POWs in
Southeast Asia and Europe,
abandoned for political expediency, still wait

Jesus cares . . . Do you?

 




If our abandoned POWs
could send a Christmas card, it would say,
"I'll be home for Christmas -- if only in my dreams."


"All gave some; Some gave all"

Freedom isn't free - - It is purchased and protected by American service men and women, and their sacrifices. Everyone who ever put on a uniform: soldier, sailor, airman, or Marine, has given to the cause of Freedom; some gave everything they had.

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John Kerry's Discharge from the Navy
Was Less than Honorable!

Mystery Surrounds Kerry's Navy Discharge

BY THOMAS LIPSCOMB -
Special to the New York Sun
October 13, 2004

An official Navy document on Senator Kerry's campaign Web site listed as Mr. Kerry's "Honorable Discharge from the Reserves" opens a door on a well kept secret about his military service.

The document is a form cover letter in the name of the Carter administration's secretary of the Navy, W. Graham Claytor. It describes Mr. Kerry's discharge as being subsequent to the review of "a board of officers." This in it self is unusual. There is nothing about an ordinary honorable discharge action in the Navy that requires a review by a board of officers.

According to the secretary of the Navy's document, the "authority of reference" this board was using in considering Mr. Kerry's record was "Title 10, U.S. Code Section 1162 and 1163. "

This section refers to the grounds for involuntary separation from the service. What was being reviewed, then, was Mr. Kerry's involuntary separation from the service. And it couldn't have been an honorable discharge, or there would have been no point in any review at all. The review was likely held to improve Mr. Kerry's status of discharge from a less than honorable discharge to an honorable discharge.

A Kerry campaign spokesman, David Wade, was asked whether Mr. Kerry had ever been a victim of an attempt to deny him an honorable discharge. There has been no response to that inquiry.

The document is dated February 16, 1978. But Mr. Kerry's military commitment began with his six-year enlistment contract with the Navy on February 18, 1966. His commitment should have terminated in 1972. It is highly unlikely that either the man who at that time was a Vietnam Veterans Against the War leader, John Kerry, requested or the Navy accepted an additional six year reserve commitment. And the Claytor document indicates proceedings to reverse a less than honorable discharge that took place sometime prior to February 1978.

The most routine time for Mr. Kerry's discharge would have been at the end of his six-year obligation, in 1972. But how was it most likely to have come about?

NBC's release this March of some of the Nixon White House tapes about Mr. Kerry show a great deal of interest in Mr. Kerry by Nixon and his executive staff, including, perhaps most importantly, Nixon's special counsel, Charles Colson. In a meeting the day after Mr. Kerry's Senate testimony, April 23, 1971, Mr. Colson attacks Mr. Kerry as a "complete opportunist...We'll keep hitting him, Mr. President."

Mr. Colson was still on the case two months later, according to a memo he wrote on June 15, 1971, that was brought to the surface by the Houston Chronicle. "Let's destroy this young demagogue before he becomes another Ralph Nader." Nixon had been a naval officer in World War II. Mr. Colson was a former Marine captain. Mr. Colson had been prodded to find "dirt" on Mr. Kerry, but reported that he couldn't find any.

The Nixon administration ran FBI surveillance on Mr. Kerry from September 1970 until August 1972. Finding grounds for an other than honorable discharge, however, for a leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, given his numerous activities while still a reserve officer of the Navy, was easier than finding "dirt."

For example, while America was still at war, Mr. Kerry had met with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong delegation to the Paris Peace talks in May 1970 and then held a demonstration in July 1971 in Washington to try to get Congress to accept the enemy's seven point peace proposal without a single change.

Woodrow Wilson threw Eugene Debs, a former presidential candidate, in prison just for demonstrating for peace negotiations with Germany during World War I. No court overturned his imprisonment. He had to receive a pardon from President Harding.

Mr. Colson refused to answer any questions about his activities regarding Mr. Kerry during his time in the Nixon White House. The secretary of the Navy at the time during the Nixon presidency is the current chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Warner. A spokesman for the senator, John Ullyot, said, "Senator Warner has no recollection that would either confirm or challenge any representation that Senator Kerry received a less than honorable discharge."

The "board of officers" review reported in the Claytor document is even more extraordinary because it came about "by direction of the President." No normal honorable discharge requires the direction of the president. The president at that time was James Carter. This adds another twist to the story of Mr. Kerry's hidden military records.

Mr. Carter's first act as president was a general amnesty for draft dodgers and other war protesters. Less than an hour after his inauguration on January 21, 1977, while still in the Capitol building, Mr. Carter signed Executive Order 4483 empowering it. By the time it became a directive from the Defense Department in March 1977 it had been expanded to include other offenders who may have had general, bad conduct, dishonorable discharges, and any other discharge or sentence with negative effect on military records.

In those cases the directive outlined a procedure for appeal on a case by case basis before a board of officers. A satisfactory appeal would result in an improvement of discharge status or an honorable discharge.

Mr. Kerry has repeatedly refused to sign Standard Form 180, which would allow the release of all his military records. And some of his various spokesmen have claimed that all his records are already posted on his Web site. But the Washington Post already noted that the Naval Personnel Office admitted that they were still withholding about 100 pages of files.

If Mr. Kerry was the victim of a Nixon "enemies list" hit, one might have expected him to wear it like a badge of honor, like many others such as his friend Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers, CBS's Daniel Schorr, or the actor Paul Newman, who had made Mr. Colson's original list of 20 "enemies."

There are a number of categories of discharges besides honorable. There are general discharges, medical discharges, bad conduct discharges, as well as other than honorable and dishonorable discharges.

There is one odd coincidence that gives some weight to the possibility that Mr. Kerry was dishonorably discharged. Mr. Kerry has claimed that he lost his medal certificates and that is why he asked that they be reissued.

But when a dishonorable discharge is issued, all pay benefits, and allowances, and all medals and honors are revoked as well. And five months after Mr. Kerry joined the U.S. Senate in 1985, on one single day, June 4, all of Mr.Kerry's medals were reissued.

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The following photos are some that John Kerry would rather you did not see.
You will not see these on the establishment media.

 

John Kerry's Patriotism - -
True or False?

Is John Kerry a Patriot and Hero?

From the very beginning, John Kerry has made his service in the Navy the centerpiece of his campaign. He has spoken of his "two tours in Vietnam"; and much has been made of all those medals. At the same time, he has freely criticized President Bush for "hiding in the National Guard," although the fact is that President Bush served 2 years on active duty as a fighter pilot in the Air Force, followed by service in the Air National Guard.

Kerry had a biography published for his presidential campaign, highlighting his service in Vietnam, in which some incidents were falsified to make him look good; the author of his book is now wondering about its validity, and has publicly urged Kerry to tell the truth about his Navy service, especially about how he got his medals.

As a result of the book, and a photograph of Kerry and 19 other Navy Swift Boat officers featured in Kerry's campaign, others who were there, from former seamen to a retired admiral, began to protest the falseness of some of Kerry's claims about his service. Most of the officers in the photo objected to Kerry's use of the photo and formed an organization, "Swift Boat Veterans for Truth." Since then, the Swift Boat veterans, former POWs, and other veteran groups have mounted a private campaign to place before the public the truth about Kerry, his service in Vietnam, and his leadership in the radically anti-American, pro-enemy, protest group, Vietnam Veterans against the War (VVAW). One of the Swift Boat vets, John O'Neill, has co-authored a powerful book, "Unfit for Command" (Regnery, Wash. DC, 2004), complete with photos, and the testimonies of those who served with Kerry. More than 200 Swift Boat veterans have signed a letter declaring Kerry's unfitness to be Commander-in-Chief of the Armed forces.

Since the establishment media have ignored the powerful testimony of the veteran groups, the veterans have raised money and paid for ads in print media and TV. Some media outlets have refused to run their ads; and Kerry has publicly threatened to sue those outlets who do. In an attempt to discredit and nullify their testimony, Kerry has condemned the dissenting veterans as tools of President Bush and the Republican National Committee. The fact is that Bush and the RNC had nothing to do with the veterans' book and ads, and knew nothing of them until they went public. It has become loud and ugly, and there is not space here even to summarize adequately; but the following are some salient facts, most of which are things the establishment media have either ignored or attempted to discredit:

1. Kerry's Pre-Navy Activism. John Kerry was active in the anti-war/anti-American protests while in college; and he resumed his radical activism with a passion upon his release from active duty, while still an officer in the Naval Reserve. He said, in an interview with the "Harvard Crimson" (13 Feb 1970), "I'm an internationalist [one whose patriotism is to a World government, not to the USA]. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world [only] at the directive of the United Nations."

2. Kerry's "2 Tours" in Vietnam. In his campaign speeches, Kerry has boasted of his "2 tours" in Vietnam. The fact is that his "2 tours" consisted of (1) service on a ship which was in the Gulf of Tonkin for only part of its deployment, and never heard a shot fired in anger; and (2) 4 months with the Swift Boats in Vietnam, after which he requested and received an early return to the US; the normal tour was a full 12 months (13 months for Marines).

3. Opinions of His Fellow Veterans. In growing numbers, veterans who were with him, including his superiors, denounce him and his brief service in Vietnam, describing him then as self-serving, irresponsible, and unreliable. These veterans are a mix of Democrats, Republicans and Independents, who are not even acknowledged, let alone funded or controlled, by the Republican Party. Their funding is private, from a growing multitude of veterans and other private citizens; the number of donors, mostly "little people," is now well over 50,000.

4. Kerry's Medals. According to medical officers, his superiors, and other eyewitnesses, Kerry's medals, of which he has made so much, are from questionable to spurious. Navy doctors who treated Kerry's supposed wounds, for which he ultimately received 3 Purple Hearts, question the validity of the medals. One refused to approve a Purple Heart for one "wound" (he doesn't know who later approved it). Eyewitnesses testify that at least one "wound" was accidentally self-inflicted when Kerry fired an M-79 grenade launcher into some rocks, too close, and a tiny fragment from his own round scratched his arm. Former Secretary of the Navy, John Lehman, has found that there are 3 citations for his Silver Star (there is NEVER more than one citation, if it is valid), that the wording displayed on Kerry's web site was apparently revised to make it look better, appearing over Lehman's signature. Lehman says about the citation, "I never saw it, I never signed it, I never approved it," and stated that the citation language "was not written by me." This falsification of an official citation is a felony.

5. A Silver Star with a "V"? Kerry's web site features a prominent display of his medals and ribbons. The silver Star is displayed, bearing a "V" for valor; but there is a problem here: the "V" is NEVER worn on the Silver Star Medal (or ribbon), for the Silver Star is always a valor award.

6. Kerry's Hiding of His Military Records. Kerry has continued to refuse to release his military records to the public. He promised in April to release all his military records, but changed his mind when he realized that they would be embarrassing, and now refuses to release them. His Biographer, Douglas Brinkley, horrified by what he is hearing compared with what Kerry had told him, has publicly urged Kerry to release his complete military records; Kerry refuses. In refusing, Kerry gives as his excuse that his biographer was given exclusive use of his records for the writing the book, and for this reason he cannot release them; the author denies this. President Bush long ago released all of his Air Force records to the public.

7. Kerry's Hiding of His Medical Records. Kerry has refused to release his Navy medical records (concerning his "wounds") to the public; President Bush long ago released his entire medical records to the public.

8. Kerry's War Movie. John Kerry was unique in being the only junior officer known to have arrived in Vietnam with a movie camera and accessories, to film himself for future political campaigns. He posed and reenacted some incidents, after the fact, to be filmed. When he achieved his early release back to the US he reportedly shot the last scene three times before he was satisfied with how it looked, and then said, "That's a wrap; see you in about 35 years at the convention." The footage he shot was featured at the Democratic National Convention, and it is what you see featured in his TV ads.

9. Kerry and the VVAW. Kerry requested early return to the US, returned, and then requested early release from active duty; he got it, and immediately became politically active. He became a co-founder of the radical, anti-American, pro-enemy, Jane Fonda-funded Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW). In one demonstration he joined others in throwing his medals over the Capitol fence. When challenged about it in later years, he said that he had lied--they were actually someone else's medals. He was also a leader in the Fonda-funded "Winter Soldier Investigation" in Detroit, a mock trial of all US servicemen whom they condemned for "atrocities and war crimes." Many of the so-called Vietnam Veterans who testified were later exposed as phonies who had never been to Vietnam; and some had never served at all. While on the Steering committee of VVAW, Kerry took part in planning meetings during which there was discussion of assassinating certain U.S. Senators whom VVAW viewed as a threat. Kerry denied participating in this meeting; however, when confronted with the evidence, he admitted that he had lied--he was there.

10. Kerry Before the Senate. Testifying under oath before the Senate, Kerry swore that murder, rape, mutilation, and other atrocities were a daily occurrence in Vietnam, not by a few, but by virtually everyone there, including himself. He also swore that such atrocities were encouraged, and that this was a matter of policy, at all levels of command, including the President. He knew that his charges were not true, and that he smeared the honor and sacrifice of every other serviceman who was there, including the dead and the maimed. But dishonor and slander them he did, inventing examples--with gusto.

11. "Stolen Honor." A growing group of former POWs who suffered in Vietnamese prisons has organized to produce a documentary video, "Stolen Honor," at their own expense. In it the ex-POWs testify that they were forced by their tormentors to listen to recordings of Kerry's pro-enemy public statements, over and over, and some were tortured for refusing to parrot Kerry's words. The ex-POWs, including an admiral, do not hesitate to call Kerry a traitor. They all believe that their period of imprisonment was lengthened as a result of Kerry's statements, because he provided much encouragement to the Communist leadership to continue the war. These ex-POWs are not a disreputable group of marginal malcontents, or phony veterans; two of them are Medal of Honor recipients. The producer, Carlton Sherwood, is a decorated Vietnam veteran and a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist.

12. Kerry's Book. After returning from Vietnam and becoming a leader in the VVAW, Kerry wrote an anti-war book called "The New Soldier" in which he vilified those who served in Vietnam, in the same way he did before the Senate committee. The posed cover photo is of a group of scruffy "veterans," mocking the flag-raising by Marines on Iwo Jima, with the flag upside down. The Kerry campaign is now so embarrassed by this book that they have bought up and destroyed all the copies they could find; some copies, in public libraries, have "disappeared" from the shelves. As a result, the book has become so rare that some copies are selling for as much as $1,000.

13. Kerry and the Communist Vietnamese Leaders. According to FBI files on Kerry, as well as Kerry's own statements in his book, and statements to the Senate at the time, he made at least two illegal trips during the war to confer with the Communist Vietnam leadership in Paris, while some of his VVAW comrades conferred in Hanoi. On 29 June 1971, according to an FBI report, Kerry praised Vietnam's communist dictator, Ho Chi Minh, comparing him to George Washington. On at least one occasion, North Vietnamese leaders told VVAW leaders when they were to demonstrate in the US, in order to the disruption with a planned enemy offensive along the DMZ. During this time period (1970-72), while he was actively working for the enemy, and against our Armed Forces, Kerry was still a reserve officer in the Navy; but he was never punished for his support of the enemy in time of war.

14. Kerry Honored by the Communist Vietnamese. In Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) there is a museum for what they call "The American War." One wing is devoted to those "heroes" from outside Vietnam who made significant contributions to the Communist's ultimate victory. Until recently there were photos in that wing honoring Jane Fonda and John Kerry. Since an American veteran visited the museum and photographed the enemy's tribute to Kerry, it has been circulated on the internet. One photo of the exhibit honoring Kerry was taken with a newspaper held alongside, proving that in June 2004 the Kerry tribute was there.

The living legend of Communist Vietnam is the aged General Vo Nguyen Giap, who commanded all Communist Forces during the war. The 29th anniversary of the 1975 fall of Saigon was celebrated recently as a Vietnamese national holiday, and the keynote speaker was General Giap. In his speech, Giap praised the activities of Americans such as Jane Fonda and John Kerry for their contributions to the Communist victory, saying "I would like to thank them." (Reuters, et al)

15. Betrayal of Live POWs. As Chairman of the Senate Select Committee to look into the live POW issue, Kerry worked tirelessly and shamefully to suppress and discredit evidence of surviving American POWs still held in Vietnam, Laos and the Communist Bloc (I was there). Kerry even ordered the shredding of some reports of live American servicemen still surviving in captivity, snarling to the aid who was doing the shredding that if he should speak about it, he would " wish that he had never been born." Kerry is justifiably despised by the POW families, ex-POWs, and activists.

16. Kerry lies. During his VVAW days, Kerry made up a dramatic story about spending Christmas Eve on a swift boat inside Cambodia, as part of an illegal invasion planned by Richard Nixon. He has repeated this story during this campaign, insisting that it was true. Recently, however, Swift Boat veterans who were with him came forth, saying that what he claimed was impossible, that he (and they) were never closer than 50 miles from Cambodia, and pointed out that Lyndon Johnson was president (not Richard Nixon) on Christmas Eve 1969. Confronted with this truth, candidate Kerry finally admitted that his story was a lie--he had made all of it up.

(Sources for all of the above are numerous, varied and well-documented.)

1. The cover (dust jacket) of Kerry's 1971 anti-American, pro-enemy book, The New Soldier"


This is a deliberate mockery of the raising of the American flag by Marines on Iwo Jima.
Note that this flag is upside-down, a deliberate statement of disrespect.


2. John Kerry, making a pro-enemy speech with the enemy's flag as his backdrop.


His wearing of ribbons on his scruffy dungaree shirt is not allowed by Navy Regulations, and was at the time a well-known statement of rebellion against the Armed forces, and disrespect for what the ribbons represent.


3. Jane Fonda, posing sympathetically on an anti-aircraft gun that
shot down American airplanes over Hanoi.


This photo was the tribute to Fonda in the museum in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), in the wing honoring non-Vietnamese who contributed to the Communists' ultimate victory. Kerry's photo was in the same wing of the museum, until reportedly taken down recently.



5. VVAW demonstrators throwing medals over the crowd-control fence
at the US Capitol, to say that they rejected all that their medals represented.


 John Kerry participated, throwing medals (which he said were his) over the fence; when confronted about it many years later, Kerry said that he had only pretended to throw his medals over--that they were actually someone else's medals. Traitor to his service? Phony (only pretending to throw his medals away)? Liar (covering up the throwing away of his own medals)? At least 2 out of 3 must be answered "Yes."



6. Some of Kerry's VVAW Comrades, railing against the US effort in Vietnam.


Note the "fist in the air" salute of Communist revolutionaries of that time,
and the upside-down American flag.


7. Kerry and another VVAW leader, conferring at an anti-American demonstration.




8. Kerry busted, proudly under arrest for his actions at a VVAW demonstration.





9. Kerry, meeting with Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party
of Vietnam in 1993; behind them is a statue of Ho Chi Minh.






10. Kerry with Vietnamese Communist officials, including General Secretary Do Muoi.

This photo of Kerry is a tribute to his contributions to the Communist cause in the Vietnam War (which the Vietnamese call the "American War"). This photo, with that of Jane Fonda and other non-Vietnamese, is in a hall of heroes in the enemy's museum of that war, in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). The sign outside the door to that wing of the museum reads, "The World supports Vietnam in Its Resistance"; in the Communist revolutionary lexicon, "resistance" means violent overthrow of a non-Communist country. What appears to be a double image in the photo is actually the reflection of the display on the opposite wall (Number 14, below).



11. The tribute to Kerry (Number 10, above), with a newspaper held beside it,
the June 2, 2004 issue of the Viet Nam News.


11. The tribute to Kerry (Number 10, above), with a newspaper held beside it, the June 2, 2004 issue of the Viet Nam News. After the existence of this tribute to Kerry actually hung in the enemy's hall of heroes was made known by American veterans, it was taken down (presumably to protect Kerry's candidacy). However, before it was taken down, the photographer returned to the museum and photographed it with the newspaper; this photo establishes that the tribute to Kerry had actually been displayed.



12. The enemy's tribute to Jane Fonda, in the same wing with the tribute to Kerry.


 In the photo with Jane Fonda is Nguyen Thi Dinh, Deputy commander of the Viet Cong, the original military enemy of free South Vietnam and her American allies.



13. American pro-enemy posters in the museum wing with the tributes to Kerry and Fonda.


 Note the one declaring "They [the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese Army] Came for Peace"; if that was true, the VC and NVA that I encountered had apparently failed to understand that policy--they were not peaceful at all.



14. This is the display reflected dimly in the glass of the photo-tribute
to Kerry in the museum (Number 10).


This display features the Cuban flag.

 


15. Visitors in the museum at Ho chi Minh city (Saigon), in the wing honoring Kerry, Fonda and other non-Vietnamese for their efforts supporting our communist enemy in the war.





16. Veteran Bill Lupetti in Vietnam during the war.


Bill Lupetti took the above photographs in the wing of the Vietnamese museum which honors non-Vietnamese activists, such as Kerry and fonda, who are considered heroes of what the enemy calls "the American War." Lupetti was a (medical) corpsman with the Swift Boats in Vietnam. He sent the photo, of the enemy tribute to Kerry, to Jeffrey Epstein of Vietnam Veterans for Truth; Epstein then asked Lupetti to go back and photograph the tribute, with a daily newspaper in the photo to establish the date. He also asked Lupetti to take other photos inside the wing of the museum, some of which are shown above.

Verteran / POW Issues Links:

For the truth about John Kerry, for more background, more photos and more detail, consult the following web sites below:

Swift Boat Veterans for Truth

Stolen Honor

Winter Soldiers

Veitnam Veterans Against Kerry

Task Force Omega of Kentucky, Inc.

Task Force Omega, Inc.