Ripping Gore's Vietnam Credentials (the Repug way!)

[phillybri]

Sent to me by Republican co-worker...

"Gore Had Bodyguards Assigned to Keep Him Out of Harms Way in Vietnam. In Vietnam, Alan Leo, a photographer in the press brigade office where Gore worked as a reporter, said he was summoned by Brig. Gen. K.B. Cooper, the 20th Engineer Brigades Commander, and told Leo that he, Cooper, had a great amount of respect for the senator. He asked Leo, the most experienced member of the press unit, to make sure that nothing happened to Gore. He requested that Gore not get into situations that were dangerous, said Leo, who did what he could to carry out Coopers directive. He described his half-dozen or so trips into the field with Gore as situations where I could have worn a tuxedo." (Newsweek, 12/6/99)

While in the Army, Al Gore wrote his parents that the U.S. Army was a "Fascist organization."

Gore got out of Vietnam after 4 1/2 months of a twelve month tour of duty and out of the Army early on the excuse he was going to go to Divinity School. In a couple months he flunked out but did not return to fulfill his Army obligations.


According to many accounts, Gore carefully weighed his options, and even briefly considered fleeing to Canada, as many did to avoid the draft." (Associated Press, July 29, 1992)

Rumors that Gore considered the Canada option have swirled since last Thursday, when a C-SPAN caller who identified himself only as a former Gore aide claimed to know the behind-the-scenes story of why the vice president changed his mind and decided to enlist.

According to the caller's account, Gore's father advised him that seeking asylum in Canada would destroy his political viability and promised that if he enlisted no harm would come to him.

[cjbuchanan]

1. The Repugs sure have missed Gore

Even if any part of this could be believed, which it cannot be, Gore's time in Vietnam still beats Bush's.

[SammyWinstonJack]

2. Yeah Yeah Yeah!

Wish I could find the article wherein Shrub gave an interview to a FT. Worth journalist and stated that VietNam was never an option for him, it was either Canada or the TANG! Guess which option fell into his lap!

[schultzee]

4. There is no low point for the Repukes...they are bottom feeders

and I hate republicans.

[Loonman]

3. And Vietnam ws such a resounding success!

:eyes:

[Skittles]

5. no doubt this will end up on Snopes

just like this one:

http://www.snopes.com/military/goreviet.htm

[Richardo]

8. Skittles, you're kicking my ass!

True to form! :D

[Richardo]

6. As usual, check snopes first....

http://www.snopes.com/military/goreviet.htm

Gore filled his position with the 20th Engineers for five months. Army regulations at the time allowed for early discharge of personnel who wanted to teach or attend school if their services were considered "not essential to the mission." As a reporter, Gore was certainly not "essential" to the war effort, and he applied for such a discharge. After spending an additional month at the U.S. Army Engineer Command in Long Binh, Gore was mustered out and sent home two months early to attend Vanderbilt Divinity School. His discharge was not, as the piece quoted above claims, a "special dispensation," and it cut only two months (not seven) from a tour of duty that could not have lasted more than seven months in the first place.

While it doesn't address the bodyguard issue specifically, it debunks much of the rest of this crap.

[JackSwift]

7. All lies by hypocrits

who refused to serve in any capacity in Vietnam. Gore enlisted and was sent to Vietnam for the last 7 months of his two year enlistment. Thus Gore served in a combat zone infinitely more time than critics: Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, DeLay, Limbaugh, Savage, Coulter, etc.

The only prominent Republican today who served in a combat zone was Colin Powell, who I believe served as a rear echelon command officer as a Major.

Schwarzkopf did serve in combat in Vietnam, but he is not active in politics except for occasionally endorsing a Republican.

[RamboLiberal]

13. Republican in a combat zone

Don't forget John McCain - and after the way Rove and company tried to paint him a loony in S. Carolina I can never understand why he doesn't stick it to Chimpy every chance he gets.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

18. I Think Rummy Was A Flight Jock In WW2

[Rose Siding]

22. He missed that one

I'm almost sure he flew after Korea- no combat.

edit- Navy- aviator, flight instructor- '54-'57

[ShaneGR]

9. HERE'S YOUR ANSWER

Well, even if this were true, which it probably is not... George W Bush never needed a bodyguard in Vietnam because he never went. In fact, he never needed a bodyguard in the national guard either. Probably because he went AWOL.

[wndycty]

10. Do they know Gore is not running. . .

Lets see them pull this shit on Wesley Clark

[MidwestTransplant]

12. No kidding, I can't wait....

Let's see them try to pull on Clark, or Kerry for that matter, what was done to Max Cleland.

[DemoTex]

11. What do you expect from a party dominated by chickenhawks?

Believe me, no one in Vietnam was "out of harms way." The wicked Soviet BM-21 Katyusha 122mm artillery rocket killed indescriminately. Stonks of 82mm mortar shells killed indescriminately. Sappers killed indescriminately. Snippers killed indiscriminately. Snakes, heat, and jeep wrecks killed indiscriminately.

Many cooks and clerk-typists often had to pull perimeter guard where, like at LZ Bird on Christmas night in 1967, the VC and NVA came through the wire chanting in English, "Hey, GI! Tonight you die!" In the Army or the Marine Corps, you were a soldier or a Marine first and always.

Gore was there. The boxed is checked. Any sinister interpretation of Gore's service in Vietnam is the vilest form of revisionist history. But it is the form that the Bu$h regimers usually prefer: the lie.

[TacticalPeek]

16. F***ing A!

The text does not say whether Alan Leo was even military. And NO photographer ever picked where a mission would take place, unless it was to follow him to where he'd found some good dope. So how's he gonna "protect" anybody, throw his body over him? Right. And to "not get into situations that were dangerous" was impossible, just ask the field grade officers who were firing at VC out of their whore house windows in Saigon.

Early release? Gimme a break. During that same time, I was an ETS clerk and early release for school was VERY common; get accepted at an accredited school for at least 12 hrs. and you boogied. Never saw ANYONE come back, regardless of performance. If you'd be a cop in DC, you could get cut loose even earlier.

What chickenhawk whiners.

[DemoTex]

17. "F***ing AAA!" (That's what we said flying over the HCM trail at night)

Al Gore had a bodyguard in Vietnam!? Bwaa haa haa haa! So the bruiser is gonna stop the big rockets and mortars? That has to be the most disingenious crock of shit I have ever heard. Period. Fucking bodyguard in the 'Nam. Next they will say he had a butler, valet, chauffer, and gardener. Mother of my dog!

Thanks for the opening, TacticalPeak, for me to get that rant in!

[HawkerHurricane]

24. AND his bodygaurd was a PHOTOGRAPHER!

That'd be useful...what's he going to do, take pictures of the guy who sniped him?

[kwolf68]

14. Unreal

Do they not see their own lots shortcomings?

It almost makes me want to puke when chickenhawks can get away with this crap.

[zbdent]

15. Depends on your definition of "bodyguards"

If your definition of a bodyguard is your father's political opponent trying to keep you out of Vietnam so that your father can't score political points (especially if the opponent has a military-age kid getting numerous college deferments at Delta House), then yes, Gore had a "bodyguard".

[DemocratSinceBirth]

19. I Read That If Al Gore Got Any Special Treatment

in Nam it was at the request of Nixon. The last thing he wanted to do was martyr the son of a Democratic senator locked in a tight campaign.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

20. Gore's Vietnam Credentials are a hell of a lot longer than Bush's

unless you count avoiding Vietnam as part of the creds.

[DemoTex]

21. Gore's Vietnam service trumps most angry white GOP males'

We Vietnam veterans are a small minority, really. As a percentage of the upper middle-class and above, we are miniscule. In Dallas I like to ask: Where is the monument to Highland Park boys killed in the Vietnam war? Now, don't get me wrong, there might be one. I'm sure there were a few Highland Park boys over there. A couple or three, maybe, killed. But not one swinging dick has ever been able to talk to me about them, much less to answer my question.

[DemLikr]

23. Hmmm...did W have bodyguards while bingeing in Alabama during

his National Guard service?

These repuke attack tactics are so easy to parry if we just take a little time.

For every skeleton in any dem closet, I'm sure there are 25 in Shrub's.

[ChemEng]

25. What does this have to do with anything?

Are you suggesting that we push Gore as our Macho Man?