-- by Deborah Orin
Vietnam vets opposed to John Kerry are today launching a new TV ad that links Kerry to Jane Fonda as an anti-Vietnam War activist who "betrayed his country" by consorting with the enemy.
"Even before Jane Fonda went to Hanoi to meet with the enemy and mock America, John Kerry secretly met with enemy leaders in Paris," says the ad, the fifth and toughest aired by the anti-Kerry Swift Boat Veterans for Truth. "Then he returned and accused American troops of committing war crimes on a daily basis. Eventually, Jane Fonda apologized for her activities, but John Kerry refuses to. In a time of war, can America trust a man who betrayed his country?"
The ad features video of Fonda, whose Hanoi trip got her the derisive nickname "Hanoi Jane." It's being aired with a big $1.3 million buy in the swing states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Mexico, Nevada and West Virginia, as well as nationally on cable.
In 1971 testimony to Congress, Kerry accused fellow Vietnam vets of raping and pillaging like Genghis Khan and also confirmed that he had spoken with North Vietnamese officials and the political arm of the Viet Cong in Paris.
"I have been to Paris. I have talked with both delegations at the peace talks, that is to say the Democratic Republic of Vietnam [Hanoi] and the Provisional Revolutionary Government [Viet Cong]," Kerry said.
Kerry met with the North Vietnamese and Viet Cong as part of a fact-finding mission, including an effort to learn about how to win freedom for U.S. POWs, his campaign spokesman, Michael Meehan, has said.
But Swift Vets leader John O'Neill contends that it was improper and "a betrayal" for Kerry to meet with leaders from Hanoi, since they were the enemy and he was in the Naval Reserves.
"We never had an American president or commander-in-chief who [previously] met with our enemy in a time of war, while a naval officer on reserve status . . . It's inconceivable," O'Neill told Fox News Channel last week.
This article was published by The New York Post.
http://horse.he.net/~swiftpow/article.php?story=20040924081331946