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.

-- by Michael P. Tremoglie

During the Vietnam War, veteran John Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing that an investigation, conducted by Kerry and his group, Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW), revealed that American soldiers committed war crimes and atrocities in Vietnam. The investigation was called Winter Soldier.

-- by Mackubin Thomas Owens

John Kerry's decision to run for president on his record in Vietnam has ripped the scab off of the wounds that war inflicted on the American body politic. Some of Kerry's defenders have laid this charge at the feet of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, but the fact is that they were responding to what they perceived as an affront to their honor. This is why all the attempts to paint them as Republican stooges are so far off of the mark.

I believe my own motivation in publicizing Kerry's actions after the war is typical of most anti-Kerry veterans, including the Swifties. I would never have written my first NRO piece back in January had Kerry chosen to run on his Senate record. But to coin a phrase, his April 1971 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is "seared in my memory" and I believe his attempt now to surround himself with people he had once described as war criminals represents the height of cynicism and hypocrisy.

Before I begin, allow me to say that it's not "beating a dead horse" when the horse ain't dead yet. Dan Rather is still the national news anchor for CBS: he has not retired in shame nor has he been fired. So, since the matter is not yet over, allow me to yak for a minute on a glaring instance of Leftist media hypocrisy.

The main reason for other veterans' anger at John Kerry is plainly what he did after re turning home: As a leader of the radical anti-war group Vietnam Veterans Against the War, Kerry accused his fellow soldiers of war crimes and atrocities in testimony before Congress. On April 22, 1971, Kerry testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Most controversial is his allegation that American soldiers were committing war crimes, "not isolated incidents but crimes committed on a day-to-day basis with the full awareness of officers at all levels of command." He spoke of "the 200,000 [Vietnamese] a year who are murdered by the United States of America."

WHEN John Kerry "reported for duty" at the Democratic National Convention and presented himself as qualified to lead by virtue of his service in Vietnam, he opened up for public scrutiny his actions in Vietnam and, later, as an antiwar activist. Kerry's critics, including the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, promptly responded with a critique of Kerry's record. The charges and counter-charges have left many confused, especially as some issues seem to turn on obscure, if not arcane, facts.

What follows is a primer on the main issues, the evidence and open questions.

The widely repeated myth of "John Kerry, the Vietnam Navy Hero" is one of the most dishonorable and dangerous deceptions ever perpetrated upon the American public.

John Kerry is not a hero. He built this facade with unabashed personal promotion, aided and abetted by a supportive liberal media ready and willing to repeat in print his gross exaggerations, distortions of fact, and outright lies about his abbreviated four-month, 12-day tour of duty in Vietnam.

-- by Amanda Parry

Every few years since the early 1990s, Bub Morgan has met up with Navy pals from his time in Vietnam. But at a 2003 reunion in Norfolk, Va., Morgan was surprised and unhappy to spy a vet he hadn't seen in years.

"When John Kerry arrived I said to my friend, 'What is he doing here?'" said Morgan, a Wilmot resident and former officer in charge of a Navy Swift boat.

Morgan's disdain for the Massachusetts senator stemmed from Kerry's assertion in the early 1970s that Americans had committed atrocities in Vietnam.

For years it was said that Jane Fonda committed treason when she went to Vietnam in July 1972. In the late 1990s, with increasingly widespread use of the Internet, the charge became a staple of discussion by conservatives and veterans. However, their belief in Fonda’s criminality was not substantiated. We undertook to do just that, and laid out the definitive case against her in our 2002 book, “Aid and Comfort”: Jane Fonda In North Vietnam.

(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Navy released documents Wednesday contradicting claims by Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry that all of his available military records have been released.