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MadIvan
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Joined: 10 Aug 2004
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 Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 1:09 pm Post subject: Max Cleland: 'Fighting Bush is very therapeutic' |
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From one of our papers LINK
| Quote: |
'Fighting Bush is very therapeutic'
Alec Russell
(Filed: 10/08/2004)
Max Cleland tells Alec Russell how he overcame losing three limbs in Vietnam to become a US senator and John Kerry's staunchest ally
Three months to go in the battle for the American presidency, and the gloves are well and truly off. Last week, the race for the White House turned nasty with the broadcast of a television advertisement accusing John Kerry of lying about his achievements as a swift boat commander in Vietnam. The ad campaign, on behalf of a group called the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth, claimed that during the incident on the Mekong Delta that led to Kerry being awarded a Silver Star, he had shot a retreating Vietcong soldier in the back.
If Vietnam, and what Kerry did or didn't do there, is the issue that will make or break his presidential ambitions, it is a good thing he can turn to his old friend Max Cleland for support and the wisdom that comes with experience. Cleland is not only a fellow veteran of Vietnam, but a fellow victim of a savage Republican smear campaign.
Two weeks ago, as Kerry waited, no doubt nervously, to make his key speech to the Democratic Convention, the thousands of party delegates were being warmed up by a thickset, triple amputee who recalled the nightmare of returning from Vietnam minus three limbs. Party conventions are used to the heavily choreographed stage appearances of the disabled or ethnic minorities, but Max Cleland was not there as an extra to be whisked on and off for the cameras. The wheelchair-bound Vietnam veteran turned Democratic politician is the star turn on the Kerry campaign trail. But he says he would not be in the limelight now had he not been roused from a suicidal depression by reading the biography of Sir Douglas Bader, 35 years ago.
In 1969, Cleland, a young army captain, was recovering in Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
"I was fighting for my survival, physical, mental, emotional," he recalls. He had lost both legs and his right arm in a grenade accident, and was convinced he had himself to blame. He had just jumped off a helicopter when he saw a grenade on the ground. Believing it had fallen off his belt, he bent over to pick it up – and it exploded.
"The blast jammed my eyeballs back into my skull," he wrote in his memoirs. "When my ears cleared, I looked at my right hand. It was gone. Then I tried to stand, but couldn't. I looked down. My right leg and knee were gone. My left leg was a soggy mass of bloody flesh mixed with green fatigue cloth."
Forty pints of blood and more than a year later, he was still in hospital and in the depths of despair, struggling to come to terms with the future. Then he read Reach for the Sky, the account of Bader's overcoming the loss of both legs to become a fighter ace. "And I said, 'If you can do that, I can do something with my life.' I was alone in the hospital and I thought, 'By George, I can do it.'"
Cleland left hospital and went into politics, a career on which he had set his sights in the early Sixties while working as an intern on Capitol Hill. "I ran for the State Senate in Georgia. I said to my friends, 'I have no job, no hope, no girlfriend, no car, no future and no money. This is a great time to run for office.'" For the next 30 years, he pursued a political career.
As he sits talking in the Kerry campaign headquarters, in the Washington powerbroker's uniform of blazer and tie, it is easy to forget his disabilities. You only have to listen to him talk about Britain, America and, of course, "the candidate" to wonder what the strapping, 6ft 2in youth who volunteered for Vietnam in 1965 might have achieved had he not returned from duty hideously maimed.
"I feel about Bader as I do about Churchill," he says. "I keep going back to him for inspiration. I am a big Winston Churchill freak. If you come to my office, you will see three portraits: Franklin Roosevelt – he's a personal hero of my mine, he overcame polio and led our country through its darkest hours – Churchill and the Lone Ranger.
"The life of Churchill is relevant now. As he said, the only thing worse than allies, is no allies" – a dig at President Bush. "My favourite hero is the Lone Ranger, although I know you can't play the Lone Ranger on the international stage. We may think we should shoot silver bullets, but the rest of the world doesn't."
Cleland, 61, exudes energy. He has toured more than 20 states in recent months to press Kerry's case. Yet no one would pretend he has an easy time coping with his disabilities and the memories of April 8, 1968, the day his life changed. Next to his bed is a plaque that says, "I was given life that I might enjoy all things."
He pursues a vigorous exercise regime. He gave up drink in the early Seventies and he seeks solace in the Bible. Five years ago, he took a big step towards healing the wounds of the past. He had always thought he was to blame for his injuries, assuming he had failed to check one of his grenade pins was in place. Then, in 1999, a veteran called him after hearing him tell his story on a talk show and said: "Hey, I was there. It wasn't your grenade. I saw it."
"That changed everything. It wasn't me," he recalls. "It was the man behind me. He had straightened out all his pins," which had to be twisted to remain secure. "He was a walking time bomb."
For Democrats, the legend of Max Cleland has one more important chapter. Two years ago, he was plunged back into despair when he lost his seat in the US Senate after just one term. The Democrats and Republicans were battling for control of the Senate and Cleland was contesting one of the closest races.
To the outrage of Democrats and some Republicans, and in an early example of the tactics that are currently being used to discredit Kerry, his rival ran a ferocious television advert that questioned his patriotism for having voted in the Senate against new Homeland Security legislation. He had indeed voted against it, but only because of a particular clause inserted by Republicans. To ram the point home, an image in the advert showed Osama bin Laden staring off screen and Saddam Hussein shaking hands with one of his generals.
Cleland would almost certainly have lost the race anyway, but even by the dog-eat-dog standards of American politics, the advertisement was deemed beyond the pale.
Shortly after his defeat, he flew to the Virgin Islands and asked his long-term girlfriend to marry him. "I will be married to my fiancée, Miss Nancy Ross, after I retire," he said, in his closing address to the Senate. "There is life after the Senate, and it will be a wonderful life."
He took a teaching role at American University, where he studied as a 21-year-old in 1963. But the attack on his record still rankles. Memories of "Georgia 2002" have fired up Democratic activists for revenge – and fuelled Cleland's determination to help Kerry unseat Bush. He laughs when I ask if the campaign is therapy. "It's very therapeutic," he says. "But John has taught me again the lesson that I learned after Vietnam. Turn your bitterness, frustration and anger into something positive and constructive. The campaign has been positive for me and it has given me hope."
The relationship has clearly worked both ways. Cleland's speech to the convention capped almost a year of his marketing the more wooden Kerry. The key moment came when he recalled, on stage, how he had given Kerry his Bible on the day he announced his candidacy last September.
"I grabbed his arm and pressed a Bible into his hand," Cleland told the audience. "It was the Bible I once read from as a child. I knew he would need its strength, its guidance and comfort in the days ahead. I told him, 'Hold on to this. You'll need it like your country needs you now.'" For Kerry, who needs to burnish his religious credentials if he is to seduce the heartland, this was a powerful testimonial, although Republicans might have dismissed it as theatre.
Cleland, a huge Anglophile, speaks fondly of visits to the Cabinet War Rooms, of taking tea at Number Ten with Tony Blair and his "old friend" Jonathan Powell, and of the importance of the Special Relationship.
"Under John Kerry, our relationship with our friends in the UK will be restored. We will be the strong alliance we once were," he says. "And we will listen to one another as friends in the family listen to one another around the dinner table and not jump off half-cocked on some crazy mission in the world without fully understanding the views of our allies."
That's all very well, but doesn't he think Kerry is just a little bit stiff?
"It's not so much that he throws a knock-out punch, one-liner, or whatever. We'll leave Bush to do his one-liner stuff. The truth of the matter is that Kerry grows on you. He has depth, courage and leadership ability. He's got skill and he knows what he's doing. It comes across slowly, but it will come across." |
I have a problem with this bit -
"Under John Kerry, our relationship with our friends in the UK will be restored. We will be the strong alliance we once were," he says.
President Bush said -
America has no truer friend than Great Britain. Once again, we are joined together in a great cause -- so honored the British Prime Minister has crossed an ocean to show his unity of purpose with America. Thank you for coming, friend. (LINK)
Right, and we're supposed to believe the fellow who is related to a French Socialist / Green politician and has expressed unabashed Francophilia will improve on this?
Give me a bloody break.
Regards, Ivan
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somewhereinthemiddle
Seaman Recruit
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 9
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| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 1:33 pm Post subject: |
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| It's disingenuous to suggest that we have problems with the UK. The most recent polls show that 70% of Britons have a favorable opinion of the US. I doubt that number is that high in the US itself. |
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rbshirley
Founder
Joined: 07 May 2004
Posts: 394
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| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 3:38 pm Post subject: Re: Max Cleland: 'Fighting Bush is very therapeutic' |
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| MadIvan wrote: | | I have a problem with this bit |
On a much more subdued level.
A number of Swift Boat veterans have expressed their displeasure about
Cleland's display of a large Swift Boat pin on his lapel at the DNC and in
almost all media spots highlighting him since then. We are a proud bunch.
This Army Lieutenant "never served on Kerry's boat." Never even got close.
Wonder if Lanny Davis is going to call HIM a liar?
| MadIvan wrote: | | Give me a bloody break. |
Regards to you also, Ivan. We deeply appreciate every one of our friends.
Which the UK certainly is, has and always will be.
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MadIvan
Ensign
Joined: 10 Aug 2004
Posts: 50
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| Posted: Wed Aug 11, 2004 5:56 pm Post subject: Re: Max Cleland: 'Fighting Bush is very therapeutic' |
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| rbshirley wrote: |
A number of Swift Boat veterans have expressed their displeasure about
Cleland's display of a large Swift Boat pin on his lapel at the DNC and in
almost all media spots highlighting him since then. We are a proud bunch.
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Oh for goodness sake. The only way he could have made it worse is if the Swift boat pin itself had the legend "Kerry 2004" or suchlike. I'm actually surprised they haven't tried that. Or were they working up to a campaign button in the shape of a purple heart? Yes, I think they're that tasteless.
| rbshirley wrote: |
Regards to you also, Ivan. We deeply appreciate every one of our friends.
Which the UK certainly is, has and always will be.
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I share and reciprocate your sentiments.
Regards, Ivan
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