in any part of Kerry's policy."


As for Kerry's handling of the 2001 Vietnam Human Rights Act, Nguyen says it further emboldened the communist government. "We accept democratic debate. We won almost unanimously in the House. When Kerry used his influence to squash the bill in the Senate, it was like he was thumbing his nose at us and making a mockery of the process." He says that the communist government has used Senator Kerry to make a point at home. "They make fun of America and its 'process.' They know that all they need to do is get one Senator to get what they want."

Nguyen says that the government has used the bill's defeat to enact a new crackdown on religious freedom in Vietnam. On the street in Little Saigon, people take a blunter view, and refer to Kerry as a communist sympathizer. To make it even more interesting, the community doesn't hold all its ire for Kerry. Although John McCain wasn't technically linked to Kerry or the legislation, locals suspect that he had a role in its fate, and want him to fess up.

Councilman Van Tran is grateful for the opportunity to represent Little Saigon and the greater Vietnamese-American community at the convention. He considers his life to be a classic American success story. Emigrating with his parents at age 10 from Saigon, Tran went on to get a B.A. in Political Science from the UC Irvine, and then went on to earn both a Master's in Public Administration and a Juris Doctorate from Hamline University School of Law in Saint Paul, Minnesota. He has served as a staff aide to Rep. Bob Dornan and then-State Senator (now Congressman) Ed Royce, as well as other political posts. "America offers to immigrants a life of hope and opportunity, and nourishes our aspirations to be something better."

Tran, along with Nguyen, has worked intensely within the Vietnamese community to encourage people to participate in the electoral process. Earlier this year in anticipation of his assembly race, Tran registered 4,000 new Republicans through his Vietnamese-American Voters Coalition, including 1,000 existing voters that switched parties to vote in the primary. With an Eastern Seaboard group sponsoring a fundraiser this month in Philadelphia for his California race, Tran is taking-in talk of his being a future national figure. "There is talk about that circulating, but one step at a time."


The latest news out of Little Saigon was the passing of two ordinances in May of this year, one each in Westminster and Garden Grove, which declared both cities "communist-free zones." The communist Vietnamese government had been planning a charm mission to Little Saigon (as well as other expat communities), to promote "Resolution 36," which seeks to define the government's relationship with those communities. The resolution, passed in March defines the Diaspora as inferior to the homeland, and requires it to support the current regime for its ultimate success (in other words, "send us your money"). The mission was subsequently scrubbed, at least in Orange County. Since then a number of other communities have enacted similar communist-free zoning acts.

With John Kerry and the Swift-Vets moving Vietnam to the front burner of public debate, discussion of the new version of the Vietnam Human Rights Act could attract some unwanted attention; and bring further trouble to Senator Kerry. Reintroduced in April of 2003 as H.R. 1587, the measure passed the house 323-45 on July 19 of this year, again co-sponsored by Rohrabacher and Sanchez. This time Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Sam Brownback, who is also chairman of the Sub-Committee on East Asian and Pacific Affairs, is sponsoring the bill in the upper chamber. The bill is more than likely to reach the Senate floor.

Lan Quoc Nguyen says that he is preparing for the worst. "We are resigned to the fact that if Kerry is elected, our cause will be set back 20 years. Our efforts will be doomed until he's out of office."

According to Van Tran, the Vietnamese-American community is "strong on national defense, strong on family values, and strongly religious," a natural Republican group. It opposes Kerry's quest for normalization of government relations with Vietnam until the government provides answers about missing family members, prisoners of war, and a commitment to basic human rights.

In Little Saigon they've been talking about the War for thirty years. If John Kerry wants to talk about the war, they would like to talk to him about it too. After all, they were there.


Pete Peterson is a writer in southern California and a frequenter of Little Saigon coffee bars.

OLE SARG
08-29-04, 10:42 AM
jfk (john foreskin kerry) could leave Vietnam out of his campaign and he would still have tons of problems.

His lack-luster 20 years as a do-nothing senator would not be a good campaign center-piece. I can't think of one, yes one, piece of legislation that bares his name. He is an aloof, self-centered, lieing, jane fonda loving ass-kissing flip-floping poor excuse for a human being SOB.

I can see why his parents, who apparently can't stand him, sent him to a boarding school. He has a face only a mother could love.

Let him go back to Vietnam, since he likes living in the past, and some Vietnamese will probably shoot him in the back, as he has done.

A Vietnam Veteran Against john foreskin kerry!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!:marine:

yellowwing
08-29-04, 11:31 AM
Divided country? Where does the buck stop on that issue? EVERYONE was united on Septemper 12th, 2001. Now on August 24th 2004 we are divided again. Who is responsible? Michael Moore and Sean Penn, et al? Do they have the stronger leadership?

I still say if our current leader had maintained the 9/11 bounce, it would be a landside election. What Kerry was doing in 1971 would be a minor footnote, of someone who lost.

Blaming the spilt on someone else only gives them more power.

radio relay
08-29-04, 12:08 PM
Actually, the Vietnamese wouldn't shoot him in the back. They love him. In fact, they've already honored him for helping them win the war. Here's a picture of him at the little shrine they have, praising his war protests, in their stupid propaganda museum about the war.

http://www.network54.com/Realm/the_geedunk/kerryviet.jpeg

Imagine that. Having a President who helped our enemies defeat us. Man o Man, ignorance is bliss... I guess. Benedict Arnold, was born two hundred years too soon.

Also, the leftwing media (i.e. the electronic press, the print press, book publishers and sellers, and Hollywood) have been working overtime to discredit and smear everything that G.W. Bush has done since 9/11. People have short memories, and even shorter attention spans. Twenty years from now kids will think the CIA and Israel bombed the towers. Half of the ignorant fools in this country already think that!

yellowwing
08-29-04, 04:51 PM
The DNC needs the Vietnamese vote. Heck, remember when it was the soccer-moms that elected Bill? Who knows who will tip the balance this time around. Maybe the gay-dry-wall-tapers will elect the next president.

How did it come down to this, is what I'm asking? Who is/was in command when we've had such a split in the Nation?

radio relay
08-29-04, 05:07 PM
I think the nation was pretty divided last election, too. If I remember right, seems one Slick Willie Clinton, presided over that one... Weren't that good old boy a democrat? :)