thedrifter
10-13-05, 05:47 AM
Suing Kerry
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | October 13, 2005
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Mary Jane McManus, wife of former Vietnam POW, Kevin McManus, who is part of a lawsuit against John Kerry for conspiracy and defamation.
FP: Mary Jane McManus, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
McManus: Thanks so much for this opportunity. I'm a Frontpage fan.
FP: The Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (VVLF), led by a group of former Vietnam combat veterans, including several POWs, is suing Sen. John Kerry and a top DNC campaign official for conspiracy and defamation. You are also involved. Before I ask you about these developments, could you kindly tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
McManus: Thanks Jamie. I'm the wife of a former POW, Kevin McManus, held by the North Vietnamese for 5 years, 8 months. We became engaged right before he left for Danang as an Air Force F-4 pilot in October 1966. We planned on an August 1967 wedding. The plan changed. We decided to marry on his R&R.
On March 14 while Danang was being mortared, he called to say that he'd be (if luck held out) in Honolulu on the 15th. Somehow he found me at the Oahu airport. We shopped for rings but weren't able to pick them up until after the ceremony. Fr. Hill at Hickham AFB performed the ceremony with a loose-leaf binder ring (which he couldn't let us keep because he needed it). Another Air Force pilot, a classmate of Kevin's at the Air Force Academy, and his wife served as witnesses. A McManus marrying a McCahill deserved a St. Patrick's Day wedding, but we couldn't wait the extra day and tied the knot on the March 16. He returned to Danang on the 19th and I to New York. The wedding reception would be at home in New York in late June when he was scheduled to return.
On June 14, however, his plane was shot down not far from Hanoi, and the usual men in blue showed up at my parents' home in Brightwaters, NY, and at his parents' home in nearby Babylon, to tell us that Kevin was missing in action. Four months later, thanks to many prayers from many people (my mother called it "storming heaven"), I was notified by the Air Force that Kevin was very likely a POW.
Of course there were no official lists (as prescribed by the Geneva Conventions) of POWs, so no one on this side of the world knew for certain who was and was not captured alive. But that wasn't the only convention the communists flouted: there were no Red Cross inspections, no Red Cross package-deliveries, almost no communication between POWs and family members (the first letter I got from Kevin arrived almost three years after he was shot down); POWs were tortured routinely while one of the most brutal regimes in the world at the time claimed they were war criminals--a claim repeated by Jane Fonda and other members of Vietnam Veterans against the War, including a Navy Lt (jg) John Kerry.
In 1970 the policy that had kept most POW/MIA relatives quiet for the sake of the POWs changed. Relatives formed the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia in April. The Reserve Officers Assn. and later the American Legion gave us office space. I worked in that office with the heroic wives of some very heroic men: Sybil Stockdale, Joan Vinson, Dorie Day, Jane Denton, Shirley Johnson, and many others who brought the plight of our relatives to national and international attention.
Kevin came home in February 1973.
We had seven children, the youngest of whom, a son, died of cancer at 16 in 1999. As parents we shared all the usual pleasures and duties of school, church, and athletic organizations, and great pride in our children.
FP: I am very sorry about your son.
Can you kindly tell us about this lawsuit?
McMaus: The Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit, charitable, 501(c)(3) organization, was founded early this year to combat the myths that persist--in Hollywood, major news outlets, and most of academia at every level--about Vietnam and the Americans who fought there.
To some the continuation of those myths must be very important indeed because our organization has been sued twice (with another another suit pending), and the producer of Stolen Honor (another myth-shattering vehicle) has been sued three times--twice just three weeks before the 2004 presidential election.
All those who have brought suit against us were members of Vietnam Veterans against the War, an organization to which John Kerry also belonged and for which he was leading spokesman. As spokesman for this organization, John Kerry testified in April 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that American soldiers were committing atrocities and war crimes "on a day to day basis," that this was U. S. policy, condoned "at every level of command." He accused the U. S. of committing 200,000 murders a year and of being "more guilty than any other body" of violating the Geneva Conventions.
FP: So expand a bit on the specifics of your suit against Sen. Kerry and Anthony Podesta? I recognize that all of its ingredients are available on the VVLF website: www.vvlf.org or www.VietnamLegacy.org. But could you kindly give us the general essence of it?
McManus: Well, let’s begin with the issue of freedom of speech. Does it mean you can lie and defame people and government policies, say just any old thing you want including outrageous lies? I can’t help but wonder: who sued Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11? George Butler for "Going Up River," Jane Fonda for just about anything, or John Kerry for his 1971 senate testimony? Regardless of the content of their statements--truth, fiction, hyperbole--their right to proclaim it is protected. Our rights apparently are not protected.
Rights aside, however, what we're saying is true, not because we're saying it's true, but because at least part of what we're combating is high hyperbole, outrageous generalizations, and utterly illogical statements.
Does anyone honestly believe that American soldiers committed 200,000 "murders a year" in Vietnam? Or that official policy ("at every level of command") allowed any GI to "rape, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turn up the power, cut off limbs, blow up bodies, randomly shoot at civilians, raze villages in a fashion reminiscent of Ghenghis Khan"? John Kerry got away with that statement (his verbs were in the past tense), was elected to Congress & the Senate, and ran for President. No one questioned his free speech rights.
Nor do we. But we do question the accuracy of his and others' statements.
We believe our members earned the right to contest that testimony by taking bullets and taking torture. Unfortunately they weren't here to combat Kerry's testimony; most of them were in cement cells they wouldn't leave for another nearly two years.
Next, we can cover the issue of facts as distinguished from opinion or falsehoods:
The January 1971 "Winter Soldier" investigation in Detroit, financed by Jane Fonda brought some 120 Vietnam Veterans against the War, including a then-Lt. (jg) Kerry, to report (and film) recollections of the atrocities and war crimes they had themselves witnessed or committed. Part of that film was shown in Stolen Honor. (And the whole film, "Winter Soldier," released in August of this year, is now making the rounds at art theatres throughout the country, accompanied frequently by some of its stars who moderate a discussion afterwards.) Not one "testimony" has yet been proved; not one "testimony" was under oath. Several testimonies, as well as several "veterans," however, have been proven false. Their leader, a man claiming to be an Air Force Captain and pilot in Vietnam, turned out to be (as documented on Meet the Press in 1971) not a pilot, not a captain, not an officer, never in Vietnam. And he wasn't alone in such deception
continued...
By Jamie Glazov
FrontPageMagazine.com | October 13, 2005
Frontpage Interview’s guest today is Mary Jane McManus, wife of former Vietnam POW, Kevin McManus, who is part of a lawsuit against John Kerry for conspiracy and defamation.
FP: Mary Jane McManus, welcome to Frontpage Interview.
McManus: Thanks so much for this opportunity. I'm a Frontpage fan.
FP: The Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation (VVLF), led by a group of former Vietnam combat veterans, including several POWs, is suing Sen. John Kerry and a top DNC campaign official for conspiracy and defamation. You are also involved. Before I ask you about these developments, could you kindly tell us a bit about yourself and your background?
McManus: Thanks Jamie. I'm the wife of a former POW, Kevin McManus, held by the North Vietnamese for 5 years, 8 months. We became engaged right before he left for Danang as an Air Force F-4 pilot in October 1966. We planned on an August 1967 wedding. The plan changed. We decided to marry on his R&R.
On March 14 while Danang was being mortared, he called to say that he'd be (if luck held out) in Honolulu on the 15th. Somehow he found me at the Oahu airport. We shopped for rings but weren't able to pick them up until after the ceremony. Fr. Hill at Hickham AFB performed the ceremony with a loose-leaf binder ring (which he couldn't let us keep because he needed it). Another Air Force pilot, a classmate of Kevin's at the Air Force Academy, and his wife served as witnesses. A McManus marrying a McCahill deserved a St. Patrick's Day wedding, but we couldn't wait the extra day and tied the knot on the March 16. He returned to Danang on the 19th and I to New York. The wedding reception would be at home in New York in late June when he was scheduled to return.
On June 14, however, his plane was shot down not far from Hanoi, and the usual men in blue showed up at my parents' home in Brightwaters, NY, and at his parents' home in nearby Babylon, to tell us that Kevin was missing in action. Four months later, thanks to many prayers from many people (my mother called it "storming heaven"), I was notified by the Air Force that Kevin was very likely a POW.
Of course there were no official lists (as prescribed by the Geneva Conventions) of POWs, so no one on this side of the world knew for certain who was and was not captured alive. But that wasn't the only convention the communists flouted: there were no Red Cross inspections, no Red Cross package-deliveries, almost no communication between POWs and family members (the first letter I got from Kevin arrived almost three years after he was shot down); POWs were tortured routinely while one of the most brutal regimes in the world at the time claimed they were war criminals--a claim repeated by Jane Fonda and other members of Vietnam Veterans against the War, including a Navy Lt (jg) John Kerry.
In 1970 the policy that had kept most POW/MIA relatives quiet for the sake of the POWs changed. Relatives formed the National League of Families of American Prisoners and Missing in Southeast Asia in April. The Reserve Officers Assn. and later the American Legion gave us office space. I worked in that office with the heroic wives of some very heroic men: Sybil Stockdale, Joan Vinson, Dorie Day, Jane Denton, Shirley Johnson, and many others who brought the plight of our relatives to national and international attention.
Kevin came home in February 1973.
We had seven children, the youngest of whom, a son, died of cancer at 16 in 1999. As parents we shared all the usual pleasures and duties of school, church, and athletic organizations, and great pride in our children.
FP: I am very sorry about your son.
Can you kindly tell us about this lawsuit?
McMaus: The Vietnam Veterans Legacy Foundation, a nonprofit, charitable, 501(c)(3) organization, was founded early this year to combat the myths that persist--in Hollywood, major news outlets, and most of academia at every level--about Vietnam and the Americans who fought there.
To some the continuation of those myths must be very important indeed because our organization has been sued twice (with another another suit pending), and the producer of Stolen Honor (another myth-shattering vehicle) has been sued three times--twice just three weeks before the 2004 presidential election.
All those who have brought suit against us were members of Vietnam Veterans against the War, an organization to which John Kerry also belonged and for which he was leading spokesman. As spokesman for this organization, John Kerry testified in April 1971 before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that American soldiers were committing atrocities and war crimes "on a day to day basis," that this was U. S. policy, condoned "at every level of command." He accused the U. S. of committing 200,000 murders a year and of being "more guilty than any other body" of violating the Geneva Conventions.
FP: So expand a bit on the specifics of your suit against Sen. Kerry and Anthony Podesta? I recognize that all of its ingredients are available on the VVLF website: www.vvlf.org or www.VietnamLegacy.org. But could you kindly give us the general essence of it?
McManus: Well, let’s begin with the issue of freedom of speech. Does it mean you can lie and defame people and government policies, say just any old thing you want including outrageous lies? I can’t help but wonder: who sued Michael Moore for Fahrenheit 9/11? George Butler for "Going Up River," Jane Fonda for just about anything, or John Kerry for his 1971 senate testimony? Regardless of the content of their statements--truth, fiction, hyperbole--their right to proclaim it is protected. Our rights apparently are not protected.
Rights aside, however, what we're saying is true, not because we're saying it's true, but because at least part of what we're combating is high hyperbole, outrageous generalizations, and utterly illogical statements.
Does anyone honestly believe that American soldiers committed 200,000 "murders a year" in Vietnam? Or that official policy ("at every level of command") allowed any GI to "rape, cut off ears, cut off heads, tape wires from portable telephones to human genitals and turn up the power, cut off limbs, blow up bodies, randomly shoot at civilians, raze villages in a fashion reminiscent of Ghenghis Khan"? John Kerry got away with that statement (his verbs were in the past tense), was elected to Congress & the Senate, and ran for President. No one questioned his free speech rights.
Nor do we. But we do question the accuracy of his and others' statements.
We believe our members earned the right to contest that testimony by taking bullets and taking torture. Unfortunately they weren't here to combat Kerry's testimony; most of them were in cement cells they wouldn't leave for another nearly two years.
Next, we can cover the issue of facts as distinguished from opinion or falsehoods:
The January 1971 "Winter Soldier" investigation in Detroit, financed by Jane Fonda brought some 120 Vietnam Veterans against the War, including a then-Lt. (jg) Kerry, to report (and film) recollections of the atrocities and war crimes they had themselves witnessed or committed. Part of that film was shown in Stolen Honor. (And the whole film, "Winter Soldier," released in August of this year, is now making the rounds at art theatres throughout the country, accompanied frequently by some of its stars who moderate a discussion afterwards.) Not one "testimony" has yet been proved; not one "testimony" was under oath. Several testimonies, as well as several "veterans," however, have been proven false. Their leader, a man claiming to be an Air Force Captain and pilot in Vietnam, turned out to be (as documented on Meet the Press in 1971) not a pilot, not a captain, not an officer, never in Vietnam. And he wasn't alone in such deception
continued...