SwiftVets.com

[larrygj]

I am wondering why nobody critical of Kerry's lies and exaggerations has yet picked up on the fact that Kerry gave a speech in 1966 to his graduating class at Yale before he enlisted, in which he criticized the war in Viet Nam (see excerpts below from a Boston Globe biography). So he was against the Viet Nam war even before he went there ("I was against it before I was for it before I was against it," you can hear him saying).

If the Yale speech is mentioned in "Unfit For Command," I apologize; I am still waiting for my copy to arrive. But if it is, I think what he said at Yale ought to be highlighted more, especially as it supports the conclusion Kerry was following a self-promoting plan that Thurlow mentioned on "Hardball" yesterday and about which Matthews demanded "proof" (as if Kerry had written down his agenda and passed out copies!).

According to the Globe article, Kerry was all gaga about JFK, whom he met as a young man, and about the first JFK's PT-109 heroics. The Boston Globe bio reveals Kerry was determined to emulate JFK's career path. So I don't think it's far-fetched to conclude he took to the Swift Boats with a definite agenda: play the hero, grab the medals, make the ginned-up movies, write the script in the journals, come home as soon as possible and (how complex! how nuanced!) posture with dramatic effect as the anti-war anti-hero. The Yale speech shows he was already a Judas the minute he stepped on his very first Swift Boat. Why else make so many craven plays for medals at every available turn and be in a hurry to get home as soon as possible? Once he had his PT-109 portfolio together, he was out of there.

And -- following the same life-long "plan" -- why indeed not have the Secretary of Navy, John Lehman, rewrite and embellish the "official" commendation for the Bronze Star after Kerry became a senator, several years after the first "official" commendation (reported on FOX news, Brit Hume, yesterday), putting him at the center of all the action? What was that about (and, parenthetically, why no scandalized press reaction other than FOX’s)?

Sure, Kerry may have sometimes displayed physical courage (though maybe not as often as he displayed cowardice), but it was courage born of an all-consuming, reckless ambition, where he often had no qualms about exposing his crewmates and others to unnecessary risks in order to promote himself. He gamed the system for medals, knew about the Three Purple Heart Rule and got the hell out. That's my read. Why else take a home movie camera along in order to re-enact scenes staged more heroically than they happened, so he could show his fake machismo in political ads later? That has to have been his "plan" all along. What other Swift Boat captain ever did that? What other Vet wanted to make an exaggerated dog and pony show out of his exploits? Oh, sorry. I forgot about Al Gore.

Anyway, Kerry's pre-service Yale speech also makes his "Cambodia Conversion Moment," so "seared" in his memory by the disillusion he supposedly felt on whatever day that was, all the more phony and a big lie. He would have us believe this was the key turning point, the moment he decided the war was wrong, when in fact he was never for it but only for himself. He has made a lot of holier-than-thou speeches based on this "Cambodia Conversion" about how criminal the U.S. was to have put him and others in Cambodia. This man is a self-absorbed, selfish sociopath. He was a rotten apple from the start of his military career, as phony as his magic CIA hat.

Here are the quotes are from the Boston Globe, June 15, 2003, found at http://www.boston.com/globe/nation/packages/kerry/061503.shtml:

"Kerry also had political ambitions -- and was aware of how much military service had served John Kennedy's career. 'John would clearly say, "If I could make my dream come true, it would be running for president of the United States,"' recalled William Stanberry, Kerry's [college] debate team partner for three years. 'It was not a casual interest. It was a serious, stated interest. His lifetime ambition was to be in political office.'
...
"Upon his graduation in 1966, Kerry was given the honor of delivering the class oration. Many at Yale noticed that this young man, on his way to becoming a commissioned officer in Vietnam, was critical of the war -- and the use of American military might against communist regimes.

"What was an excess of isolationism has become an excess of interventionism," Kerry said in the oration. 'And this Vietnam War has found our policy makers forcing Americans into a strange corner...that if victory escapes us, it would not be the fault of those who lead, but of the doubters who stabbed them in the back -- notions all too typical of an America that had to find Americans to blame for the takeover in China by the communists, and then for the takeover in Cuba.' [how prescient of Kerry, the future back-stabber -- my observation]

"Then, in a sentence that harkened back to the Nazi aggression that his mother had fled, he said: 'The United States must, I think, bring itself to understand that the policy of intervention that was right for Western Europe does not and cannot find the same application to the rest of the world.'

"In what may have been an allusion to his own plans to enlist, Kerry added: 'We have not really lost the desire to serve. We question the very roots of what we are serving.'"

Sorry for the long post. God bless the SBVT. You're the real heroes. The truth will set us all free.

Larry

[Sun Tzu]

“I believe very deeply that it was a noble effort to begin with. I signed up. I volunteered I wanted to go over there and I wanted to win.”

(Note: Read -- http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/03/07/wkerr07.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/03/07/ixnewstop.html )

and...

"It was a noble effort to try to make a country democratic, to try to carry our principles and values to another part of the world.”

-- John Kerry, Meet the Press (2001)


"I just could never feel that I was there fighting to save that country, to make it safe for democracy. The only feeling you could have was that you were like the Germans, that you were there occupying another country.” -- John Kerry, Cavett Show (1970)

[4moreyears]

Larry

Good points. We need to see who was in his graduating class, maybe they can shed light on kerry pre-VN.
_________________
kerry returned to the United States on July 22, 1971, held a press conference publicly calling on President Nixon... for the surrender of the United States to North Vietnam.

[Me#1You#10]

It would be interesting to do a lexis search for themes/phrases common to both Kerry, RFK & Teddy during that period of time. It's common knowledge he used RFK's speech writer for "Dewey Canyon". I wonder just how far back that "support" might be documented?

[Sun Tzu]

Who said the following?

"There are two Americas--and millions of the people already distinguish between them.

One is the America of the imperialists--of the little clique of capitalists, landlords, and militarists who are threatening and terrifying the world. This is the America the people of the world hate and fear.

There is the other America--the America of the workers and farmers and the "little people." They constitute the great majority of the people. They do the work of the country. They revere its old democratic traditions--its old record of friendship for the people of other lands, in their struggles against kings and despots--its generous asylum once freely granted to the oppressed.

This is the America which must and will solve the world crisis--by taking power out of the hands of the little clique of exploiters and parasites, and establishing a government of workers and farmers. The workers' and farmers' government will immediately proceed to change things fundamentally--

Throw out the profit and rent hogs, and increase the living standards of the people who do the useful work. Assure freedom and democratic rights to all, not forgetting those who are denied any semblance of them now. Call back the truculent admirals from the seven seas--and ground the airplanes with their dangling bombs. Hold out the hand of friendship and comradely help to the oppressed and hungry people in the world."



A) John Edwards -- Senator, North Carolina / VP Nominee

B) James P. Cannon -- Chairman, Socialist Workers Party

C) Nancy Pelosi -- House of Representatives, California

D) Hillary Clinton -- Senator, New York




ANSWER: A & B

[larrygj]

Here's rather revealing stuff from CBS News about Kerry's ambition, selfishness and his obsession with wanting to be John F. Kennedy, going back to his boarding school days (from http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/04/06/opinion/main610517.shtml):

"Unfortunately for Kerry, his boarding-school comrades regarded ambition as a cardinal sin. His schoolmate Stanley Resor says, 'A lot of people resented his ambition.' Achievement wasn't frowned upon. But you were supposed to downplay your accomplishments, to make them look effortless. At Yale, during the blue-blood heyday, the attitude was symbolized by varsity athletes, who wore their letter sweaters inside out to de-emphasize their achievement -- never mind that the sweaters' interior stitching kept the letters perfectly clear to all observers.

"So, instead of winning him respect, Kerry's hard work earned him the derision of his classmates. In fact, St. Paul's created an entire folklore about Kerry, much of it embellished. More than anything, they mocked Kerry for styling himself after John Kennedy, imitating the president's voice and haircut, as well as exploiting his identical initials. 'He signed his papers JFK,' says Macdonald. According to Pell, Kerry would practice writing his initials on his blue jeans and 'just kinda went around telling people that he's going to be president.' What irked so much about this comparison? To them, this ambitiousness was selfish and self-indulgent. As they liked to joke, JFK means "Just for Kerry."

"These accusations of selfishness trailed Kerry wherever he went, especially in sports. Kerry's enemies contend he was a disaster in the hockey rink and on the soccer pitch -- a puck and ball hog who cared more about looking stylish than scoring. Pell says, 'You couldn't get that kid to pass the salt. A ball or puck delivered to John Kerry was into a black hole. It never came back again.' Most damningly, as Resor describes, Kerry used to take "big rink turns." Playing hockey requires quickly switching directions on the ice, shifts that require an expenditure of considerable energy. But this wasn't Kerry's preferred tactic. Instead, he refrained from suddenly changing his course and took more circuitous, less efficient routes to find his way back to the action.'
...
"...According to the reporters on the trail, not to mention the Bush campaign, Kerry's great character flaw is his ambitiousness, manifesting itself in a willingness to say whatever it takes to please crowds [or get medals -- my comment: Larry]. The New York Times' David Halbfinger wrote last month, "[Kerry] may tailor his stands to an audience or even run away from past positions." By trying too hard to win audiences [or get medals -- my comment: Larry], he is said to project a phony persona [or phony reports -- my comment: Larry]. As the political consultant Donna Brazile told The Washington Post last year, "It's like someone put him in clothes that don't fit."

Sound familiar?