SwiftVets.com

[oflyboy]

Talking with a fellow Vietnam Vet and military retiree for the first time in a long time last night and related to him saying "The Wall didn't do it for me". He said "Don't get me wrong, I am glad my old friends got their names placed there for the whole world to see and it is a good tribute to them. However, I have never forgiven the American public for the way they treated us vets when we came home, calling us baby killers and etc. The worst part has always been in knowing that they really believed it."

I explained to him that people are going to believe what they want to, more so than what is the truth. In joking I said to him "I guess you wont be voting for Kerry". He said "I would kill myself first, I wish I had never hear of him and hope after the election that he will just go away." Then he said "You know, if the American people defeat him, then I would consider that their way of apologizing to all of us and that would do it for me".

I just wanted to share our conversation with other Vietnam Vets that maybe think the same way. Whenever I see a poll that states "37% of Veterans support Kerry", I will remember what I told my friend "people can believe whatever they want; it don't make it right." I personally don't know of ONE Vietnam veteran who supports Kerry.

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

Support for Kerry among veterans was down to 30% in the last poll I saw.

We've got to keep working on getting the word out, especially to the younger vets and our Active Duty people.

Vets and the military alone could lose this election for Traitor John.
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[noc]

This story just makes me want to work even harder.

I salute you.

[para-eagle]

Not a vet, but a daughter of a Vietnam Vet Seabee, and I agree with your friend: Kerry's landslide defeat would be interpreted by me as an apology to the Vietnam Vets by my fellow Americans.

As far as I'm concerned, its never too late to right a past wrong.

By the way, I appreciate the Wall, although dad did not: he was that bitter over his treatment at coming home, his difficulty in finding employment afterwards, and how his fellow citizens took to believing the "anti-war types" (his terms for them). In dad's defense, I would say that Americans, generally, took to the Media and protester lies like hogs take to garbage.

~para-eagle

[Navy_Navy_Navy]

I was 15 when our last troops pulled out of Vietnam, but I clearly remember the sense of despondency over the war.

We were force-fed propaganda every night with the evening news. The people of this country didn't know that - I didn't realize it until recently.

"The fourth estate" was irreproachable and unimpeachable until that era. People relied on the media for the truth about what was happening. All they saw for years was a steady stream of lies and losses that were (and still are) devastating.

My Lai came along and gave the anti-war movement a credibility that the people of the country had long-resisted giving them. (It damn near just happened again with the Abu Ghraib situation, except that there are too many of us who could see that event through the lens of the Vietnam-era distortion and we knew where the anti-war movement and the press and the leftists were headed with it.)

Please don't be so hard on "We, the people." We didn't know enough to distrust the media, back then. Walter Cronkite was close to God, remember?
_________________
~ Echo Juliet ~
Altering course to starboard - On Fire, Keep Clear
Navy woman, Navy wife, Navy mother

[para-eagle]

I think that what is important to me now is that citizens like the Swiftees, and their supporters (and me) are stepping forward to tell our fellow citizens the real story.

The courage of the Swiftees to publish the truth makes up for much of the past. A landslide loss for Kerry would make up for all of it. I do not think that the Media has the aura of credibility that it had "back then."

~para-eagle