FACES AND PLACES: A GOP mole in the Kerry camp? (09/12/04)

FACES AND PLACES

by Myron B. Kuropas

A GOP mole in the Kerry camp?

Has a member of the vast right-wing conspiracy infiltrated the Kerry camp? Could be. Kerry campaign tactics are just too bizarre to have occurred by chance.

I have been involved with American presidential campaigns since the Nixon/Kennedy campaign of 1960 and I must say that John Kerry's campaign is the strangest of them all. Small wonder that so many honest Democrats are scratching their heads in bewilderment. Midnight political rallies?

What has happened to the Democratic Party when military service in Vietnam, a "non-issue" for Sen. Kerry himself when Bill Clinton was running for president, is suddenly so important?

How can it be that Sen. Kerry who for years favored slashing military spending is now, in the words of the Democratic platform, so determined to "modernize the world's most powerful military"?

What is one to think listening to talk about God, family values, a "stronger America" and the improvement of schools at the Democratic convention when so many of the delegates were teachers associated with the far-left National Education Association?

Surely there is a GOP mole in the Democratic party pushing Republican values and advising the projection of a self-absorbed "it's all about me" posture for candidate and wife.

With the exception of Mr. Clinton, recent presidential candidates all served admirably in the U.S. armed forces. Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy and Jimmy Carter were officers in the U.S. Navy. Dwight D. Eisenhower was a five-star general in the Army whose leadership liberated Europe from the Nazis. George McGovern flew 35 combat missions as a B-24 bomber pilot. George H.W. Bush was a Navy pilot who flew 58 missions. Robert Dole was severely wounded, spent months in the hospital and lost the use of his right arm. None of these men made their military service the center of their presidential campaign as has Sen. Kerry who spent three combat months in Vietnam and no days in sick bay as a result of his wounds. He did, however, receive three Purple Hearts, a Bronze Star and a Silver Star, a remarkable achievement in such a short time. Not even World War II hero Audie Murphy was that good.

No one questioned the military service of previous presidential candidates because their records were open to all. Sen. Kerry's military service, however, is under a cloud. With the publication of "Unfit for Command," a well-documented book I heartily recommend, Sen. Kerry's military decorations are being questioned by some 200 of his own swift boat comrades. The New York Times, of course, claims that the charges in the book are "unsubstantiated."

None of the previous presidential candidates made home movies of themselves in Army infantry fatigues, weapon in hand, stalking the jungles of Vietnam for unknown foes, all to be later used as a campaign prop.

And no previous presidential candidate trashed his comrades-in-arms the way Mr. Kerry did when he returned from Vietnam. As leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War (VVAW) in 1971, Mr. Kerry appeared before a Senate committee chaired by William Fulbright and testified, offering no substantiation, that the U.S. military committed horrible war crimes, all with the approval of the entire chain of command. Mr. Kerry later admitted that his testimony was based on what he heard at the so-called Winter Soldier Investigation in Detroit months earlier. Organized by left-wing, anti-war activists, the Detroit allegations proved to be fraudulent. Mr. Kerry's testimony was used by Communist Vietnamese to demoralize captured American POWs, as well as in radio broadcasts to American fighting men, urging them to lay down their arms.

Mr. Kerry later traveled to Paris and met with Communist Vietnamese representatives to hear their proposal for a complete withdrawal of the U.S. military from Vietnam and the abandonment of South Vietnam to the Communists. He held a press conference in Washington, upon his return, outlining the Communist plan, which also included a demand for reparations from the United States.

How helpful were Mr. Kerry's anti-war antics to the Communists? A photo of Mr. Kerry and Vietnam's former general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party is now part of a permanent exhibit honoring those who helped the Communists defeat the United States. The exhibit is part of the War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.

The writers of "Unfit" write that a former high-ranking Soviet intelligence officer spoke out last June about the alleged war crimes in Vietnam. A top priority for the Soviets, he explained, was to damage American credibility in Vietnam. The KGB spent millions producing "the very same vitriol Kerry repeated to the U.S. Congress almost word for word and planted it in leftist movements throughout Europe." The KGB established and spent $50 million to finance the World Peace Organization and another $15 million to make permanent the Stockholm Conference on Vietnam ... "the KGB gave birth to the anti-war movement in America," he concluded. This should come as no surprise to Ukrainians familiar with KGB disinformation.

What has Sen. Kerry done for Communist Vietnam lately? He chaired the Select Committee on POW/MIA affairs which concluded in 1993, amidst much controversy, that there was no "compelling" evidence that POWs in Vietnam remained alive. When Rep. Ed Royce, (R-Calif.) introduced a bill in the House prohibiting non-humanitarian U.S. aid to Vietnam unless thousands of political prisoners were released and religious freedom was restored, Sen. Kerry blocked the legislation in the Senate.

Was Mr. Kerry a useful idiot for the Communists or simply an opportunist flip-flopping with the prevailing political winds? When it was chic to be like Jane Fonda, Mr. Kerry threw away his war medals. When it is time to be our commander-in-chief, John Kerry finds his medals and reports for duty. Did he think his past wouldn't be noticed, or did our GOP mole urge him to make Vietnam the centerpiece of his campaign? "The answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind, the answer is blowin' in the wind."

Myron Kuropas's e-mail address is: [email protected].

| Home Page |